In case you didn't know, there are other college basketball tournaments in March besides the NCAAs. Check out what they are and which teams that feature Canadians are playing in them right here ...
For all of you that have been following the NCAA college basketball season, you may have heard that there was talk of expanding the current NCAA Tournament to 96 teams. And for all of you that have been following the college game for some time, like myself, you may have thought "What the hell for?" like did. I have a gripe about that idea because there is no need to expand the current Tournament for two reasons: one, it would devalue the privilege of playing in it because you would include almost a third of all teams playing at the Division 1 level; and two, there are already two other post season tournaments outside of the NIT already. These two tournaments, the College Basketball Invitational Tournament and the College Insiders Tournament, have sprung up over the last two years as an alternate to the higher profile NCAA and while being a step child to the NIT, giving those teams that were shunned a chance to play out a post season tournament. The fields are small and they play on campuses around the country at host schools. I’m sure they mean well with these creations but I think they are a cash grab and really unnecessary in this day of go big or go home sports. Teams have the option not to participate and teams have refused to in their invites past. Are they really trying to boost wounded egos? Are they really doing this for to improve the overall state of the game? Does being any of these two new tournaments mean anything in the eyes of the college basketball fraternity or more importantly the fans? Who knows but who am I to judge, right? What's another two tournaments in an already seemingly watered down post season mishmash of stimuli? Regardless of how I feel, we have several Canadians playing in these two tournaments and one playing in the NIT so I have endeavored to list the teams and the teams they will be playing against. I’ll be posting the same NC-Double-Eh Schedule starting with this post and check in on Wednesday when the Can Ball Report will preview the Canadian impact on the NCAA Tournament and the Top Five Canadians to look out for in the Big Dance. So without further adieu, here they are …
NIT
7:00pm Northeastern @ Connecticut
College Basketball Invitational
7:00pm Virginia Commonwealth @ George Washington
College Insider Tournament
7:00pm Western Carolina @ Marshall