USI men’s basketball prepares to battle San Jose State in first CBI Tournament

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball team is facing No. 2 seed San Jose State Spartans in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational on Saturday.

The Screaming Eagles are heading into the tournament as the No. 15 seed, entering with a 16-16 overall record.

The Spartans are coming off a 20-win regular season in which they advanced to the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Championship.

USI head coach Stan Gouard says they are going down to Florida for one reason – win the tournament.

“You think about the field, we beat the number one team in the field and that’s Indiana State,” Gouard said. “We have a chance if we can come out, focus, but San Jose State is pretty good. They have a 6-5 point guard who’s player of the year in the league, they have a 7-foot center who transferred from Ohio State, 6-8 stretch forward who shoots the ball kind of like Trevor Lakes. We’ve got our work cut out, they play slow and methodical, but they’re very efficient offensively. We play fast, so we got to speed them up, it’s going to be a chess match of wheels. It’s March, it’s tourney time, and you got to be different in March.”

Tip-off is set for Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CST.

There will be a watch party for fans at Tiki On Main.

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