March madness: Room for three?

Brett Tomlinson
By Brett Tomlinson

Published June 8, 2018

1 min read

Rick Giles ’83’s company, the Gazelle Group, has carved a niche in the sports marketing world as the operator of some of college basketball’s top preseason tournaments. This year, Giles is hoping to carry that experience into March with a new postseason tournament called the College Basketball Invitational.

The CBI, scheduled to tip off March 18, will feature 16 teams in a single-elimination format for the first three rounds. The two teams that reach the championship will play a best-of-three series, alternating home courts.

With 65 teams competing in the NCAA Tournament and another 32 playing in the NIT, are there enough good teams remaining to support a third event? Giles thinks so. He tested his idea last year by drawing a mock bracket of 16 teams that were not invited to the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. The group included traditional powers with winning records — Connecticut, LSU, and Oklahoma, for example. And when Giles asked their coaches if they would have played in a postseason invitational, the responses were promising: “Fifteen out of 16 said yes without hesitation,” he said.

0 Responses

Join the conversation

Plain text

Full name and Princeton affiliation (if applicable) are required for all published comments. For more information, view our commenting policy. Responses are limited to 500 words for online and 250 words for print consideration.

Related News

Newsletters.
Get More From PAW In Your Inbox.

Learn More

Title complimentary graphics