By Wendy Haun
Register Sports Writer
RICHMOND — Despite losing in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, the Colonels’ postseason hopes are not entirely dead yet. Eastern Kentucky University coach Jeff Neubauer has had his team practicing the past few weeks in anticipation of a possible bid to either the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) or the CollegeInsider.com postseason Tournament (CIT). “They have been different practices because we don’t know who our next opponent is going to be,” Neubauer said. “We’ve been focusing on ourselves as we go into the postseason. I really think our guys have done a tremendous job of working at it this week. Our team has responded well and given a great effort the last several days.” After falling in four of its last five OVC games of the season, EKU (20-12) fell to No. 4-seeded Eastern Illinois, 68-61, on March 2 in Charleston, Ill. Murray State won the OVC title over Morehead State to receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. EKU has not participated in a postseason tournament since the 2006-07 season, when the school advanced to the NCAA Tournament with an OVC title game win over Austin Peay. However, Neubauer said the CBI and CIT are two tournaments that really emphasize extending the seasons of mid-major teams. Austin Peay was one of the teams that participated in the CIT last year. “These postseason tournaments are really good for college basketball in general,” he said. “If you look at the Big East and the Big 12, there are sixth and seventh-place teams who are having good seasons and get into the NCAAs. In the OVC, there are teams that didn’t win their conference seasons that are allowed to play.” The CBI invites 16 teams and all the games are played at the higher seed’s campus site. The first three games of the tournament are single-elimination and the two teams remaining will play a best 2-out-of-3 series (at alternating campus sites, with the higher seed getting two games if it goes to a third game) for the title. The tournament is in just its third year of existence, with Oregon State beating out UTEP for the championship last year, and Tulsa edging Bradley in 2008 for the inaugural title. The Gazelle Group, which is one of the main sponsors of the tournament, also sponsors the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic and the Legends Classic, which the Colonels have participated in the last two years. The CollegeInsider.com Tournament is in its second year of existence. Old Dominion beat Bradley for the first-ever championship last season. It also features 16 schools and is single-elimination. The first round starts on March 16 and the title game is scheduled for March 30 and will be televised on Fox College Sports. The selection committed for the CIT includes 17 former collegiate coaches, including chairman Riley Wallace (former Hawaii coach), former Morehead State coach and UK player Kyle Macy and former UK assistant coach Alvin Brooks Sr. Neubauer said he feels his team’s non-conference resume is very strong, with wins over Morgan State in the Dr Pepper Classic in December and in the ESPN BracketBuster game over Winthrop, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament with a win in the Big South title game over Coastal Carolina. “We beat Winthrop handily and they went on and won their conference tournament,” Neubauer said. “Our win over Morgan State will prove to be a very good win. RPI-wise, they have done well this season and they continue to win.”
