UNLV women left asking ‘why’ after NIT snub

Steve Guiremand

Monday, March 13, 2000 | 10:11 a.m.

Down the hallway from where Bill Bayno and his team were celebrating the Sunday afternoon announcement of their selection to the NCAA Tournament, things were much more somber for Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller and her staff.

For the second straight year UNLV found itself denied a chance at postseason play despite amassing 17 victories and finishing the season on a strong note.

The Women's National Invitation Tournament, which had contacted UNLV before last week's Mountain West Conference tournament to see if the school would be interested in participating, called senior associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie on Sunday night to inform him that the Lady Rebels would not be receiving an invitation to play in their tourney.

It was a crushing blow to Miller and her squad, which won six of its last seven games, losing only to Mountain West Conference champ and NCAA Tournament-bound Utah, 67-65, in the MWC tourney semifinals.

"I really don't have any answers as to why (the WNIT) didn't want us," Miller said Sunday night. "They were too busy calling all the schools they had selected on Sunday. I'll probably call them (today) to see if I can find out the reasons."

What had to make the WNIT's rejection even more difficult to swallow for Miller and company was the list of some of the teams that did get invited over the 17-12 Rebels.

Teams such as New Mexico (18-10), which lost all three of its meetings against UNLV this year. And middle-of-the-road Pac-10 teams such as Arizona State (14-14) and USC (15-13), as well as smaller West Coast schools such as St. Mary's (19-9) and Santa Clara (21-8).

"If it came down to the final seven games of the season, we should have been in," Miller said. "We have a young team and playing in a postseason tournament would have been a positive for us."

Miller said she had gotten her hopes up even higher on Sunday afternoon when the NCAA Tournament, in a somewhat unexpected move, took both Utah and BYU for its 64-team bracket.

"I thought that might take away one obstacle for us getting into the NIT," Miller said. "It's disappointing we didn't get into (the WNIT). But the good news is that our conference got two teams into the NCAA Tournament this year even though we didn't have an automatic berth. Maybe next year we can get three teams in."