Villanova was considering a bid to the CBI tournament this post-season, when it was clear that the NCAA and NIT were out of the running. On Wednesday night, Jay Wright said that he would have to talk the idea of a bid over, by Thursday night, the coach had decided that it was best to just shut the whole thing down. Villanova will not seek a bid to the CBI tournament.
"We're going to talk about this tonight, I don't even know if we can get in, I don't know enough about it," Wright said late on Wednesday night. "I mean it's definitely something that I want to think about."
"The more these guys play, the more we can coach them. The only thing we can do know is individual workouts, so we might as well take the time if we can get in. I'm probably leaning towards it, but I have to find out."
There had been some contact between the CBI's organizers and Villanova administrators about the post-season tournament, which has been known to accept schools with sub-.500 records in the past. The ideal RPI for a school receiving a bid to the littlest dance is somewhere between 70 and 140, while Villanova currently sits around 116, and was 108 heading into the South Florida game. The school cited concerns over players' injuries guiding the decision.
"Dallas Ouano, our walk-on, was out," Wright said after a Wednesday night's Big East Tournament loss. "There was times when Baker (Dunleavy, Villanova’s assistant strength coach) was practicing. We just had so many guys hurt."
Maalik Wayns suffered a sprained left MCL during the season, while JayVauhn Pinkston and James Bell both were dealing with ankle injuries. According to Wright, Bell's injury was the worst of all, he tore the tendons off the bone in his left ankle.
The last time that Villanova did not manage a bid to any post-season tournament was the 1997-98 season. Their 19 losses were tied with the 1973-74 and 1992-93 teams for the worst mark in program history.