New tournament offers hope for teams like Illini

As he zoomed in and out of Philadelphia traffic on Friday, St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli thought back to last season's sour ending.

St. Joseph's had regular season wins against Xavier and Massachusetts, the teams seeded first and third in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. Hey, the Hawks figured, we beat those guys, so why can't we win the league tournament and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament?

Didn't happen. They lost in the A-10 quarterfinals.

And St. Joseph's, with an 18-14 record, wasn't selected for the NIT, either.

Season over.

"Of course you want to continue to play," Martelli said Friday. "Some people will say that say so-and-so team didn't want to be there (in the NIT). That's too bad. I mean, I understand that some teams didn't want to be there, that maybe they had their sights set on the NCAA tournament. But those teams are quickly eliminated. The teams that do want to be there will take care of that.

"Players want to play."

That's where the College Basketball Invitational comes in.

The 16-team tournament debuts in March as another option for teams that seek postseason berths.

Take St. Joseph's of last season, for example.

CBI organizers created a mock bracket that paired teams which did not make the 2007 NCAA tournament or NIT. In the first round of the CBI's East Regional was St. Joseph's vs. Connecticut. (Yes, that Connecticut.) Other pairings included LSU-Nebraska (South), Washington-Hawaii (West) and Missouri-St. Louis (Midwest).

"Every year, one of the most hotly contested topics is (NCAA) tournament expansion," Gazelle Group president Rick Giles said. "We like to think we addressed that in some way."

Seven weeks from Selection Sunday, and despite a negative reaction from fans and media, organizers are convinced the CBI is here to stay – and not as a third postseason option.

"Our primary goal is to compete with the NIT and, at some point, possibly overtake it," said Evan Olesh, a CBI spokesman.

* * *

The CBI isn't where Illinois wants to play in March. Not after eight straight appearances in the NCAA tournament.

But with each loss, and there have been seven in their last eight games, the Illini (9-11, 1-6 Big Ten) resemble a team fortunate to play anywhere when Madness sweeps the country. There's always the automatic NCAA bid available by winning the Big Ten tournament, of course, and senior Brian Randle said, "As it looks right now, that's probably where we're going to have to make a statement."

But what about the CBI, pummeled by traditionalists before it even begins?

Like the NIT, a .500 overall record is not a requirement. Like the NIT, there's an opportunity to extend the season and gain experience for players who return in 2008-09. Like the NIT, which is televised on ESPN and its affiliates, a TV package figures to be in place.

"We'll have it finalized in the next two weeks," Giles said Friday.

Producing a new tournament is nothing new for the Gazelle Group, which operates three in-season tournaments, including the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic and O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.

Giles said he saw a postseason landscape that didn't have enough room for deserving teams, particularly after the NIT was reduced from 40 to 32 teams. Even so, detractors say the CBI will oversaturate the postseason market. In response, Giles compared college basketball's postseason to its football brethren.

Out of 119 Division I football teams, 64 compete in bowl games, or 53 percent.

Out of 341 Division I basketball teams, 97 compete in the NCAA tournament and NIT, or 28 percent.

With the CBI, 113 teams compete in the postseason, or 33 percent.

"People who are comparing it to the NCAA tournament, that's not what we're doing," Giles said. "The NCAA tournament is the NCAA tournament. We're providing another option."

But as the Gazelle Group champions its postseason brainchild, the CBI faces opposition. The NCAA, which owns the NIT, seems less than enthused with the idea of competing with another tournament for face time and top teams. The NCAA was asked for a comment on the CBI on Wednesday but had not replied by Saturday.

"I was in a meeting the other night that included a high-ranking NCAA person," Giles added. "I think they are curious to see how it will all shake out."

Curious, the CBI organizer admitted, was putting it nicely.

* * *

The day after Selection Sunday, March 16, when the NCAA, NIT and CBI fields are announced, a number of college coaches are sure to advocate NCAA tournament expansion.

"We all asked for expansion, and they didn't expand," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber, whose team hosts Northwestern today (7, Big Ten Network). "Last year there were not only teams that thought they should be in the NCAA tournament – like there are every year– but there were teams that thought they should be in the NIT that didn't make it."

Regardless of the tournament, the extra practice time and postseason experience can be viewed as beneficial for a team like Illinois, which next season figures to return 12 players and add three more. There's a money issue, too, though the Gazelle Group contends its "financial package" for invited teams exceeds the NIT's.

But there remain doubts about the CBI because of its novelty. The NIT's greatest draw might be the credibility established through a 70-year tradition, and the CBI has no such history.

"I don't know how the ADs (athletic directors) and coaches will accept it," said Weber, whose 2000 Southern Illinois team reached the NIT, preceding a run to the NCAA's Sweet 16 in 2002. "I guess it depends on the team and the mind-set of your team, if you want to continue in a tournament like that.

"If you do that and have a good feeling at the end, you're hoping you have a good run in the Big Ten tournament. If that doesn't happen then obviously you look at the NIT. If it's going good at the end, you talk to your athletic director and see how he feels about it."

Teams deciding between the NIT and CBI also might take into account the prospect of a home game. If you're guaranteed a home game in the CBI – but not the NIT – perhaps you accept the CBI bid.

The CBI has fewer selection criteria as well. If a team wins its regular season conference title and loses in the conference tournament, the NIT is obligated to extend an invitation. That snatches an NIT spot from a team like Connecticut of last season, when MEAC champion Delaware State went to the NIT and Connecticut, with two national titles since 1999, stayed home.

"That rule would potentially take a bunch of midmajors off the board right away," Olesh said, strengthening the CBI field with power conference names.

How fans react is another matter. Much of the time, if a game is played, people will watch. (One example: the Big Ten Network televising exhibition games.) Unlike the NIT, which plays its semifinal and championship rounds at Madison Square Garden, the CBI is played entirely at campus sites. The first rounds are March 18 and 19, the Tuesday and Wednesday before the NCAA tournament's first weekend.

For a team like St. Joseph's, circa 2006-07, the CBI would have been another option – even while questions remain about the new tournament's staying power.

"I think we are entering a world of the unknown," Martelli said. "We're not quite certain, many of us, who aren't in the bowl world, how this is going to evolve. We're not sure what these tournaments are going to be like. What's that like? What's that like to go to a non-BCS bowl game? I certainly think it could go either way."

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