2009 College Basketball Invitational Preview
Written March 16, 2009 by Jack Jones
The College Basketball Invitational was created in 2008 as a money-making venture. It’s different from the NCAA Tournament and the NIT due to the championship being determined by the best-of-three series, and also since most of the pairings and matchups are based off of money. If a school wants to host a home game they have to post a $60,000 gate guarantee, with 60% of the additional receipts. If you make a $500 deposit into BetUS and tell them BetFirms sent you, they’ll credit you with $500 in BONUS money!
This led to some interesting situations last year as every team in the Big 12 rejected the idea of having to post a guarantee in order to be considered. Western Michigan had won 20 games, but was snubbed for two other inferior Mid-American Conference teams and a 13-18 Cincinnati Bearcats squad.
This year you’ll find teams like St. John’s in the CBI, even though this is a team that was down 38-10 at the half against Marquette earlier in the season. The team and their 16-17 record will visit the Richmond Spiders in the opening round. Wichita State at 16-16 will play Buffalo in their opener.
A team that may be worth watching is Oregon State, led by President Obama’s brother-in-law Craig Robinson. Robinson took Brown to the CBI a year ago and turned the Beavers around this season. Last year Oregon State went winless in the Pac-10, but this year the team was seven conference games and had three wins against teams in the RPI top 50. Still, at 13-17 does this team deserve to play in the post-season, let alone host their opening round game?
On the other hand there are teams like Buffalo, which won the MAC East, Nevada, which lost the WAC Championship game to Utah State, and College of Charleston who went 26-8 and beat Stephen Curry and Davidson in the Southern Conference tournament. Add in Vermont at 23-8, co-champions of the America East, and Wisconsin-Green Bay, who went 13-5 in the Horizon League. There are also the Houston Cougars who will take on Oregon State in the first round. A team to watch out for might be Wyoming, who played well down the stretch and beat New Mexico in the conference tournament.
One tip for betting on NCAA basketball during the CBI is that home teams should have a pretty big crowd there, since the school has so much at stake if people don’t show up.
We will have all of the college basketball spreads on the CBI games posted on our feed, and some of our handicappers will be posting NCAA basketball picks on these games if they see any value.
If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:
- PAC-10 Men’s College Basketball Tournament Predictions
- 2009-10 Oregon College Basketball Predictions
- Big Ten Men’s College Basketball Tournament Predictions
- Big 12 Men’s College Basketball Tournament Predictions
- College Basketball Betting: Hot & Cold Teams ATS
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