NCAA tourney seed selections that year:
http://collegepollarchive.com/mbasketball/ap/seasons.cfm?seasonid=1973&appollid=351
It went to the NIT, because that was an entirely different era. Both of the participants in the 2012 national championship game would have been left out of the field in that era. The Final Four didn't even exist as a concept for like the first 13 years of Norm's tenure at MU.
In the late 1990's, MU lacked for talent under Norm and the fact that St. Louis wasn't sending players his way was a big deal. The other years, he had nationally relevant teams due to nationally relevant talent.
Edited by FIJItiger at 15:50:54 on 10/25/16