March 17, 2008

CBI Bracket

ATHENS, Ohio-The Ohio men's basketball squad learned that the Brown Bears will be its first round opponent in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational in the wee hours Monday morning. The Bobcats will host the contest Tuesday in the Convo and the time of the matchup, ticket information and all television broadcast information will be announced Monday. Stay tuned to OhioBobcats.com for further updates.

The 16-team postseason CBI will be staged by The Gazelle Group, which is based in Princeton, N.J., and runs the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic that benefits Coaches vs. Cancer and the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.

It will be a single-elimination tournament through the first two rounds and the semifinals, all played at campus sites. The Championship Series will be a best-of-three with the higher-seeded team playing at home in the first game and, if necessary, the third. The first round is scheduled for March 18-19. The Championship Series will be March 31, April 2 and April 4. The winner of the Ohio-Brown game will face the winner of Bradley-Cincinnati on Monday, Mar. 24 at a site and time to be determined.

Ohio's last postseason appearance was the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament when the 13^th-seeded Bobcats lost to fourth-seeded Florida 67-62 in Nashville, Tenn. after a stirring 20-point second-half comeback. Ohio's last postseason win was the 1995 National Invitation Tournament when the Bobcats knocked off George Washington 83-71 in the Convo before falling 66-62 at Iowa in the second round.

The Bobcats, who played seven games against NCAA Tournament teams this season, are currently 19-12 and are led by All-Mid-American Conference forwards Leon Williams (Baltimore, Md.) and Jerome Tillman (Beavercreek, Md.). Williams, averages a team-best 16.2 points and a league-leading 9.7 rebounds per contest. His .606 field goal percentage is also tops in the MAC. Tillman contributes 13.2 points and 7.4 boards per game.

Williams snared his 42^nd career double-double in Ohio's 74-61 MAC Quarterfinal loss to Miami with a 15 point, 11 rebound effort. He is 38 rebounds away from tying Brandon Hunter for the school's all-time career rebounding record of 1,103 caroms.

Brown coach Craig Robinson's team established a new school-record for victories with a 19-9 record, posting a winning percentage of .678, the best at Brown since 1945. The 19 victories shattered the previous mark of 17 wins by Brown teams in 1974, 2003 and 2005. Robinson's squad also captured 10 of the last 11 games to finish the regular season.

Brown's 11 Ivy League wins (11-3) were good for second place in the Ivy standings. The 11 Ivy wins are also second only to the 2003 Bears who posted a 12-2 Ivy mark.

Brown historic season was headlined by senior 1,000-point scorers Mark McAndrew and Damon Huffman, who earned first team All-Ivy honors, and junior Chris Skrelja, a second team All-Ivy selection.

Fox College Sports Television owns the broadcast rights for the CBI.