The College Basketball Invitational - Serving the Uninvited

NCAA College Basketball Sports Betting
JAY'S WAYS

March 16, 2009

The College Basketball Invitational, which had its inaugural in 2008, has been put together as a money-making enterprise, literally created for television. It has an interesting twist that distinguishes it from the NCAA or NIT, in that the championship is determined by a best-of-three series. As the NIT had been previous to its recent makeover, many of the pairings and other decisions on matchups are dictated by money. Teams who wish to be involved and host a home game must pony up a $60,000 gate guarantee, with a demand of 60% of additional gate receipts. Money is a little more important than merit.

This has led to some contentious situations already. Last year a number of programs, including everyone in the Big 12, balked at the idea of having to make a guarantee like that just to be considered. Western Michigan, which had won 20 games, was passed up by the NIT, and coach Steve Hawkins, citing his team's record, expected that he might get a call from the Gazelle Group, which organizes the CBI and has also some notable pre-season college events. Not only was he ignored, he watched in horror as two other Mid-American Conference teams who were arguably inferior (Miami-Ohio and Ohio) and a team with a 13-18 record (Cincinnati) got invited.

Hawkins exploded, calling the CBI a joke, and bemoaning the fact that Ohio had actually brokered its way into the contest. "Who should have we been talking to, to broker a deal to get into postseason play?," he asked. "I thought this was all based on merit and accomplishment.' And then we find out that it's really not and here we are. I'm going to walk into our postseason meaning in 20 minutes and say, 'Well, guys, the season's over.'"

So is this season. Hawkins' team finished 10-21 this season. Can anyone - aside from the CBI organizers - say "schadenfreude"?

"I hope there's never another CBI tournament," Hawkins had said.

Well, there is another one. And once again, there are teams with losing records in the field.

One day after watching St. John’s lose disgracefully to Marquette which saw them down 38-10 at the half, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post wrote, "There is such a dearth of Big East-caliber talent on this roster, it almost hurts the eyes of anyone who watches, and who sees what a real Big East team like Marquette looks like. Except, it seems, (coach) Norm Roberts himself, who believes these same players will all come back and magically transform into something only two or three of them are right now: legitimate Big East players."

St. John's, which got an invite to the CBI and will visit Richmond in the opening round on Wednesday, finished 16-17 on the season, even after beating Georgetown in the first round of the Big East tournament. Wichita State, which will play Buffalo in a first-round CBI matchup on Wednesday, is 16-16.

One of the more intriguing stories in the tournament is another team that had a losing record - the Oregon State Beavers. With a new coach, Craig Robinson (Barack Obama's brother-in-law), who brought Brown to this event last year and comes back with his new club, which was winless in the Pac-10 last year but won seven conference games this season and posted wins against three teams in the top 50 of the RPI. Robinson runs a deliberate, Princeton-style offense that can capitalize on mistakes made by defenses that are not patient. Considering where they came from, Robinson has done a great job. Even so, OSU had just a 13-17 mark, but will host a first-round game nonetheless. They must have brokered a deal - perhaps with corporate welfare money from Barack?