Mid-Majors Looking For Championship Sweep

Two Champions have been crowned this week, but you might not have noticed. 

Perennial snub, Missouri State, became the second ever team to be crowned CollegeInsider.com, aka CIT Champ.  A day later, the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth defeated Rick Majerus and his St. Louis Billikens for the CBI (College Basketball Invitational) crown.

The Bears of MSU bounced back after an 11-20 finish the previous season, finishing with 24 wins on the year.  The 13-point victory over the Pacific Tigers was their fourth of the tournament, having previously ended the seasons of Middle Tennessee St, Louisiana Tech, and MVC league-mate Creighton Blue Jays.  

VCU’s run included two road wins over A-10 teams (5-0 against the A-10 on the season), and some nice W’s for first-year Head Coach, Shaka Smart, over a couple of highly respected veterans.  

The Rams traveled just up 95 North to face George Washington in first round action.  VCU left GW with the $60,000 bill required to host a CBI home game, and their final loss of the season.  The Black-and-Gold followed that up with wins over Boston and a Bobby Cremins-lead College of Charleston squad before moving on to St. Louis in a unique best-of-three championship series.  

After a 12-point home win, VCU traveled to St. Louis where they were forced to do what they found little success in during the regular season, win on the road, this time for a CBI Championship.  

After trailing most of the night, the Rams were able to ice the game with two Jamie Skeen layups in the closing minutes, and show the “Show Me State” exactly what a CBI trophy looks like (think basketball version of the AFCA National Champ trophy that goes to the BCS champ in football…or something like that).

A Dayton win in tonight’s NIT championship game against last year’s national champ, UNC, would complete the Mid-Major triple crown…a sweep of the three relatively meaningless postseason tournaments.   

Add a two-game win streak to finish Butler’s season, and you’ve got yourself the first ever Mid-Major Grand Slam. 

While UNC may debate on what to do with its potential NIT Championship banner, these bottom tier postseason tournaments have so far proven themselves valuable for non-BCS programs.  

Last year’s CIT Champ, Old Dominion, parlayed those extra practice weeks in March into a 27-win season.  The Monarchs won both regular and postseason CAA titles, and used its NCAA auto-bid to oust Notre Dame in the first round of this year’s NCAA tournament.

UTEP may have lost in last year’s CBI final to the Beavers of Oregon State, but the experience no doubt helped the Miners in earning Conference USA’s only at large bid this season.  Their opponent in the CBI semis, the Richmond Spiders, matched that success, falling to Temple in the A-10 Championship but earning the at large bid in Richmond’s most successful season (26 wins) in its history.  

Coincidentally, the four other non-BCS schools in last year’s CBI semis, all returned to postseason play the following year; Charleston to the CBI, Northeastern and Wichita State to the NIT, and Vermont to the NCAA tournament.

As of this writing, both remaining mid-majors head into their upcoming games as the favorite; UNC getting 3 points from Vegas in its 7PM tip against Dayton in tonight’s NIT Championship aired on “the worldwide leader”, and Butler favored at just over a free throw in Saturday’s match-up against Michigan State for a chance to play for a national championship.