The Carroll College men's basketball team just missed a berth in the NAIA national tournament after the 32-team field was announced on Wednesday.

The Saints, who finished the season 20-7 overall, 9-5 in the Frontier Conference, were ranked 30th among votes in the NAIA poll. But, with other conferences receiving automatic berths into the tournament, slipped to the 33rd spot, just one away from making it to the tournament, which begins March 18 in Kansas City, Mo.

Biola University (Calif.) received the 13th and final bid to the tournament and was ranked 29th, one spot ahead of the Saints, in the NAIA poll.

Frontier Conference regular season and tournament champion Westminster received an automatic berth while Rocky Mountain College and MSU-Northern received at-large berths.

After a highly competitive conference season, the Saints figured they might just make the cut.

"Would we be good enough to go back there and be competitive? Yes," said Saints head coach Gary Turcott. "I can guarantee there would be some teams that made it that wouldn't want to play us in the first round."

"It's too bad, really, that four teams weren't able to go. If there ever was a year that four teams should've gone, it was this year."

Carroll sent all of its players home for spring break and coaches said they would call them with selection results after losing to Westminster in the semifinal round of the Frontier playoffs 74-73.

"I think limbo is a good word to use," Turcott said about the waiting. "We knew we were going to be very close, right on the bubble.

"There are a lot of variables in this thing."

Now, the Saints have one final meeting of the season before saying good-bye to its five seniors.

"They've meant so much for the program. It's so hard to put into words what they meant to Carroll basketball and to the community," Turcott said. "They represented the program, the school and the community in every way we want to represent them."

Seniors Chad Vaculin and Chris Kaschmitter were recognized for the great years they had. Vaculin received first-team all-conference honors and Kaschmitter was the conference's defensive player of the year.

Fellow guard Josh Saunders, meanwhile, became a starter after switching over from the Carroll football team and Scott Stockwell and Zach Parks both transferred from North Idaho College.

In the end, "they were as close as you can come and not get a prize," Turcott said.