UNI turns down CIT/CBI

by **unipanther99** » March 11th, 2014, 8:00 pm

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/college/un ... ec51e.html

The correct decision this year.

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by **Aargh** » March 11th, 2014, 10:23 pm

One of the reasons for accepting an invite to one of the C(XX) tourneys is to get extra practice time and experience for underclassmen in order to improve for next year.

UNI seems to be saying there's no need to do it for our Seniors. The benefit of the C(XX) tourneys is for the underclassmen, not the Seniors.

This may create an appearance that the Seniors don't want to play any more - even if their playing more games might be beneficial to the future of UNI basketball. The other possibility is that UNI doesn't want to risk $35K that would benefit their team next year and is using the Seniors hesitancy to play as their reason to decline the post-season.

To those outside of UNI, this is going to come off as looking at not risking $35K to possibly improve their on-court performance next year.

by **Snaggletooth** » March 11th, 2014, 10:55 pm

I can see where UNI coming from. Sometime you just need a fresh start and to move on. I would assume that UNI issues are not getting more practice, but getting next years senior class motivated for off season preparation so they are not like this season senior class who had no post-season play.

by **rlh04d** » March 12th, 2014, 1:09 am

I'm confused. What seniors are you guys talking about? UNI only has one senior on the roster: Chip Rank, averaging 5.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 18.3 mpg.

This is a young UNI team. Why would they turn down an opportunity to build more experience for next year, which is supposed to be "the year" ? The three top scorers are all juniors. It's next year or bust for the Panthers right now.

by **Jjclamdip** » March 12th, 2014, 4:20 am

I can't see the downside of any team not wanting to extend its season.

Strange decision it seems, kind of questions the competiveness and drive of the players and coaching staff.

I guess they comfortable with their season and performance.

by **Wufan** » March 12th, 2014, 5:17 am

Jjclamdip wrote:I can't see the downside of any team not wanting to extend its season.

Strange decision it seems, kind of questions the competiveness and drive of the players and coaching staff.

I guess they comfortable with their season and performance.

I think there are some additional expenses with the CBI/CIT. practice started 2 weeks early this year and will again next year. I'm okay if UNI thinks they need to end this season and start fresh next year.

by **UNIFanSince1983** » March 12th, 2014, 7:10 am

rlh04d wrote:I'm confused. What seniors are you guys talking about? UNI only has one senior on the roster: Chip Rank, averaging 5.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 18.3 mpg.

This is a young UNI team. Why would they turn down an opportunity to build more experience for next year, which is supposed to be "the year" ? The three top scorers are all juniors. It's next year or bust for the Panthers right now.

Matt Morrison is also a senior.

I sort of agree with you I would have liked to have seen more practice time, and a little more game experience where you could play a guy like Friedman with minimal risk because it doesn't really mean anything.

I think this decision was more financial that anything though. Putting up 35k to host a game or paying for the travel is just not something I think they wanted to do. I mean last year I think we were getting like 3k people for our CIT games (aside from the 5k there for the Semis). Getting 3k and and having to put up 35k doesn't seem like a good financial decision. It would be my guess this was mostly a decision made by Dannen even though the article makes it sound like Jacobson made the decision.

by **agrinut** » March 12th, 2014, 7:15 am

MSU turned down a CBI bid in 2012 because of the senior excuse. That season we had Weems, Bizoukas, Patterson, and Rhine and lost 5 straight to end the season. They also had plans to go to Costa Rica during the summer so that may have had an pact on the decision. I have never agreed with the decision to pass up the chance to play but what do I know.

by **BCPanther** » March 12th, 2014, 8:33 am

This is a message to a few guys on the team that playing in the post season is not a birthright. Jake was pretty frustrated with this team for a long stretch this year and I think he's just ready to turn the page.

This team isn't an accurate portrayal of what next year will look like anyway. Paul Jesperson is going to have a major, major role and he can't play. Bennett Koch is going to have a big role, he can't play. Wyatt Lohaus, who has an opportunity to come in and get significant minutes at the point is playing in the state tournament this week.

The financial part had no bearing, we weren't going to play home games.

We've seen what this group is. It's time to turn the page.

by **unipanther99** » March 12th, 2014, 9:10 am

Yep, just time to turn the page. After the Sweet 16 run we had the NIT one year, then two years of the CXX stuff. After having been through those tournaments a couple of times, I trust our team to decide if it would be beneficial or not.

The postseason should be a reward for a good season. We didn't have a bad season, but it wasn't exactly good either. Hopefully next year's team will come back motivated to do more.