The Utah Valley University men’s basketball team accepted an invitation to play in the College Basketball Invitational on Sunday night. CBI invites 16 teams that weren’t included in the NCAA Tournament to participate in postseason play.
For the first round, the Wolverines will travel to Hanner Fieldhouse in Georgia to play against the Georgia Southern Eagle at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday.
This marks the third bid for the Wolverines (15-16) in postseason play. Prior to this season, UVU participated in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) against California in 2014 and in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament against Weber State in 2012.
“It’s another tremendous step for the growth of our program,” said UVU head coach Mark Pope in a press release. “I couldn’t be more excited for our guys. To have an opportunity to play in a national postseason tournament is our goal. We’re excited to continue our season.”
“It’s another tremendous step for the growth of our program. I couldn’t be more excited for our guys. To have an opportunity to play in a national postseason tournament is our goal. We’re excited to continue our season.” — Mark Pope, UVU basketball coach
The Wolverines are coming off of a close quadruple overtime 81-80 loss to CSU Bakersfield in the WAC Tournament semifinals in Las Vegas.
The Eagles features the Sun Belt Conference’s 2017 first-team All-Sun Belt selections and top two scorers: sophomores Ike Smith (19.9 ppg) and Tookie Brown (17.4 ppg).
A single-elimination tournament, the CBI has eight first-round games, four quarterfinal round games, a semifinal round, and then a best-of-three Championship Series.