La Salle's Fate Lies in Hands of Selection Committee

               La Salle fell to Butler in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and as a result their fate now lies in the hands of the selection committee.  It was a hard fought game in a rematch from a meeting earlier in the season, in which the Explorers emerged victorious, but this time they could not pull out the win, falling 69-58.
Poor shooting plagued the Explorers early as they fell behind by as many as 8 in the first half.  La Salle slowly but surely chipped away at the Bulldogs lead and went into the halftime break trailing only 37-35.  The Explorers simply didn't emerge from the locker room ready to play as hard as the Bulldogs.  Butler outscored La Salle 32-23 in the second half to come away with an 11 point victory in the end.  There were multiple contributing factors to the La Salle loss, but the biggest being the absence of big-man Steve Zack.  Without Zack, who will be evaluated again on Monday to decide if he can play, the Explorers were out-rebounded 37-22.  That is an unacceptable margin if the Explorers had hopes of winning this game, and it was clear they missed Zack.  Officiating was also not too kind to La Salle, while Butler didn't get all the calls, the calls did seem to favor Butler a little bit, especially the missed travel and charging calls.  The final contributing factor to the Explorers loss was poor play from Ramon Galloway.
                 Galloway, who leads the team in points per game this season with 17.4, was off all day.  In the end, Galloway finished with 4 points and 6 assists, while going 1 for 10 from the field.  Tyrone Garland and Tyreek Duren helped to pick up for Galloway's slack at the guard position, scoring 17 and 16 respectively, but it simply wasn't enough to overcome a strong Butler squad.  Jerrell Wright added a double-double for the Explorers with 14 points and 11 rebounds, but in the end could not make up for the missing Steve Zack.  The loss is a disappointment for La Salle, and I'm sure raised quite a few Explorers fans blood pressure, as they now leave their fate up to the committee on Selection Sunday.  While La Salle went 21-9 on the season, and boasts wins over 9th and 19th ranked programs on their resume, it may not be enough for them to receive an at-large bid from the committee.  While I feel as though La Salle should still receive a bid after such an impressive season, the committee tends to favor larger programs like Kentucky who is also on the Bubble.  So it will be a nerve wracking couple of days for the Explorers as they wait to learn their fate.  Will they be dancing? Or will they go home?  Time will tell, but as of now, you could cut the tension with a knife.