CBI will be back next year

OKLAHOMA CITY -- College basketball's third postseason tournament is here to stay.

Rick Giles, the president of the College Basketball Invitational, said Thursday that the alternative to the National Invitation Tournament considers its first year a success and plans a similar event next year.

In the shadows of the Final Four and the NIT, the CBI will crown its champion tonight when Tulsa (24-14) hosts Bradley (21-16) in Game 3 of the championship series.

Initially met with skepticism as a tournament to crown the 98th-best team in the country, the CBI has gained momentum at least in the cities where the games have been played. Tulsa drew its second-largest crowd of the season in Game 1 of the championship series, and Bradley had 9,014 fans -- about 600 shy of its season average -- on hand for Game 2.

More than 6,300 tickets had been sold for the decisive third game at Tulsa's 8,355-seat Reynolds Center.

Giles called the 16-team tournament a "terrific" success, in part because of competitive games and strong crowds that organizers couldn't have predicted.

For Tulsa and Bradley, it's been a chance to gain momentum after seasons that would have otherwise just been so-so.

"I think as that word gets out to others, I think both coaching-wise and administratively, that's going to have a big benefit for us," Giles said.

The tournament got off to a rocky start. The 16-team bracket didn't get finalized until after midnight on Selection Sunday, less than 48 hours before the first games were to be played.

Giles said one factor was a cease-and-desist letter that the NIT sent to the CBI a day earlier.

"That really got us all screwed up. They were telling teams, 'Don't play in this event. Don't talk to these guys,' " said Giles, the founder of The Gazelle Group, which operates the tournament.

The NCAA, which runs the NIT, referred questions to tournament director Christine Fallon. She did not return messages left by The Associated Press by phone and e-mail Thursday.

When deciding whether to pursue the CBI, Bradley athletic director Ken Kavanagh said he took into consideration the desire of the team's best players, including seniors Jeremy Crouch and Daniel Ruffin, to continue their careers.

Kavanagh called the CBI a positive experience and pointed out that less than one-third of Division I basketball programs play in the postseason.

"The more opportunities there are out there, I think it's good for college basketball," Kavanagh said.