Vegas 16 appears to be better tournament than first thought

Does Trump University have a basketball team?

They should have invited Faber College and Coach John “Bluto” Blutarsky.

What about Western University? Wasn’t Henry Steele granted a fifth year of eligibility? Western U. is hotter than a red-hot poker.

Big State has game. How would UC Santa Barbara contend with Jesus Shuttlesworth?

So, yeah, the jokes are like a furry mascot. Everybody has one.

But if those who would crack wise at the Vegas 16’s expense will do the math, they will discover Las Vegas’ inaugural postseason college basketball tournament for teams with directions and ampersands in their name has the highest average power rating of the three non-NCAA-supported tournaments — CBI (College Basketball Invitational), CIT (CollegeInsider.com), Vegas 16.

And it’s not even close.

These are the eight teams that will hoop it up at Mandalay Bay from March 28 to 30, in order of their KenPom ratings: UC Santa Barbara (93), Oakland (98), Old Dominion (111), Towson (140), East Tennessee State (144), Louisiana Tech (156), Northern Illinois (164), Tennessee Tech (197).

(The KenPom standings are like golf. Lower is better.)

The average power rating of the Vegas 16 (it stands for the year, not the number of teams, wink) is 137.8.

The average of the 16-team CBI field is 171.6.

The 26 midmajor teams that will play in the CIT have an average power rating of 173.5.

Among the booby-prize tournaments, the Vegas 16 is the only one to have two double-digit teams, and none in the 200s.

Yes, the field has been trimmed in half from an advertised 16 teams to eight, so a little ridicule may be justified. And isn’t there already enough March Madness?

There is. But there’s very little on Wednesday.

If you took only at the top eight teams from the competition, the CIT has an average power rating of 128.3, the CBI 134.1. But the other tournaments are heavy on the back end with teams in the 200s. As noted, the Vegas 16 has none of those. There won’t be as many games in the Vegas 16, but they are better matchups.

As for playing with eight teams instead of 16, some of that can be attributed to myriad upsets in the conference tournaments. The National Invitation Tournament, per its deal with the NCAA, was required to take 15 regular-season conference champions who did not repeat in the postseason.

Usually, the number of these teams is from eight to 10. It has been as low as five. With the NIT committed to taking 15 regular-season champions, it reduced the pool of quality teams available to the small-fry tournaments.

The Vegas 16 was not able to land any Power Five conference teams.

Having a North Carolina State, or a Northwestern from the Big 10, or even welcoming Stanford and its three local starters for a return engagement would have provided the Vegas 16 with a boost on the marquee. But Stanford doesn’t have a coach now.

The Vegas 16 probably would have gotten Boise State had it been able to lure a couple of Power Five teams.

But most 17-15 teams from the power conferences would rather hang up their Nikes than continue practicing to play Boise State. In the case of the Vegas 16, they would have to practice two additional weeks, because the Vegas 16 starts later than the CBI and the CIT.

Yes, N.C. State could have just shown up and played the games in Las Vegas. But if you don’t prepare for the Boise States, the Boise States are good enough to beat you. The risk-reward of playing in one of these smaller tournaments is out of whack for teams from the big boy leagues. Everything’s on TV now.

For these reasons, the CBI didn’t land any Power Five teams, either.

Missteps were bound to happen. But those who have been quick to denounce the Vegas 16 for the quality of its field probably should have borrowed Ken Pomeroy’s slide rule before letting fly from beyond the arc.

For a first-time tournament that wasn’t greenlighted until around Christmas time — and given all those upsets during ESPN Championship Week — the selection committee still scraped together eight fairly decent (if not exactly recognizable) teams. And I hear this kid from Oakland can really play.

All things considered, Jesus Shuttlesworth might have been impressed.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski