PEORIA, Ill. — I don’t know which is worse, the Florida Gators missing the NCAA tournament or Bradley considering it a successful year if the team wins the College Basketball Invitational.
This is a tournament where its creators said one of the main reasons for creating it was to make money. Giving players one last chance to play was an excuse to send naive fans home happy.
This tournament will try to give some validity to a school’s season. But it would be like trying to say the people who can play expert on Guitar Hero are musicians. Some things just can’t be justified.
Granted, the year should have gone much better for the Braves, but excuses for their failure can only go so far.
Time travel back to November and remember Bradley was predicted to take second in the conference. Predictions can’t foretell how the season will go, and that was clearly evident with Jeremy Crouch and crew’s season.
Consider this – the best Bradley can finish the season is 98th place. Teams such as Cornell from the Ivy League that are not allowed any athletic scholarships finished better than the Braves.
Sure, they were given an automatic berth that gave them such a high placing, but we had just as equal of a chance.
Arguments around campus have brought about the point that the schools the Braves have beaten have respectable programs.
First, Bradley played Cincinnati, a team posting a whopping record of 13-19. Cincinnati used to be good, but it hasn’t posted a great record since Bob Huggins quit partying with the students.
Up next for the Braves was Ohio. The Bobcats had a 20-win season but in the conference they play in, Drake would have gone undefeated.
Next for Bradley was Virginia. The team was only one game above .500 and finished 10th in the ACC. Giving them the No. 1 seed might have been too generous.
The toughest task so far is Tulsa. This is the one team in the tournament that had a respectable season with a record of 24-13.
The only thing that doesn’t fit together is if Tulsa had 24 wins, why no NIT bid?
Each time the Golden Hurricane played Memphis, they were obliterated. A weak schedule skewed the numbers for this team.
So that puts the Braves in a pickle. Do they rejoice by beating a bunch of has-beens and disappointments or do they take a step back and wonder why they belong in such a tournament?
The latter question seems to make a little more sense now.
Bradley’s season should have been much better.
An erratic flurry of wins and losses showed inconsistencies and glorified a lack of depth.
Injuries and suspensions aren’t valid excuses for a disappointing season.
Suspension comes from a lack of discipline and injuries happen to every team.
Before you jump on me, the suspensions I am referring to are the alcohol-related ones at the beginning of the season.
North Carolina was without its star point guard for a portion of the season and look where the team is now – the Final Four.
Instead of the Final Four, Bradley is stuck battling in a tournament trying to crack the top-100 teams in college basketball.
You could argue that out of all the disappointing teams in this tournament Bradley is the least disappointing of all if they win. But that would be like saying that it’s an achievement to win the C division intramurals league.
There is one saving grace of respect only if Bradley wins. Second place is unacceptable to this philosophy.
The tournament champion will go down in history as the first-ever declared 98th-place finisher and the first-ever winner of the CBI – and hopefully the last.