Tulsa Accepts CBI Postseason Invitation

The champions of the Inaugural 2008 College Basketball Invitational will be back in the field in 2013, as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane has accepted an invitation to participate in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational (CBI) presented by Buick.

Tulsa (17-15, 8-8 C-USA) will play on the road against Wright State (21-12, 10-6 Horizon) of the Horizon League this Wednesday night, March 20th in Dayton, Ohio. The game time will be announced on Monday. The winner of the Tulsa-Wright State opening round game will play the winner of the Richmond-Bryant game, which will be played on Monday, March 25th.

This is the second meeting between Tulsa and Wright State. The previous meeting came in Tulsa's home opener of the 2004-05 season when the Hurricane hosted the Raiders in the preseason NIT. Wright State captured a 72-66 victory at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

In its first season under Head Coach Danny Manning, Tulsa has posted an overall 17-15 record and 8-8 Conference USA mark with a roster that has seven freshmen, including six rookies and one red-shirt freshman. Tulsa has posted a 6-7 road record this year, while the Raiders have posted a 9-4 home mark this season.

"We wanted the opportunity to continue to play and we've received that with the CBI," said Manning. "We are excited about playing postseason basketball. We're grateful for the invitation, but now we have to grind it out one game at a time and hopefully have another opportunity to play in front of our home crowd at the Reynolds Center. This will be a great experience for our younger guys and it gives our seniors a chance to continue their collegiate careers. March is a fun time of year for basketball coaches and players."

Tulsa won five of six games in the inaugural 2008 CBI event to capture the tournament title. The Hurricane defeated Miami of Ohio (61-45), Utah (69-60) and Houston (73-69), all played at the Reynolds Center, before facing the Bradley Braves in a best-of-three game series. Tulsa and Bradley split the first two games, as Tulsa won at home 73-68, dropped an 83-74 road game and returned to the Reynolds Center for a 70-64 championship game victory.