Aztecs, Left Out of NCAA Event, Head for Texas

Not selected as one of the 48 teams in the NCAA tournament, the San Diego State women’s basketball team was chosen Sunday as the No. 1-seeded team in the 21st annual eight-team women’s National Invitational Tournament in Amarillo, Tex., March 23-25.

“We thought perhaps that we should have been one of the teams in the NCAA, but the committee didn’t feel that way,” SDSU Coach Earnest Riggins said.

“We feel that we’re a better team than we showed in the last six or seven ballgames. Certainly, our overall record (23-8) was good enough but losing five of our last seven hurt us.”

The Aztecs will take on eighth-seeded Radford (23-6) at 1 p.m. March 21 in the first round of the single-elimination tournament. The top-seeded team has been defeated in the first round three consecutive years.

DePaul (22-8), the fourth-seeded team, is the first defending champion to play in the tournament in 16 years.