Tulsa Wins Inaugural CBI

Last night, Tulsa beat visiting Bradley 70-64 to win the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Championship.

It wasn't an easy win for Tulsa. Bradley jumped out to a 16-2 lead to start the game. The score at halftime was Bradley 34-28.

But Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik switched his team's defensive scheme from man to man defense to a 1-3-1 zone defense.

And it payed off -- especially in the 2nd half, when Bradley's shot 29 percent:

"Their zone over the long haul caused us enough problems to keep us down," said (Bradley guard Jeremy) Crouch, who finished 1-of-14 shooting from the field. "They left (Jordan) around the basket and did a great job of matching up."

"We didn't know whether to run our zone stuff or man stuff and went back and forth. Then when we got some good looks, we missed them."

As the Tulsa World notes, once Tulsa cut away at Bradley's lead, the game was a mad dash to the finish:

"The lead changed on 10 straight possessions, with TU grabbing a 57-55 on an (Ben) Uzoh 3-pointer with 6:30 left. After back-to-back buckets from the (Bradley) Braves' Sam Maniscalco and (Daniel) Ruffin, (Rod) Earls hit the trey to give the Hurricane the lead for good."

"A few minutes later, a victory celebration unfurled at the Reynolds Center."

More about Tulsa's CBI Championship, and the program's turnaround here.

Bradley Beats Tulsa, Evens CBI Championship Series 1-1

By Trashtalk Superstar

Last night, Bradley beat visiting Tulsa 83-74 in game two of the Championship Series of the inaugural College Basketball Invitational.

More here.

With last night's win, Bradley pulled even in the Championship Series 1-1. The third, and deciding game will be played at Tulsa on Friday night.

Senior guard Jeremy Crouch led Bradley with 20 points, most of which came from beyond the three point arc. But it was Crouch's back court running mate, senior point guard Daniel Ruffin, who set the tone for Bradley by applying constant pressure on Tulsa's ball handlers and by dishing out 8 assists (to go along with his 12 points).

Bradley also got a stellar performance from 7 foot center David Collins. Collins played 20 minutes, scored 8 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and blocked 2 shots. But Collins' most valuable contribution to the Braves' winning effort came from his constant challenging of Tulsa's shots in the paint and from his neutralizing of Tulsa's 7-1 center, Jerome Jordan.

Bradley took control of the game in the opening minutes and never relinquished the lead. Tulsa made a mini run midway through the second half, thanks to Brett McDade's hot hand from the three point stripe. But the Hurricane were never able to erase Bradley's sizable lead.

McDade was the bright spot for Tulsa. He didn't have many opportunities to score in the first half, which he spent playing the point guard position. But in the second half, Tulsa Coach Doug Wojcik moved McDade off the ball to the shooting guard position. That's when McDade went off for 24 points and sparked Tulsa's mini-run.

But it wasn't enough to get Tulsa back in the game. As Wojcik told the Tulsa World:

"They (Bradley) played a great game. They pretty much controlled the game after we won the opening tip and scored."

Last night's game was the final home game for Bradley seniors Crouch, Ruffin and Matt Salley. Crouch and Ruffin have enjoyed particularly stellar careers at Bradley, and both played key roles in Bradley's 2006 march to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen. 9,014 boisterous fans attended Bradley's win and bid farewell to Crouch, Ruffin and Salley at the Peoria (IL) Civic Center's Carver Arena.

Game 3 of the CBI will begin at 7:00 PM (Central Time) on Friday night in Tulsa, OK.

The Chicago Tribune has more coverage of last night's game.

Tulsa Beats Bradley, Takes 1-0 Lead in CBI Championship Series

Tulsa beat visiting Bradley 73-68 in the first game of a best of the inaugural College Basketball Invitational's three championship series.

Game two will take place on Wednesday night at Bradley's home court in Peoria, IL.

Game three, if necessary, will be played in Tulsa on Friday night.

CBI Finds Success, Despite Being Ignored by National Media

Despite being largely ignored by the national media, the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) has enjoyed a successful inaugural run. Bradley visits Tulsa tonight in the first game of a best of three CBI championship series. John Klein describes the somewhat surprising success of the CBI in today's Tulsa World:

"The CBI has been virtually ignored on the national scene, completely overshadowed by the NCAA Tournament and the National Invitation Tournament.

However, in the small pockets of the country where the CBI has kept the basketball season alive, it has been successful."

And Klein speculates about the larger implications of the CBI's success:

"The CBI opens up postseason slots for many of the teams from the mid-majors. Three teams from Conference USA played in the CBI. C-USA landed just one team in the NCAA and one in the NIT.

The power conferences pretty much ignored the CBI.

However, any college athletic administrator is likely to notice the success of the tournament.

If there is money to be made, by expanding the postseason to more teams, it'll probably happen.

Several coaches have said they expect a handful of these postseason tournaments like the CBI to start as early as next season."

Klein continues:

"(T)here's a good chance that the CBI could help usher in the expanded NCAA Tournament.

There is much talk about adding one round to the NCAA Tournament. Instead of 65 teams, the NCAA's would become a 128-team tournament.

The first round NCAA games (64 of them) would be played at home sites.

Here's what would happen. There would be sellouts all across the country, a big step up from the usual half-empty arenas in the current first round, and the top seeds would almost all win.

Still, twice as many coaches could claim they made the NCAA Tournament.

Bradley to Face Tulsa in CBI Finals

Last night, Tulsa beat Houston 73-69, and Bradley beat Virginia 96-85, in the semifinals of the inaugural College Basketball Tournament (CBI).

Bradley and Tulsa will meet for a best of three CBI championship series.

Tulsa will host the first and third games. The first game will be held on Monday.

The Gazelle Group's CBI website has more on the CBI finals.

More on Bradley's win at Virginia: here. And here.

CBI Semifinals

Four teams remainin in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI) field. Tonight, Virginia hosts Bradley and Houston visits Tulsa in the CBI semifinals.

Tonight's winners will face each other in a best of three series to determine the CBI championship.

The Peoria Journal Star previews tonight's face off between Bradley and Virginia.

Damn ... There Goes Our CBI Brakcet

Less than one day after Drive and Dish published our inaugural CBI Bracket, our bracket is shot to Hell.

Houston and Old Dominion beat Drive and Dish projected winners Nevada and Rider, respectively. I didn't know anything about ODU or Rider this year, but -- in our all night meeting of the Drive and Dish editorial board -- Mark Buckets went to the wall for Rider. So I deferred to him, considering the fact that I hadn't seen either Rider or Old Dominion play this year.

Old Dominion beat Rider 66-63. Then, to add insult to injury, Houston further trashed our bracket by squeaking out a one point win over Nevada, 80-79. In fairness, Mark Buckets had picked Houston to beat Nevada, but I overruled him because Nevada has the seven foot JaVale Magee (a potential NBA first round draft pick), and because Houston is coached by Tom Penders. I decided that Drive and Dish would officially predict Nevada to beat Houston.

So now our CBI bracket is shot. But aside from Rider and Nevada, two of our other predicted winners from Tuesday night held on to win. So Drive and Dish's projections for the inaugural CBI finals are still a possibility.

Here's a rundown of Tuesday's CBI results, along with a list of CBI games to be played tonight:

Tuesday, March 18

Virginia 66, Richmond 64
Old Dominion 66, Rider 63
Ohio 80, Brown 74
Houston 80, Nevada 79

Wednesday, March 19

Cincinnati at Bradley - 7 p.m.
Miami (Ohio) at Tulsa - 8 p.m.
Valparaiso at Washington - 9 p.m.
Utah at UTEP - 9 p.m.
(All start times are Eastern Standard Time)

According to the Gazelle Group (organizers of the CBI), two of tonight's first-round games will be nationally televised on Fox College Sports. The games on FCS Atlantic will also available on DirecTV channel 669. All tournament games can be seen live online (check the Gazelle Group's CBI website).

CBI Extravaganza, Baby!

Drive and Dish knows that our readers have been hanging on the edge of their collective seats in anticipation of Drive and Dish's intrepid breakdown of the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Drive and Dish talked about the CBI when it's creation was announced back in November.

And we know that loyal Drive and Dish followers have been saying to themselves, "hey, when is Drive and Dish going to break down the CBI?"

Well, the wait is finally over. We present the inaugural Drive and Dish breakdown of the CBI:

But first, here's a team by team breakdown courtesy of the Gazelle Marketing Group, organizers of the CBI.

Drive and Dish would have done our own scouting report on the teams, but the Gazelle Group's breakdown is better than anything we could have come up with (because there are a couple teams participating in the CBI that we haven't seen and know next to nothing about).

But worry not. Drive and Dish's editorial staff convened an impromptu all night meeting in which we did nothing but analyze the CBI bracket. We poured over the teams that we have seen: we analyzed the position by position matchups and we factored in style of play, home court advantage and how the teams had been playing in the last two weeks of the season and in their respective conference tournaments. Plus, we just guessed. So, after hours of intense deliberations, we now present the official Drive and Dish predictions of from our official
Drive and Dish CBI bracket:

Third NCAA Post Season Tournament In the Works

By Trashtalk Superstar


There's an old saying: "two's company, but three's a crowd." The people at the Gazelle Group must not know that colloquialism because they've started the new College Basketball Invitational post season tournament - which, as the third NCAA post season tournament, will compete with the NCAA Tournament and the NIT.

In fairness, a third tournament probably isn't a bad idea. Every year several deserving teams are left out of both the NCAA Tournament and the NIT. And, no doubt, college coaches and players won't object to the creation of another tournament because it will open opportunities for more teams to extend their seasons.

The main hurdle that the College Basketball Invitational will face is likely to be low fan interest. The NIT is a good - and well established - tournament, but it only generates minimal interest. What's worse, major conference teams that get left out of the NCAA Tournament are sometimes slightly less than motivated - and often don't exactly bring their "A-games"- when they step on to courts bearing the NIT logo. A fledgling tournament will face all those obstacles and then some. Add to that the fact that many of its contestants are likely to be good, but relatively unheralded, mid major teams. A late March match up between, let's say, Charlotte and Northern Iowa may make for good basketball, but it not exactly going to beat Dancing With the Stars in the Nielsen ratings.

Personally, I like the idea of a third tournament. But I'm a basketball person, maybe even a "lifer." And bear in mind: I've always kind of liked Arena Football, I liked the idea of the XFL (until I actually saw some of the games), and - when I was a child and just beginning to follow sports - I kind of followed the USFL in its final season or two ... plus, I've actually gone to NIT games ... and CBA games.

Hard core basketball people - like the proprietors of this blog - and hard core gamblers may have some interest in the new tournament. And fans/alums of teams that participate in the tournament may be interested as well. But that's likely to be all the interest the CBI will get.

Good luck to the Gazelle Group and the College Basketball Invitational.