CBI selection process was a fiasco

So the Utes are heading to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational with a game against UTEP Wednesday night in El Paso.
Good for them.
After the fiasco the Utah athletic department and the media went through Sunday night, it makes me wonder, though, whether the tournament will make it all the way to its odd three-game finals two weeks from now.
The CBI invitations were sent out piecemeal Sunday evening. Some schools such as Virginia and Washington knew early on they were invited. Utah received word around 8 p.m., at least that’s when coach Jim Boylen called me with the news. He expected to learn the Utes’ opponent within an hour or so, as did the U. sports information department.
I finally called a number for the Gazelle Group, which is putting on the tournament, about 10:15 p.m. and was told they would have the brackets ready in 15 minutes. After an hour with no word, I called back and was told the brackets were done and were being put on the website as we spoke. However, he couldn’t just tell me who Utah was playing.
Another 40 minutes went by with no word until just before midnight, I got a call from U. SID Andy Seeley with the news about the Utes’ opponent and I noticed the brackets had finally been e-mailed to me by the Gazelle Group at the same time.
The news came barely in enough time to get in the Salt Lake papers, but probably 13 of the 16 teams didn’t have the first-round information in their morning papers. Not a great way to sell tickets, is it?
I know it’s the first year of the tournament and it’s bound to have growing pains. But it seemed like the tournament organizers could have had a few teams lined up earlier. Perhaps they were having a difficult time finding teams, or at least teams to host the games, which will reportedly cost the host teams $60,000.
Anyway in case you haven’t heard, the Utes are in the South Regional as a 4 seed playing UTEP with the winner advancing to play the Tulsa-Miami, Ohio winner. In the West, Valparaiso will play at Washington with Houston playing at Nevada. The Midwest has Cincinnati at Bradley and Brown at Ohio, while the East pits Richmond at Virginia and Rider at Old Dominion.
Let’s see what happens over the next couple of weeks. The Utes are fully capable of making a serious run in this tournament, considering how well they’ve played in several road games this year against teams better than UTEP. In fact, there isn’t a team in this tourney, the Utes can’t beat. Or like a lot of teams right now, the Utes just may be ready to start their spring break as soon as possible.