The 2011 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was a postseason single-elimination tournament of 24 NCAA Division I teams. The CIT began with 12 first-round games. Four of the teams that won first-round games advanced to the quarterfinals, while the other eight teams played for the right to advance to the quarterfinals in the second round March 18–19. The announcement of the 2011 field was made on March 13, 2011.

Twenty-three of the participants were selected from teams that were not invited to the 2011 NCAA Tournament or the 2011 National Invitation Tournament. The winner of the 2011 Great West Conference men's basketball tournament, North Dakota, received an automatic bid to the CIT.

The tournament was won by Santa Clara who defeated Iona in the championship game 76–69. Santa Clara was not one of the four teams to receive a second-round bye thus becoming the first team to win five games to win the tournament championship.

Participating teams

The following teams received an invitation to the 2011 CIT:

SchoolConferenceOverall recordConference record
Air ForceMountain West15–156–10
BuffaloMid-American17–139–9
East CarolinaConference USA18–158–8
East Tennessee StateAtlantic Sun22–1116–4
FurmanSouthern20–912–6
HawaiiWAC18–128–8
IdahoWAC18–139–7
IonaMAAC22–1113–5
JacksonvilleAtlantic Sun19–1113–7
MarshallConference USA22–1110–8
North DakotaGreat West19–148–4
Northern ArizonaBig Sky19–129–7
Northern IowaMissouri Valley19–1310–8
OhioMid-American18–1510–8
Oral RobertsSummit19–1513–5
PortlandWest Coast20–117–7
QuinnipiacNortheast22–913–5
RiderMetro Atlantic Athletic23–1013–5
San FranciscoWest Coast17–1411–4
Santa ClaraWest Coast19–148–6
SMUConference USA17–148–8
Tennessee TechOhio Valley20–1212–6
ValparaisoHorizon23–1112–6
Western MichiganMid-American20–1111–5

Format

Twelve teams advanced from the first-round games. Of the twelve remaining teams, four received byes into the quarterfinals. RPI, strength of schedule, conference ranking and geographic location determined the byes and seeding of the remaining twelve teams.

Bracket

Bracket is for visual purposes only. The CIT does not have a set bracket.

  • East Tennessee State, Iona, Northern Iowa and Ohio received byes to the quarterfinal round following their first round victories.
First round March 14, 15 and 16Second round March 18 and 19Quarterfinals March 21 and 22Semifinals March 25 and 26Championship March 30
North Dakota67
Air Force77Air Force75
Northern Arizona63Santa Clara88
Santa Clara68Santa Clara95
Idaho73San Francisco91
San Francisco81San Francisco77
Portland64Hawaiʻi74
Hawaiʻi76Santa Clara72
Jacksonville71*SMU55
East Carolina66Jacksonville62
Oral Roberts57SMU63
SMU64*SMU57
Northern Iowa50
Bye
Rider50Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa84Santa Clara76
Buffalo75Iona69
Quinnipiac68Buffalo49
Tennessee Tech66Western Michigan48
Western Michigan74Buffalo63
Iona78
Bye
Iona85Iona
Valparaiso77Iona83
East Tennessee State80
Bye
Ohio65Ohio
Marshall64Ohio73
Furman63East Tennessee State82
East Tennessee State76East Tennessee State
Bye

Home teams are listed second. * Denotes overtime period.