It’s no consolation for Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech and Arizona State are this year’s Syracuse, and Hokies Coach Seth Greenberg is suddenly sounding very much like Orange Coach Jim Boeheim did last March.

The Hokies and Sun Devils were given No. 1 seedings in the 32-team NIT, the traditional consolation prize for the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament. The other top seedings announced Sunday went to Ohio State and Syracuse, and all had their gripes.

“I understand the [NCAA] committee has a tough decision,” Greenberg said. “I have a tough time facing my kids. But it doesn’t diminish what we accomplished this year.”

The Hokies (19-13) open Wednesday against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season champion Morgan State, which earned an automatic berth under a rule that rewards teams from smaller conferences who lost in their league tournaments.

Arizona State (19-12), which had perhaps the strongest resume of any team that didn’t get picked for the NCAA tournament, gets Alabama State for its opener. Ohio State (19-13), which lost in the NCAA final a year ago, will play North Carolina Asheville, and Syracuse (19-13) gets a first-round date with Robert Morris.

A year ago it was Syracuse that had 22 wins, finished sixth in the rugged Big East and got an NIT bid to show for it. Boeheim wasted no time in voicing his displeasure not only for the NCAA selection committee, but also the computer rankings used by the committee and that more at-large bids aren’t available to teams from bigger conferences.

This time it was Greenberg, whose Hokies finished fourth in the ACC, the toughest league according to the RPI, and played top-ranked North Carolina to the final second in the conference tournament.

Also in the NIT field is two-time defending NCAA champion Florida (21-11), which lost eight of its final 11 games and was bounced early from the SEC tournament. The Gators are seeded No. 2 and will play San Diego State in the opening round.

If everything holds, they would get Arizona State in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, and with the Buckeyes on the other side of the bracket, a rematch of last year’s NCAA title game is a possibility.

Among first-round games in Ohio State’s portion of the bracket is California against New Mexico. Also in Virginia Tech’s section is second-seeded Mississippi, which will open against UC Santa Barbara.