November 16, 2007
It looked as if the UTEP Miners were going to The Big Apple. The Miners lost a close basketball game to the Texas A&M Aggies 81-76 on Nov. 14 at College Station.
Tony Barbee and his young Miners competed in the 2007 Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-off and missed a chance to play in Madison Square Garden during the Thanksgiving holiday. Some have referred to the famed sports arena as the Mecca for the basketball gods.
Though UTEP got knocked out of this tournament, there will be more to come.
This was the first of many obstacles that the young Miners will endure this season. After watching the Miners in their first three games, they have the size and the speed to compete for a spot in one of the three post-season tournaments.
Yes, three post-season tournaments for all you basketball junkies.
The new post-season tournament will be known as the College Basketball Invitational or CBI. The year 1938 introduced the National Invitational Tournament. One year later came the tournaments of all tournaments, the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The year is now 2007 and the CBI will give us more “March Madness.”
Talks had surfaced in the past of increasing the number of teams for the NCAA. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was one of the proponents of the idea. His logic was due to his Orange missing the NCAA after finishing 10-6 in the powerful Big East Conference and getting an invite to the NIT (also known as the Not Invited Tournament).
Boeheim stated after the un-invite: “If 10-6 in the Big East isn’t good enough to be in, then I don’t think we should be in the Big East.”
Only eight more teams will be participating in post-season action though. The NCAA picks 65 teams. The NIT went from 40 invites to 32. The CBI will choose 16 teams at the end of the season. The total increased from 105 basketball programs to 113. The CBI will compete with the NIT for teams that did not make it to the NCAA.
This new tourney will produce more money and basically more excitement to the madness known as March. The Gazelle Group introduced the CBI to the college basketball world. These are the same guys who started the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic that benefits Coaches vs. Cancer and the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic. The two most recent pre-season tourneys have produced more excitement to get fans revved up for the new season.
Every program in the nation wants to make the NCAA. Really, no one enters a new season thinking: “Let’s go to the NIT!” But, when it’s all said and done, if your favorite program gets into the NIT or CBI, it’s more basketball to watch. The South Carolina Gamecocks won the NIT championship in back-to-back seasons (2005 and 2006). Those guys sprinted to center court at Madison Square Garden and hoisted the trophy to their faithful and pointed their fingers in the air representing that they were #1. Well, really they were No. 66.
But, besides the excitement and the passion to play more ball, it’s all about the money that it will produce. Television time and sponsorships are at play.
It will be a single-elimination tournament through the first two rounds and the semifinals, all played at campus sites. The Championship Series will be a best-of-three with the higher-seeded team playing at home in the first game and, if necessary, the third.
The first round is scheduled for March 18-19. The Championship Series will be March 31, April 2 and April 4.
Something different, a best-of-three series should be fun to watch.
What’s the old saying? Three’s a crowd. Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said his schools "are free to go and play in any event. I just don't know if there's a market for a third tournament, but this is the land of opportunity.''
A third tournament was brought into the college basketball world in 1974 sponsored by the Collegiate Commissioners Association. Indiana won it.
Okay, college basketball junkies; let’s get ready for more excitement and more tournament competition this March.
It’s not really over when the season ends. If you don’t see your team during the Tournament Section Show on CBS, there will be two more chances to get more playing time.
It’s like what Lloyd Christmas told Mary Swanson in the movie Dumb & Dumber, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” Yeah!