What more can you do if you’re the Drexel Dragons? Drexel finished the NCAA regular season with a 27-6 overall record and a 16-2 record in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), yet was still not selected to participate in the NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament as one of the top 68 teams in the nation. There a few reasons why Drexel wasn’t selected: First, they lost to VCU in the CAA Championship game 59-56. The win gave VCU the automatic berth in “The Big Dance” from the CAA and left Drexel on the selection bubble. Second, the CAA is not considered a “major conference” and despite the Dragons having a 19 game winning streak and winning 19 of its last 20 games it wasn’t enough to get them selected.

So what can the Dragons do? WIN the NIT! If Drexel is as good as Coach Bruiser Flint has been saying all season they need to prove to the nay-sayers that they can compete at the upper level and should’ve been invited to “The Dance”.  They open the NIT as the #3 seed Wednesday night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center against the University of Central Florida, 22-10. A win in that game would put the Dragons in a match-up with either neighborhood rival St. Joseph’s, the #2 seed, or Northern Iowa, 19-13. St. Joe beat Drexel in November, 62-49. If everything played out for Drexel, they could meet #1 seeded Seton Hall in the quarterfinals to get to the Final 4. They will have to earn their way.

In order for this to happen the Dragons will need to stay focused and not think about what they don’t have but rather on winning the NIT one game at a time. They must continue to play good defense. They allow only 55.4 points per game. During the final 20 games of the season opponents only scored more than 70 points one time and over 60 three other times. If you keep your opponents under 60 points you have a good chance of winning. The flip side is the Dragons use balanced scoring with four players averaging in double figures while averaging just 64.7 ppg on offense. The scoring leaders for Drexel are Frantz Massenat, 13.6 ppg, Damion Lee, 12.7 ppg, Samme Givens, 11.4 ppg and Chris Fouch 10.5 ppg.

The Dragons have had an outstanding season that could end well by winning the NIT or be considered a major disappointment if they’re eliminated early in early in the tournament.