cbi tournament

BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer
PROVIDENCE — Brown is going to a dance.
Not the Big Dance, the NCAA Tournament.
And not the Little Dance, the retooled NIT.
Brown is going to the new dance on the basketball block, the 16-team College Basketball Invitational, and the players are thrilled.
“They’re all really excited, as are the staff and I,” coach Craig Robinson said last night after receiving the good news. “We’re happy to keep playing. We practiced this morning, hoping we’d have another game.”
Brown finished second behind Cornell in the Ivy League, the only Division I conference that does not have a tournament to determine the recipient of the NCAA’s automatic bid.
Brown’s RPI in the 104-106 range made it a long shot for the NIT, now owned and operated by the NCAA, and Robinson and his players were not disappointed they didn’t make that cut.
“We know how the process works. We’re in the Ivy League, and our RPI and strength of schedule aren’t as strong. We’re just happy there’s another tournament now,” he said.
As of 10:30 last night, he was still waiting to learn his opponent.
This will be Brown’s fourth postseason appearance since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939 and third since the Ivy League started in 1956-57. The 1939 Bears lost to Villanova, 42-30, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the 1986 Ivy League champions fell to Syracuse, 101-52, in the first round of the NCAAs. The 2003 team went to the NIT and lost in the first round to Virginia, 89-73.

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