DAYTON, Ohio — SMU coach Andy Enfield said B.J. Edwards didn’t feel “game ready” despite making progress with his right ankle injury, and the standout guard sat out Wednesday’s season-ending loss to Miami (Ohio) in the First Four.
Edwards, the Mustangs’ No. 3 scorer and No. 2 assist man, had missed SMU’s final five games entering the NCAA tournament after suffering the injury in a Feb. 25 loss at Cal. But the team last Friday released a statement saying he would be available for the tournament.
NCAA tournament selection committee chair Keith Gill said Sunday that Edwards’ potential return helped SMU’s case to be included as the final at-large selection. Gill noted during the selection show that SMU had dropped all but one game without Edwards on the court.
“He looked really good in practice today, last couple days, he shot the ball well,” Enfield said following an 89-79 loss to Miami (Ohio) at UD Arena. “He’s moving well, but I think there’s a thing called game readiness, and he just didn’t feel like he was quite game ready. He said, ‘I could definitely play on Friday, if we win this game,’ definitely going to play on Friday, but just not quite game ready.
“Really, that was a probably a day short.”
Enfield pushed back against the notion that SMU misled the selection committee with its statement about Edwards, who averaged 12.7 points and 4.9 assists. The senior earned honorable mention All-ACC honors and was third in voting for the league’s all-defense team.
“If you look at our whole body of work, we deserved to be the NCAA tournament,” Enfield said. “Our NET [rating] was 37, the quality of wins we had. BJ is important, but it’s a team sport, and a lot of other teams have injuries. So we deserved to be the NCAA tournament. You look at our metrics and our wins and BJ felt, we all thought, that he would be back.”
SMU finished with 15 assists against Miami but made just 5 of 21 3-point attempts. Edwards shot 37.2% from beyond the arc this season.
“I know for sure he’d give anything to be able to play tonight,” SMU forward Corey Washington said. “That wasn’t the case. He made the best decision for himself at the end of the day. I respect that. He means a lot to this team.”
