SYRACUSE - On the day after what they considered the ultimate snub, the Syracuse Orange could only shrug and smile at being left out of the NCAA tournament.

“We're all disappointed, but we can't do nothing about it right now. That is just college basketball for you. I don't think there's an explanation for it,” said senior forward Demetris Nichols, who led the Big East in scoring at 19 points per game. “We can't change it, so why stress yourself out about it. I'm just glad that I'm up today and I'm living.”

Despite its record, Syracuse (22-10, 10-6 Big East) failed to make the NCAA tournament for only the sixth time in head coach Jim Boeheim's 31-year career at his alma mater. Instead, the Orange will play South Alabama (20-11), the regular-season champion of the Sun Belt Conference, in the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night.

For the Orange's four seniors - Nichols, Terrence Roberts, Darryl Watkins and fifth-year man Matt Gorman, the only player remaining from the 2003 national championship team - the shock of not finishing their careers playing in the NCAA tournament had not dissipated much when Monday afternoon's practice began.

“I really didn't want to come back to the dome,” said Roberts, who has been playing with a knee injury since December that will require postseason surgery. “The only time I wanted to come back was to maybe put up a Final Four or NCAA championship banner. It's tough knowing as a senior the team leaned on you the whole year and the only thing we were able to bring to the table was the NIT.

“I was in shock (Sunday night),” said Roberts, who watched the selection show with his teammates at Boeheim's suburban home. “I left coach's house and just went home, laid in my bed with lights off and never went to sleep.”

“Every year I've been here I've been in the (NCAA) tournament,” Watkins said. “To finish out my career at Syracuse in the NIT kind of hurts.”

Boeheim spent much of the day stating the case for his team on national radio shows before addressing the team prior to afternoon practice at Manley Field House.

“He just said there's nothing we can do about this, everybody knows that we got kind of shafted in this process,” sophomore guard Andy Rautins said. “As much as we want to be in the tournament, we can't go back and be selected. We just have to move on from this point, even though it hurts, try to do our best in the NIT.”

Boeheim has often been criticized for the Orange's non-conference schedule, which this season included wins over Penn, Colgate, St. Bonaventure, Baylor, Hofstra, Holy Cross, Canisius, Northeastern, UTEP, and St. Francis of New York. Syracuse also played Drexel and Wichita State at home in December but lost both games.

Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross said Monday that he had spoken with two members of the selection committee to get a feel for how the decision overlooking the Orange was reached.

“The more I talk to some of the committee members, the more I realize that there's almost too much data, to the point where you can take what you want and sell that piece of data,” Gross said. “The thing that I'm worried about with the committee is them having objective criteria and following along the criteria path.

“It just sounded like to me that there's a lot of subjectiveness that goes on when it comes to those last few teams in,” Gross said. “It's so tough to figure it out that it ends up being that whoever has the prevailing argument wins.”

Notes:Syracuse last appeared in the NIT in 2002, winning three games to advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden. The Orange are 10-11 all-time in the NIT. ... Syracuse and South Alabama will be meeting for the first time. Syracuse is the second seed in the South Region and South Alabama is the seventh seed.