Head coach Griff Aldrich secured the Lancers first-ever postseason tournament bid, leading the team to a 15-17 record in his first season.
A week following their elimination from the Big South tournament, Longwood men’s basketball head coach Griff Aldrich announced the team’s first-ever Division I postseason tournament bid in a March 13 press release.
Longwood will host Southern Mississippi on Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m., after the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) official Twitter page tweeted out the entire field of 16.
The Lancers first-round matchup will occur next week between March 18-20, the press release stated.
Their bid extends off their historic year in Aldrich’s first season at the helm, including a program-best 4-0 start, a team record for three-pointers made, and the biggest team turnaround among of all 55 newly hired Division I head coaches. The team finished the season with an overall record of 15-17, their second-best record since making the division jump ahead of the 2004-05 season, and won a program-best nine games inside Willett Hall. Aldrich was also nominated for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award earlier this week.
“We are thrilled to continue our season by playing in the postseason as it presents our players and program with a tremendous platform to continue to build a championship-caliber foundation and culture,” Aldrich said in the release.
He continued, “As we continue to seek to establish a strong foundation for this program, being selected to play in the postseason is a special milestone.”
With Longwood's postseason bid, graduate student forward Damarion Geter (pictured) and senior forward Spencer Franklin will have at least one more opportunity to play in a Lancers uniform.
Aldrich, following their final game against Hampton in which they were eliminated, said the team still had a chance at the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament or the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT), mainly postseason tournaments for mid-major programs. The other postseason tournament aside from the NCAA Tournament is the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), which includes regular season conference champions and at-large teams who didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Both tournaments Aldrich brought up, the CBI and CIT tournaments, allow for teams to reject or accept bids. The CBI is a 16-team tournament including both power conference and mid-major programs. This tournament is a pay-for-play tournament, meaning if teams accept a bid, they are charged a fee.
The fee to host a CBI tournament game, last updated in 2016, is around $40,000 to $50,000, and would increase to host quarterfinal and semifinal games, jumping from $50,000 to $75,000, respectively. However, the host schools keep 100 percent of any additional sales and profits, including parking or concessions. Additionally, the CBI, since 2016, is under contract with ESPN to broadcast the best-of-three championship series on ESPNU. Tournament games ahead of the championship are expected to be available to stream online.
The CIT postseason tournament is also a pay-for-play tournament, but is exclusively intended for mid-major programs. The fee to host a first-round CIT tournament revolved around $38,500 as of 2016; however, the CIT tournament does not accept teams with losing records to participate.
“To play in the postseason in our first year is a true testament to their hard work, commitment and desire to improve every day,” Aldrich said in the release. “We look forward to continuing to take another step forward as a program.”
