Sycamores accept invite to postseason invitational
Mar. 13—The Indiana State Sycamores have accepted an invitation to play in the Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational, which takes place Saturday through next Wednesday at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The Sycamores earned the top seed and will face No. 16 seed University of South Carolina Upstate in the first round at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Sycamores will be making their first postseason appearance since 2014 and second all-time CBI appearance after falling to host St. Louis in the opening round of the tournament in 2010.
USC Upstate has records of 16-15 overall and 10-8 in the Big South Conference. This is the university's highest-level postseason berth since moving to NCAA Division I in 2007.
ISU and USC Upstate have never met on the college basketball court. Also, the Sycamores and Spartans have had no common opponents this season. At noon Monday, March 20, the winner of the ISU-USC Upstate game will play a second-round game against the winner of Sunday's 11 a.m. game between Eastern Kentucky (No. 8 seed) and Cleveland State (No. 9).
The opening and quarterfinal rounds will be broadcast on FloHoops while the semifinals and championship game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
The Sycamores played two other teams in the 16-team field, losing to both. ISU played at Southern Indiana (the CBI's No. 15 seed), losing 88-85 in overtime on Dec. 11. The Sycamores then lost 92-86 at Duquesne (No. 5 in the CBI) on Dec. 17. With the bracket pairings, ISU wouldn't face Duquesne until Tuesday's semifinals, and wouldn't face Southern Indiana until the championship, if those teams advanced.
The 2023 CBI is a single-elimination, fully-bracketed men's basketball postseason tournament featuring 16 teams from across the country competing for a championship in Florida. The field consists of teams not selected for the NCAA tournament.
