So what if the beginning of my story in today's paper got cut off before it was posted online? The story's still here, with a preview of tonight's CBI first-round game between Rider and Old Dominion. 

It's the first postseason game for the Broncs since the first round of the 1998 NIT. The Monarchs are a lot more familiar with postseason play, having been to the NCAA tournament in two of the previous three seasons. 

The winner moves on to the quarterfinals to take on the winner of tonight's game between Richmond and Virginia. (The East region might as well be called the Virginia-plus-Rider region because three of the four teams are from the Commonwealth; that brings me to a quick aside: there are six Virginia teams scattered across three postseason tournaments: George Mason in the NCAA, Virginia Tech and VCU in the NIT, and Virginia, Richmond and Old Dominion in the CBI.)

If Rider and Richmond both win, the quarterfinal game will be at the Broncs' Zoo. 

Here's a link to the CBI bracket so you can follow all the action easily. 

Houston plays at Nevada tonight in a West regional first-round game and Brown plays at Ohio, which begs the question: how in the name of Chris Berman did Brown get put in the Midwest regional? 

I figured there wouldn't be enough interest to have a CBI pool along the lines of the MAAC tournament pool we had, but if anyone would potentially be interested in doing one next year, e-mail me at rutgersfootballblog@gmail.com. If there's enough interest, we'll at least throw the idea out there next year. 

As for other for-fun-only pools, I'm in an NIT pool for the second straight year, looking to avenge a pitiful performance last year, when both my finalists got knocked out in the first our second rounds. 

My picks this year: Illinois State, VCU, Creighton and UMass in the Final Four at the Garden, with Illinois State beating UMass in the championship game. 

I'm actually considering not filling out an NCAA bracket so I can just enjoy the tournament without having to worry about which teams I need to root for in order to have a chance at winning the pool. 

Anyone else doing that? 

We're about 5 1/2 hours from tip. I'll check in when I get to the arena later on.