Wednesday's first round NIT game between LSU and Louisana had more entertainment value than all four of the NCAA Tournament play-in games combined.

That's because on Monday, Louisiana coach Bob Marlin made comments questioning why his team was the lower seeded of the two, and Tigers coach Will Wade took exception to the comments. Here's what Marlin said, via The Advocate, that had Wade fired up, which ultimately led to an in-game exchange and an epic postgame press conference.

"We would like to play this game at home. Our athletic director reached out to the commissioner and to a couple others to get a read on the seeding and how that happened. ... Our RPI is much better, our record is much better, we feel like our gym's better, there are a lot of things that say we should be a higher seed than we were. We've got the second-best record in the entire tournament out of 32 teams, but it is what it is. ... We haven't gotten an answer yet. There's a lot of the old-school guys on that committee that just think LSU's better than we are. They haven't seen our facilities or looked at the finer print about our team. ... But we're excited to play a short trip, and I think LSU will be excited to play. Sometimes, a team that tied for ninth in their league isn't interested in playing. But they haven't been very good for a couple of years, so the NIT is a big step for them. ... I called Will when he got the job; I didn't ask him right then about playing, but I have since then and they're not interested. They probably didn't want to play this game, to be honest."

Marlin's point was that his team's RPI was in better shape than LSU, which stands firm. But Wade still didn't like the premise of his comments, and the two engaged in some late-game fireworks in the Tigers' 84-76 overtime victory.

And by fireworks I mean the two parties had to be separated.

The dust-up didn't end on the court, either. LSU coach Will Wade didn't mince words discussing Marlin's comments that irked him.

"Their RPI is higher than ours," Wade ceded. "They also played the 213th strength of schedule. We had the 54th rated strength of schedule. We had 122nd strength of schedule out of conference, they had 177th strength of schedule out of conference ... I know they like to talk about their 27 wins and the RPI, but the RPI doesn't factor in wins over Louisiana College and New Orleans."

Bob Marlin didn't back down from his previous comments despite Wade's criticism -- and despite the loss on Wednesday.

There are no current plans for the two teams to meet again in the near future, but after this little snafu, I think it's safe to say college basketball would be better off with an annual Louisiana-LSU showdown.