CBI 2017: Tournament Bracket, Schedule, Format and Teams to Watch

While 283 Division I men's basketball teams are undoubtedly disappointed that they won't be playing in the NCAA tournament this year, some of them have the chance to extend the season in other postseason competitions.

Sixteen teams will play in the 2017 College Basketball Invitational this year, with games starting on Wednesday, March 15.

Here's a look at the tournament bracket, the schedule, the tournament format and three teams to watch. 

Tournament Bracket

 Schedule

Round	Date
First Round	Wednesday, March 15
Quarterfinals	Monday, March 20
Semifinals	Wednesday, March 22
Finals (best-of-three format)	Monday, March 27 (Game 1), Wednesday, March 29 (Game 2) and Friday, March 32 (Game 3, if necessary)

Format

The CBI has a different format than the other postseason tournaments. The first two rounds of the 16-team contest follow the format of a standard single-elimination tournament, with 16 teams being whittled down to four.

However, things get a bit different in the semifinals. First, the teams are re-bracketed for the semifinal round. Then, the semifinal winners face off in a best-of-three final, a unique feature in college basketball. Those final games will be televised on ESPNU.

All games are played on campus sites.

Teams To Watch

George Washington

The Colonials have a chance to follow up their National Invitational Tournament title last year with a CBI championship this season.

GW went 19-14 and 10-8 in Atlantic-10 conference play, finishing the regular season with five straight wins, including a victory over A-10 regular-season champion Dayton. The Colonials made the A-10 quarterfinals but lost to conference player of the year T.J. Cline and the Richmond Spiders.

Senior forward Tyler Cavanaugh led the team with 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

George Mason

It could be a battle of the Georges in the CBI Finals this year as George Mason also made the field. The Patriots won 20 games and swept Richmond this season. However, they lost to VCU in the A-10 quarterfinals.

GMU has one of the more interesting players in the country in 6'2" senior guard Marquise Moore, who averages 17.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.

In case you're wondering if either "6'2" or "10.9 rebounds" is a typo, that's not the case.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report wrote a story on Moore this season. Check out these stats Miller posted (they were as of February 19):

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Despite standing just 6'2", Moore's 8.74 defensive rebounds per game rank third in the nation, according to NCAA.com. The only other player shorter than 6'6" who is averaging at least 6.8 per game is Notre Dame's 6'5" frontcourt wrecking ball, Bonzie Colson.

According to KenPom.com, Moore is corralling 26.4 percent of possible defensive rebounds while on the court, which puts him in uncharted territory for his size.

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Clearly, Moore is the must-watch player in the CBI this year.

San Francisco

The Dons finished with 20 wins, including a victory over 27-win Illinois State, who went 17-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play (but lost in the title game to Wichita State) and will be a No. 1 seed in the NIT this season.

USF is a young, up-and-coming team. Every single player sans two is a freshman or sophomore. Leading scorer Ronnie Boyce is the only senior, and second-leading scorer Chase Foster is a junior.

In other words, we could be seeing this team fight Gonzaga and Saint Mary's for WCC titles in the next few years.

San Francisco's calling card is its defense, as it ranks 60th in the Ken Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings.