The College Basketball Blog: 2013 CBI Predictions

2013 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Predictions

History of the CBI: This is the 6^th College Basketball Invitational. The CBI can be called the original superfluous postseason tournament. When it was created in 2008 it was the first new postseason tournament since 1974. Throughout its history the CBI has always been a tournament of 16 teams. It is a normal single-elimination tournament with a twist at the end: the finals are a best-two-out-of-three series. 

Championship History: Tulsa won the inaugural CBI championship over Bradley, 2-1. In 2009 Oregon State defeated UTEP, 2-1, to take the title. VCU swept St. Louis, 2-0, to win the 2010 CBI. In 2011 Oregon beat Creighton, winning the finals 2-1. Pittsburgh beat Washington State in the finals last year, 2-1, to take the 2012 CBI championship. 

The Field: Once the NCAA and NIT fields have been set, the CBI and CIT compete for the leftovers. It’s not totally an all out war between the two youngest tournaments, as the CBI is open to teams from BCS conferences as well as the 27 non-BCS conferences. Another difference is that the CBI has not been as strict about limiting the field to teams with at least .500 records. 

Tournament Structure: All games are played at campus sites. In the first 3 years of the tournament the field was bracketed and seeded from the start, and then the final four teams were reseeded prior to the semifinals. In order to make my predictions I had to guess how the final four teams would be seeded if my teams made it. The only difference since 2010 has been that teams were not seeded, even within their regional brackets, so in order to make my predictions I had to guess what teams would be home teams for the second round. 

That will again be the case this year. What I have done in the past is try and seed each 4-team group myself. This year I have decided not to seed the teams because I do not believe the CBI does it that way. I will still give each 4-team region a title for clarification. And of course I will have to try and guess what the seeding will be in the semifinals. Again, this is the best I can do. So here are my picks. 

First Round

South

George Mason over College of Charleston

Houston over Texas

West

Purdue over Western Illinois

Santa Clara over Vermont

East

Wright State over Tulsa

Richmond over Bryant

Midwest

Wyoming over Lehigh

North Dakota State over Western Michigan 

Second Round

South

Houston over George Mason

West

Santa Clara over Purdue

East

Wright State over Richmond 

Midwest

North Dakota State over Wyoming 

Semifinals

#1 North Dakota State over #4 Houston

#2 Santa Clara over #3 Wright State 

Finals

#1 North Dakota State over #2 Santa Clara (2-1)