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NYU lost their chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
With a loss to Brandeis on the road on Saturday, the NYU men's basketball team squandered any chance of making the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
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The Violets jumped to an eight point lead in the second half, but the Brandeis Judges quickly countered with four three pointers, resulting in a 14-0 run. Brandeis took a 49-43 lead with 7:33 remaining and eventually won 69-62.
The Judges finished the season in second place in the UAA and made the NCAA Tournament, while the Violets finished tied for third. Had NYU won, they would have improved their chances at making the NCAA.
Despite the loss, NYU (16-9, 7-7 UAA) earned a spot in its fourth consecutive Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Metropolitan Tournament as the No. 2 seed out of eight teams. The Violets will host No. 7 New Jersey City University at the Coles Sports Center at 7 p.m. tonight.
Still, the team wanted to perform better this season.
"It would still be nice to end the season on a win," said senior forward Keith Jensen, who led NYU in scoring this season with 14.3 PPG, and on Saturday became the 25th NYU player to record 1,000 points in his career. Jensen added he was disappointed that the team failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
But the Violets did perform well this season in several statistical categories. They were second in the UAA in field goal percentage (47.3) and finished second in the UAA in assists per game (16.5).
It was the Violet's defensive game that held them back this season. They were fifth in the UAA in rebounding and they gave up 72 PPG in their last four games.
But Jensen is confident that the team can win the ECAC tournament.
"None of those teams really scare me," Jensen said.
Senior guard Omar Meziab said he had been itching to make the NCAA Tournament this season. Meziab hopes winning the ECAC will take the bad taste out of the team's mouth.
"It's disappointing for us seniors not to make the tournament, but we'll try to make the best of it and end the season on a positive note," he said.
