‘Invitational’ took place of NIT

Six-team, round-robin tournament brainchild of Kansas associate AD Keating

Kansas University’s basketball team originally had planned to play in the 2007 Preseason NIT : until meet organizers went to a controversial regional-site format for first- and second-round games.

Not interested in competing in the tourney that used to guarantee powers like KU two home games, the Jayhawks went looking for alternatives.

What was settled upon was an innovation of KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating – a six-team round-robin tournament called the “Jayhawk Invitational.”

It would provide KU with much-needed revenue made from four home games, against UMKC (Sunday), Washburn (Thursday), Northern Arizona (Nov. 21) and Arizona (Nov. 25).

“It’s my job to do the best we can for Kansas. For us here, playing home games is important,” Keating said. “The fact we rolled a major game into it was good. It’s not like these are all guarantee games. Plus, this gives some other schools a chance to play each other.”

Indeed, UMKC, which will receive $60,000 guarantee money for playing at KU at 7 p.m. Sunday, will net the same amount in a game at Arizona. UMKC also will travel to Northern Arizona and play host to Washburn.

Arizona will play host to Northern Arizona, Adams State and UMKC and travel to KU. Northern Arizona will play host to Adams State and UMKC and travel to Arizona and KU. Washburn will travel to UMKC and KU, while Adams State will travel to Northern Arizona and Arizona.

“One of the things I was looking for was to not have doubleheaders, to play single games,” Keating said. “The least amount of teams you could have involved in a tournament and play four games is five. We got five teams involved. At the end, the fifth team pulled out. We ended up bringing in a Div. II team (Washburn) to play the two Kansas-area teams and a Div. II team (Adams State) to play the two Arizona-area teams.”

Other schools have taken notice. Florida and Rutgers, for instance, are competing in a similar event this year, with three games at Florida and three at Rutgers. Rutgers at Florida is the marquee of the tourney, with Florida returning the game next season just as KU will make a return trip to Arizona.

“The (NCAA) rule,” Keating said, “is you can play 29 games or 27 games plus a multi-team event. The multi-team event can be three games like Alaska or Hawaii or four games like our tournament, CBE (College Basketball Experience) or Coaches Vs. Cancer.

“The rule is you can host your own tournament once every four years. We will look into doing this with somebody else hosting (in 2009). We may look into doing this again (as well).”

Next year, KU will play in the CBE, which will include two home games and two at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. In 2009, KU will, like Keating indicated, play in some other major power’s version of the Jayhawk Invitational, which would give KU three home games.

KU has not yet contracted to play in a preseason tourney in 2010. In 2011, the Jayhawks will play in the Maui Invitational.

Jayhawk Invitational schedule

Note: Kansas, UMKC, Northern Arizona and Arizona will play four games; Washburn, Adams State will play two games.

November

11 – UMKC at Kansas; Adams State at Northern Arizona

13 – Washburn at UMKC; Northern Arizona at Arizona

15 – Washburn at Kansas

17 – UMKC at Northern Arizona

19 – UMKC at Arizona

21 – Northern Arizona at Kansas; Adams State at Arizona.

25 – Arizona at Kansas