College Basketball Thread II

Man, I am so disappointed in you.

I will stalk you now.

 

And VCU gets a home game in the NIT.

 

Can't wait to see who the CBI invites.

Kansas City Star had a story today with Missouri saying they weren't interested in playing in the CBI. In so many words, the AD said the tournament sounded shady.

 

Which is bullshit. What does that even mean, "shady"? And if you have a chance to play a postseason game, what possible reason can you give for not taking it? Senior-laden team wants one more hurrah, young team wants a chance to build for next year. Doesn't make sense.

 

Also, to O'Connor's credit, he didn't have to vouch for Mason. They won the automatic bid, which took him off any conspiracy theory against W&M.

By the way, I heard about this CBI deal on radio the other day. This is going to be interesting to watch this play out.

 

I misspoke (shouldn't have used the word 'shady'). Alden's concern was that there weren't many details on how the tournament operates.

Here's what the Star had:

The College Basketball Invitational need not invite Missouri. The Tigers won’t accept.

“Our focus is on the NCAA and the NIT,” MU athletic director Mike Alden told The Star on Wednesday.

Alden said part of the problem with the debut of the 16-team tournament being organized by The Gazelle Group out of New Jersey is that schools don’t have many details about it.

“To host, they’re asking for a guarantee of $60,000,” Alden said. “You’d start out by writing a check.”

A mock tournament field based on last season would have included Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. And the CBI supposedly will lean toward non-NCAA teams from major conferences.

But, Alden said, discussions in Kansas City at the Big 12 tournament have raised a great deal of skepticism about the CBI. Rick Giles, an official with the Gazelle Group, made no public comment to The Star.