It?s almost as hard to not get invited to a national postseason tournament as it is to get into one.
There are 351 programs in Division I men?s basketball. There will be a combined 164 teams (46.7 percent) playing in one of five events next month: the NCAA, the NIT, the CBI, the CIT and a new tourney called the Vegas 16.
?There?s a lot of them out there,?? Siena athletic director John D?Argenio said.
It seems fairly certain the Saints (19-10 overall, 12-6 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) will be playing in one of them. It?s a matter of which one.
Obviously, the ultimate goal is to be one of the 68 teams participating in the NCAA Tournament. The Saints will have to win the MAAC Tournament in Albany next month to get an automatic bid. They haven?t reached the NCAAs since 2010.
?I think we?ve got a shot to win the MAAC Tournament,?? D?Argenio said.
If the Saints fall short, the next best option would be the National Invitation Tournament, which is owned by the NCAA.
Longtime Saints fans will remember the thrilling run to the 1994 NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
The question is whether the Saints have a realistic shot at the NIT, which invites a 32-team field. The MAAC regular-season champion does get an automatic berth (if that team doesn?t reach the NCAA Tournament), but that will go to either Monmouth or Iona.
The web site Big Apple Buckets does a weekly NIT Bracketology and had Siena getting an at-large bid in the latest update last Wednesday. However, that was before the Saints lost at home to Iona on Monday.
The Saints currently have an RPI of 99, according to the NCAA web site. Since the NCAA took over the NIT in 2006, only one MAAC team has received an at-large bid. That happened in 2009, when Niagara won 26 games and finished with an RPI of 58.
?I thought the NIT was still in play going into last night (against Iona),?? D?Argenio said. ?I?m not quite sure now.?
If the NCAA and NIT are out of reach, D?Argenio said Siena is open to the possibility of playing in the CBI (College Basketball Invitational), CIT (Collegeinsider.com Tournament) or the Vegas 16.
?We?d be interested,?? D?Argenio said. ?It?s all about postseason. It?s like a different world now. Everybody?s about the big event. Not that it?s a huge event. Look at football, all the bowl games they have. They have so many, they had to take teams with records below .500 this year.?
Siena played in the CBI two years ago and won the tournament in Jimmy Patsos? first year as head coach.
?I guess from a recruiting standpoint, you like to say, hey, we went to postseason,?? D?Argenio said. ?Kids want to keep playing, no matter what.?
There?s also television exposure. Siena defeated Fresno State in the CBI finals on the weekend of the Final Four in a game televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. This year?s CBI championship series will air on ESPNU.
?What if you go to another postseason tournament (other than the NCAA) and do really well?? Patsos added.
However, there is a financial commitment that Siena must consider in the CBI and CIT. In both tournaments, a team must ?buy? home games, paying a guarantee for each contest it hosts.
In the CBI, it costs $40,000 per home game in the early rounds, D?Argenio said. In later rounds, there is no fee, but the CBI gets to keep the gate. The CBI used to charge anywhere from $35,000 to $75,000 per game, but changed its structure this year, according to D?Argenio.
In the CIT, the price tag is $28,500 per home game.
Receiving an invitation to either tournament can depend on how willing a school is to play at least one home game.
?The more restrictions you put on (tournament organizers), the less flexibility they have,?? D?Argenio said.
Siena played five home games in the 2014 CBI. D?Argenio indicated that would be unlikely this year, especially because the MAAC no longer subsidizes the cost of its members getting postseason games. The league paid Siena $90,000 to help cover the expense two years ago. The MAAC has since dropped that from its budget.
D?Argenio said it?s working with donors to try to raise money to cover the cost.
?It would put a limit on us,?? he said. ?You can?t play more than, really, one game, or maybe two games at most.?
The CBI, which includes 16 teams, might be a more appealing destination for Siena than the 32-team CIT. That?s because the CBI invites power-conference programs while the CIT is strictly for mid-major programs.
?Two years ago, we went to the CBI, and I liked that you had some bigger-name teams,?? D?Argenio said.
Siena beat Penn State of the Big Ten in the quarterfinals and then defeated Fresno State in three games in the championship series.
As for the new tournament, the Vegas 16, D?Argenio said details are rather scarce. It?s a 16-team event to be held at one site, the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, starting on March 26. Games will be streamed live on College Sports Live or televised on CBS Sports Network.
?I?ve talked to my colleagues and nobody?s gotten any information on it,?? D?Argenio said. ?Usually, all of these tournaments send you packets of information: Are you interested, what your logistics are. This one I haven?t gotten anything from them. (But) Vegas is great.?
--times union
There are 351 programs in Division I men?s basketball. There will be a combined 164 teams (46.7 percent) playing in one of five events next month: the NCAA, the NIT, the CBI, the CIT and a new tourney called the Vegas 16.
?There?s a lot of them out there,?? Siena athletic director John D?Argenio said.
It seems fairly certain the Saints (19-10 overall, 12-6 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) will be playing in one of them. It?s a matter of which one.
Obviously, the ultimate goal is to be one of the 68 teams participating in the NCAA Tournament. The Saints will have to win the MAAC Tournament in Albany next month to get an automatic bid. They haven?t reached the NCAAs since 2010.
?I think we?ve got a shot to win the MAAC Tournament,?? D?Argenio said.
If the Saints fall short, the next best option would be the National Invitation Tournament, which is owned by the NCAA.
Longtime Saints fans will remember the thrilling run to the 1994 NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
The question is whether the Saints have a realistic shot at the NIT, which invites a 32-team field. The MAAC regular-season champion does get an automatic berth (if that team doesn?t reach the NCAA Tournament), but that will go to either Monmouth or Iona.
The web site Big Apple Buckets does a weekly NIT Bracketology and had Siena getting an at-large bid in the latest update last Wednesday. However, that was before the Saints lost at home to Iona on Monday.
The Saints currently have an RPI of 99, according to the NCAA web site. Since the NCAA took over the NIT in 2006, only one MAAC team has received an at-large bid. That happened in 2009, when Niagara won 26 games and finished with an RPI of 58.
?I thought the NIT was still in play going into last night (against Iona),?? D?Argenio said. ?I?m not quite sure now.?
If the NCAA and NIT are out of reach, D?Argenio said Siena is open to the possibility of playing in the CBI (College Basketball Invitational), CIT (Collegeinsider.com Tournament) or the Vegas 16.
?We?d be interested,?? D?Argenio said. ?It?s all about postseason. It?s like a different world now. Everybody?s about the big event. Not that it?s a huge event. Look at football, all the bowl games they have. They have so many, they had to take teams with records below .500 this year.?
Siena played in the CBI two years ago and won the tournament in Jimmy Patsos? first year as head coach.
?I guess from a recruiting standpoint, you like to say, hey, we went to postseason,?? D?Argenio said. ?Kids want to keep playing, no matter what.?
There?s also television exposure. Siena defeated Fresno State in the CBI finals on the weekend of the Final Four in a game televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. This year?s CBI championship series will air on ESPNU.
?What if you go to another postseason tournament (other than the NCAA) and do really well?? Patsos added.
However, there is a financial commitment that Siena must consider in the CBI and CIT. In both tournaments, a team must ?buy? home games, paying a guarantee for each contest it hosts.
In the CBI, it costs $40,000 per home game in the early rounds, D?Argenio said. In later rounds, there is no fee, but the CBI gets to keep the gate. The CBI used to charge anywhere from $35,000 to $75,000 per game, but changed its structure this year, according to D?Argenio.
In the CIT, the price tag is $28,500 per home game.
Receiving an invitation to either tournament can depend on how willing a school is to play at least one home game.
?The more restrictions you put on (tournament organizers), the less flexibility they have,?? D?Argenio said.
Siena played five home games in the 2014 CBI. D?Argenio indicated that would be unlikely this year, especially because the MAAC no longer subsidizes the cost of its members getting postseason games. The league paid Siena $90,000 to help cover the expense two years ago. The MAAC has since dropped that from its budget.
D?Argenio said it?s working with donors to try to raise money to cover the cost.
?It would put a limit on us,?? he said. ?You can?t play more than, really, one game, or maybe two games at most.?
The CBI, which includes 16 teams, might be a more appealing destination for Siena than the 32-team CIT. That?s because the CBI invites power-conference programs while the CIT is strictly for mid-major programs.
?Two years ago, we went to the CBI, and I liked that you had some bigger-name teams,?? D?Argenio said.
Siena beat Penn State of the Big Ten in the quarterfinals and then defeated Fresno State in three games in the championship series.
As for the new tournament, the Vegas 16, D?Argenio said details are rather scarce. It?s a 16-team event to be held at one site, the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, starting on March 26. Games will be streamed live on College Sports Live or televised on CBS Sports Network.
?I?ve talked to my colleagues and nobody?s gotten any information on it,?? D?Argenio said. ?Usually, all of these tournaments send you packets of information: Are you interested, what your logistics are. This one I haven?t gotten anything from them. (But) Vegas is great.?
--times union
