UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

[joecooll6]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

And UNI is?

Sorry but Cincy IS a big name in college basketball even if they haven't been a great team the last three years. It takes awhile for "history" to catch up with people and it wasn't that long ago that Cincy was in the middle of making about a 15 year stretch of tourney appearances.

I follow college b-ball pretty closely and I had no idea Cincy's record was so poor, just knew they werent dominant anymore... I highly doubt the "casual" or "average" fan would know this and/or be outraged.

If the Cincy "brand" didnt carry weight, this tournament doesn't take them, its pretty simple.

I think we'll agree to disagree on this one.

I never once said UNI does, nor did I ever argue UNI should be in this tournament. All Im saying is hitching your wagons to Cincinnati's credibility is a bad strategy. Looking at the bracket 13-18 will stand out way more than the name Cincinnati. Sure they went to tournaments but that doesnt make them a top tier program. No one's gonna tune in to the CBI just to see Cincinnati play (except Cincinnati fans). People would tune in to see Duke, UNC, Arizona, UCLA, etc, even if they were 13-18.

[UNI MadCat]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

I never once said UNI does, nor did I ever argue UNI should be in this tournament. All Im saying is hitching your wagons to Cincinnati's credibility is a bad strategy. Looking at the bracket 13-18 will stand out way more than the name Cincinnati. Sure they went to tournaments but that doesnt make them a top tier program. No one's gonna tune in to the CBI just to see Cincinnati play (except Cincinnati fans). People would tune in to see Duke, UNC, Arizona, UCLA, etc, even if they were 13-18.

They aren't hitching their wagons to any strategy man because their stated strategy of luring teams away from the NIT backfired on Sunday. At that point, they had NOTHING to go on. Name teams were turning down their tournament and the clock was ticking. I dont fault them for what they did in a pinch. If this tournament is defunct within 3 years (which I'll bet it is) it won't be because they let Cincy in. In fact, if they hadn't gone after "names" they'd way more likely point to the lack of "names" than anything.

This tournament is reaching from an extremely mediocre lot of teams (at best). No one is going to tune in anyway.

Do you think these people are dumb? They saw what they had to choose from and realized, "holy crap, we need 'names' and we need them fast." They weren't taking ANY team that was 13-18, they were taking a NAME they thought brought them something.

You can argue the merits of the Cincy brand all you want but put it into perspective... you keep bringing up Duke an NC but its unrealistic because those names rarely, if EVER drop to even the NIT level. So, on the extremely small scale that they have to gain media exposure, they need teams with anything that can bring them SOMETHING. Cincy, on a very minute level, brings them SOMETHING over other no-names out there that they could have gotten. And, again, no one beyond the disparraged fans of the teams that were "hoping" (almost laughing as I typed that) to get an invite (well, probably an e-vite to save money) to this thing will analyze Cincy's record. When you are talking about teams 98-113... NO ONE CARES.

Here's a guy that, I believe, echos the thoughts of the general public on the CBI (if the general public even bothers to give it a thought period).

LINK

[UNI MadCat]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Or how about this one... an article in one the country's largest paper pretty much solidifies why the CBI did what it did. He claims Cincy/BU as the highlight and he never once mentions their record. Again, on short notice, this tourney did what they had to do.

Cincinnati-Bradley Renewal is New Tournament's Highlight

[joecooll6]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

I see your point, but Cincinnati isnt going to save this tournament. Thats basically what Ive been trying to say. No one is going to watch it, even with Cincinnati. Ill be suprised if it is even back next year.

[06panther10]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Your right nobody is going to watch it, what friggin' channel is this crap on anyway?

[UnderParPanther]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

FCS, i'm lucky we have it on our dish...i havnt watched any of the games yet if there were any tonite..

[GonzoCat]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Nobody knows or cares about this tournament except the fans of the teams in it. Once their teams lose they will stop watching. Cincinnati has a storied bb past going way back and had a pretty good team during most of the past 20 years, but they have fallen off since they actually graduated their first player in over 10 years or whatever. Most people realize that UC and Huggins represent everything that is wrong about college sports discredit the programs success under him for it.

[06panther10]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Speaking of Huggins, that really pissed me off how he just used K-State last year to get him a different job at WVU. I thought that was pretty sh!itty how he goes there and signs a contract and leaves after one year because another job came open. Why can't players just jump from team to team as they please? I hate when coaches are slimy like this.

[joecooll6]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Speaking of Huggins, that really pissed me off how he just used K-State last year to get him a different job at WVU. I thought that was pretty sh!itty how he goes there and signs a contract and leaves after one year because another job came open. Why can't players just jump from team to team as they please? I hate when coaches are slimy like this.

To be fair, West Virginia is his alma matter.

[clenz]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

To be fair, West Virginia is his alma matter.

That's not being fair, thats being slightly nieve, for lack of a better word at this point. (It's 1:30 AM, my brain isn't working well)

Look how WVU fans reacted when UM signed both their basketball and football coaches. It wrong that Michigan signed both coaches, but it is ok that WVU did the same thing to Huggins?

I have never understood WVU fans. Especially the way they flocked to the Michigan rivals.com board after Rich Rod signed with UM and *****ed about it, but when the Huggins thing is thrown out there the only defense is "It's his alma matter so it is okay."

[morrism0]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

To be fair, West Virginia is his alma matter.

Yeah because we know how loyal bball coaches can be to their alma matter!

[UNI MadCat]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

I see your point, but Cincinnati isnt going to save this tournament. Thats basically what Ive been trying to say. No one is going to watch it, even with Cincinnati. Ill be suprised if it is even back next year.

I agree.

I was surprised (and glad, I guess) that the scores were going across the bottom line last night.

Didn't see any highlights on ESPN... anyone else??

As an aside, I wish they would just expand the NIT to 48 teams. I know it was at 40 before but that was when it was run by the old organization that was clueless. 48 teams in a more structured form could work.

[UNI MadCat]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

I think if some of the coaches get their way and they vote to expand the tournament to 128 - the NIT will go away. I thought when the NCAA purchased the NIT a couple of years ago that it might be a pre-cursor to expanding the field and then just eliminating the other tournament.

Man I hope not but I think you're probably right.

This is me just thinking outloud...

I would hope, if they HAVE to do it, that 96 becomes more realistic... top 32 conference champs get a "bye" and then the other 2 conferences + 62 at-larges play in round one. And in round one, I would have the 32 higher seeded teams hosting the game on-campus.

So, perhaps...

Tue-Weds: 32 teams host "Round 1"
Thurs-Fri: Begin "Normal" tourney schedule

Otherwise, logistically how do you work it if there is an extra round?? Teams that have conference tourneys the weekend of Selection Sunday could be playing up to 6-7 games in a 10-11 day span if it was:

Weekend 1: Round of 128 (or 96), 64, & 32
Weekend 2: Round of 16 & 8
Weekend 3: Final Four/Championship??

Or do you extend it out more and add a weekend? That also seems ridiculous. What weekend only gets one game? Also, what fans will travel to only one game?

And if you go with the first listed scenario you ruin two things... first the fans willing to travel on 2-3days notice (4-5 is hard enough). And, most importantly, spoiling what I think is the most important part of this whole thing... the office pools. Plain and simple, this is why this tournament is so popular. Give people 2 full days less to fill out brackets and recruit people to participate and it seems more like a "job" than fun.

Man, I hope this never happens. I'm tired just thinking about it.

[UNIAlum95]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

Another possibility is that the NCAA continues to leave out mid-majors and the NIT becomes the "FCS" championship game of college basketball. It's not far from it right now.

[Khan4Cats]

Re: UNI's chance at the CBI or NIT?

MadCat, I was thinking along with you on the expansion. They won't go to 128, but I could see 96 eventually. As for the conference champs getting "byes", there are only 31 conferences, not the 34 you listed in your scenario. And I think that becomes the biggest issue with expanding by that many. What happens to the auto-bid?

While the NIT guarantee for smaller conferences may have helped keep UNI out of the NIT last year, I still like it because it rewards a team for doing what it should do first-win its conference. They won't go to guaranteeing spots for both regualr-season and tournament champs because that just opens the door for chicanery from smaller conferences to make sure someone else wins the tourney (which is also another reason why the Valley got multiple bids the 9 previous years).

In the short run, I could see them adding three more spots and having opening round games for each of the 16 seeds, though it would be much harder for them to keep both the SWAC and MEAC qualifiers out of that scenario, which is something the NCAA has done ever since they started the play-in game despite the fact that those are always the bottom two conferences.