Here is a summary of the schools listed as participants in the 2008 TOWC tournament. Note that every school, except the hosts, Alaska-Fairbanks, had a winning record last year. Also, every team except Alaska-Fairbanks and Central Florida were in postseason tournaments. And the RPIs of the D1 schools were a pretty impressive 14, 64, 73, 105, 108 and 162.
So far, there do not appear to be any RPI-killing dogs in this tournament, like we see in most other early season tournaments.
Schools in the tournament include (with last year's RPIs, record, conference finish, and postseason tournament)--
Confirmed:
Bradley (RPI 105, record 21-17, 5th in MVC, Postseason-CBI)
Stanford (RPI 14, record 28-8, 2nd in Pac 10, Postseason-NCAA)
Central Florida (RPI 162, record 16-15, tied for 4th in CUSA)
Alaska-Fairbanks (Div II, record 5-22, they lost only 1 senior)
Tentative:
Winthrop (RPI 108, record 22-12, 1st in Big South, Postseason-NCAA)
Miami, Ohio (RPI 73, record 17-16, 3rd in Mid-American East, Postseason-CBI)
Stephen F. Austin (RPI 64, record 26-6, 1st in Southland-West, Postseason-NIT)
Bradley will be in the opposite bracket from Stanford.