Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
It had been a nightmare game — just a total collapse — for him and his Wright State teammates.
Bill Wampler had missed 13 of his 18 shots against the University of Illinois Chicago — including three air balls from three-point range, which is usually his sweet spot — but the biggest miss for him came after the game.
UIC had just stunned the No. 1 seeded Raiders, 73-56, in the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament at Indiana Farmers Coliseum and the enormity of the loss eclipsed all his thoughts Monday night.
“I’ll never play in the NCAA Tournament and that’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life,” said Wampler, who was a second team All-Horizon League pick and one of the main reasons WSU had won a Division I school record 25 games in the regular season.
But to make the NCAA Tournament, the Raiders — even though they had won the league’s regular-season title and only nine schools of the 353 playing Division I basketball this season had won more games during the regular season — had to win the tournament of their under-valued conference.
Instead they were blown out by a team they’d beaten by 17 points three weeks earlier.
