St. Louis University didn't make it to the National Invitation Tournament but will extend its basketball season by accepting a spot in the College Basketball Invitational.
The Billikens will face Indiana State on Tuesday at Chaifetz Arena at 8 p.m.
"I think it's good for our young program," athletics director Chris May said Sunday. "It will give our guys a chance to play again.The CBI, which is in its third year, is a 16-team tournament played on the participants' home courts. The opening rounds will be played Tuesday and Wednesday, with the quarterfinals on March 22, the semifinals on March 24, and the best-of-three finals series scheduled for March 29 through April 2.
Last year, SLU coach Rick Majerus said he didn't want to play in a tournament other than the NCAA or NIT because of the class time players would miss, but by playing at least the first game at home that concern would be minimized. Who the winner of the SLU-Indiana State game might face in the second round hasn't been determined yet.
Richmond, which reached the NCAA Tournament this season, appeared in the CBI the past two seasons, and through the event got match-ups against Virginia, St. John's and Texas-El Paso. Another plus the tournament offers is it affords the Billikens a chance to compete in a postseason environment, with which they haven't have had much experience.
Indiana State went 17-14 and finished tied for fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 9-9 record. The Sycamores lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament to Illinois State, 69-65
At 20-11, SLU was on the bubble for the NIT after losing to Rhode Island in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. Despite winning eight of 10 games up until that point, SLU's RPI remained stuck in the mid-80's, well below many other teams in NIT contention.
The NIT has a 32-team field, and eight spots were taken by teams that finished first in the regular season but didn't make the NCAA Tournament. Since the NCAA took over the event, those teams are guaranteed automatic berths in the NIT. That left 24 spots, and every team with an RPI under 65 made it.
After that, getting into the field got a little spotty and there was a pronounced preference for schools with big names from big conferences. Connecticut got in at No. 66, St. John's got in at 78 and North Carolina at 92, but Louisiana Tech didn't make it at 77 or Portland at 80. Realtimerpi.com had SLU's RPI at 87 going into Sunday's play.
Notably, the NIT selectors went with two Atlantic 10 teams that finished below SLU. Rhode Island, which had a strong RPI but finished fifth in the league, got into the NIT as a No. 2 seed. Dayton, which finished in seventh place, three games behind SLU in the standings and lost to them twice, got in as a No. 3 seed. Both teams had been considered NCAA bubble teams based on their out of conference play.
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