Scott: DU Pioneers Deserve An NCAA Tournament Invite
DENVER (CBS4) - The University of Denver Pioneers are one of the hottest college basketball teams in the country.
They've won 10 straight and 17 of the last 18, with a 21-8 overall record and a share of the WAC crown. If they win their Western Athletic Conference conference tournament in Las Vegas, they will get an automatic invite to the NCAA tournament.
But what if they don't win? DU head coach Joe Scott said on Xfinity Monday Live his team should still get strong consideration.
"We've been playing at such a high level; sharing the basketball, taking care of the basketball and doing what good basketball teams do. Our record shows that, but I think if you watch us play, I'd like to think that the committee is trying to find teams like us right now, and our record says 'You've got to look at a team that's won 20 out of 23 games and 17 of their last 18,' " Scott said.
"But we don't control that, so we've got to go in and win on Thursday."
Scott has coached the Pioneers for six years and this is their first year in the WAC. He said his team is doing so well in part because they work well in transition and are effective in the half court offense.
DU's tough schedule this season should help them in their bid for an invite to the Big Dance, Scott said.
"Playing Colorado State, playing Cal, at Stanford, at Southern Mississippi, at Iona," Scott said. "We don't have a bad loss on our resume because of the schedule we played. Those games really did a lot for us to accelerate the learning curve to get us to be the team we are and have been for the last two or three months."
Scott said the teams he fears most in the WAC tournament are Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State.
RELATED: See DU's Complete Season Schedule
Watch more of the video with Joe Scott in the Xfinity Monday Live section.
