Indiana Rejects CBI Invitation
I saw the thread the other day about Indiana making the CBI, but I don't believe the information about them rejecting the invite was included. Fred Glass said, "we're Indiana. We don't play in the CBI." Unfortunately for them, they don't play in the NCAA Tourney either.
Is this the right move for them, or would it be better to let their young players get some experience?
Because they're a poorly coached bunch of underachievers...plus the coach is an asshole and at this point pretty much everyone knows it including their own fans.
either last year or the year before.
I'm too lazy to look it up - sorry.
Last year.
Purdue became the first B1G team last year to accept a CBI bid.
Penn State is in it this year. You have to pay to play in the tournament.
Michigan did decline the 2010 CBI invitation.
I didn't really like not getting ready for battle when called upon at the end of the 2009-10 season, but since they didn't accept the invitation, I'll GLADLY take how things have been since 2010-11.
http://www.gazellegroup.com/events/cbi/teams_past.htm
"The CBI provides a meaningful opportunity for teams that are deserving of a postseason experience."
Penn State is participating this year
Enjoy watching from the couch.
or the NIT
Had it not been for all the upsets in the conference tournaments (as well as Indiana's loss to Illinois in the Big Ten tournament), Indiana probably would’ve been playing in the NIT this year. The College Insider Tournament is for the lower level conferences, so Indiana would not have been playing there. That left the CBI for Indiana.
The CBI is organized by the Gazelle Group, a sports marketing firm that runs other college basketball tournaments, including one in which Michigan will participate next season, joining Villanova, VCU and Orgeon in the Legends Classic at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. (Indiana won the 2012 Legends Classic, beating UCLA in the semis and Georgetown in the finals.) Indiana also participated in the Gazelle Group’s 2K Classic this season, and lost to Connecticut in the championship game at Madison Square Garden in November.
But once you get beyond the 100 teams that are playing in the NCAA and NIT tournaments, the quality of opponents in the other post-season tournaments is not so good that any additional practice sessions and games would translate to success in the following season. So, choosing not to play in the CBI should have little to no impact on Indiana's play next season.
Only three teams in the 16-team 2014 CBI field are from the so-called power conferences – Oregon State, Penn State and Texas A & M. Only three teams from the 16 that played in the 2013 CBI tournament are in the 2014 NCAA tournament – Western Michigan, Tulsa and Texas.
A more tolerable response from Indiana might have been: "We appreciate the invitation and thank the promoters of the CBI Tournament; but our players have decided that they would like to use this time to rest, recover from some injuries and concentrate on their studies." It might've seemed like a complete lie, but it would've been far more palatable than the real response.
It will be interesting to see whether Indiana will be invited to any more early season tournaments organized by the Gazelle Group.
It makes sense for him to turn down the tourney from an administrative and cost stance, but when you limped through a mediocre season, acting like you are "above" playing more basketball is silly. You finished 7-11; you aren't "better" than a bunch of other teams that finished with about the same record from different conferences.
it was meant as a prelude to firing Crean. I don't think that's likely, though.
March 19th, 2014 at 12:14 AM ^
Hey now...EMU is in the CBI thing this year. I went to the game tonight and it was a sell out by EMU standards. The sad part was that I didn't know about it until I found EMU was going to be in it.
373 people is a sellout by EMU standards? One of the players expressed his displeasure with the turnout on Twitter: 373 People Came to Watch EMU Beat Norfolk State Tuesday Night, Glenn Bryant Isn't Happy
Here's one of his tweets:
We FORSURE got the top 5 worst support in the NCAA, it's almost 30,000 students go to this school smh, y'all at ALL the parties tho
— FLIGHT2⃣3⃣ (@GlennSanity23) March 19, 2014
March 19th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
Well it seemed like more than that. Not by much though. And honestly, I don't blame Glenn for being upset by that.
But I got some cool pictures:
http://eagletotem.net/blog/2014/03/18/eastern-michigan-vs-norfolk-state-pictures/7408/