A look at the last four at-large teams selected for the NCAA tournament:

• Richmond: The Spiders finished tied for third in their division of the Atlantic 10 but a 20-10 record, a 46 ranking in the RPI and a No. 6 nonconference strength of schedule that included a win at Kansas and losses at Wake Forest, UAB and South Carolina were enough.

• Air Force: The Falcons won the Mountain West regular-season title by two games and had a 3-1 record against Utah and BYU. That was enough to overcome a RPI of 70, a 236 strength of schedule and a 317 (out of 326) nonconference strength of schedule. They had five wins over teams in the top 100 and 16 over those ranked 200 and up.

• BYU: The Cougars, who had two wins over non-Division I teams, had a very impressive 31 RPI ranking but were forced to worry after losing to Utah in their conference semifinals.

• Texas-El Paso: The Miners were a mild surprise after losing to Nevada in the Western Athletic Conference title game. They had two non-Division I wins and their strength of schedule was ranked 107th but they won 12 of their last 15.

A look at four of teams that did not get invited:

• Colorado: The Buffaloes finished fourth in the Big 12 and saw fifth-place Texas Tech get a bid. They were 55th in the RPI and only had 17 wins that counted because of a non-Division I victory.

• Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish were the seventh team from the Big East and were 47th in the RPI. They closed by winning seven of their last 10 games, with three of those against Connecticut. They had to overcome the loss of injured Torin Francis, their leading rebounder and second-leading scorer.

• LSU: The Tigers had a 39 RPI ranking but lost six of their last seven games and they were not going to have leading scorer and rebounder Jamie Lloreda for the NCAA tournament.

• Utah State: The Aggies went 25-3 overall and 17-1 in the Big West but lost to Cal St.-Northridge, a sub-.500 team, in the semifinals of the tournament. They were 44th in the RPI.

and had a 122nd nonconference strength of schedule.

AP-ES-03-14-04 2054EST