ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – After posting the program’s first winning season in nearly a decade, the St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball team (16-14) has accepted a bid into the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). The rest of the tournament field will be announced late Sunday evening.
The opponent, time and location for an opening round game on Tuesday or Wednesday will be released late Sunday evening after NCAA Championship and NIT selections have been announced.
“This is the next step in the development of our program,” said Bonnies fourth-year head coach Mark Schmidt. “It is an honor to be selected for postseason play – that was one of our goals coming into the year. It’s great for Ogo [Adegboye, the Bonnies’ lone senior] and with such a young team we will have the opportunity to gain more experience.”
The 16-team CBI presented by Zebra Pen is a single-elimination tournament up until the three-game Championship Series, with all games played at campus sites. The event features eight first-round games, four quarterfinal round games, a semifinal round, and then the Championship Series. The field consists of teams not selected to the NCAA or NIT tournaments.
Teams are invited based upon performance during their conference and non-conference schedules, as well as how well the team is playing at the end of the regular season.
For the Bonnies, the CBI marks the first postseason tournament appearance since an NIT selection in 2001-02. Overall, SBU has 22 previous postseason tournament appearances, including 15 in the NIT and five in the NCAA Championship.
A current member of the Atlantic 10 has been selected in every year of the tournament’s three-year history. Saint Louis University advanced to the 2010 Championship Series against eventual champion Virginia Commonwealth, while Duquesne (2010) and Richmond (2008, 2009) have also made appearances in the CBI.
Led by All-District and All-Conference First Team honoree Andrew Nicholson, the Bonnies have far exceeded preseason expectations. The junior forward ranks 15th nationally in scoring at 20.8 points per game. For his career, 6-foot-9 Mississauga, Ontario native is tied with Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and Bona great Bob Lanier (.576) on the school’s career field goal percentage list while ranking 13th in the SBU scoring annals with 1,492 points in 90 career games.
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