SPARTANBURG, S.C. – UNCG and Western Carolina earned bids to the College Basketball Invitational it was announced Sunday night. UNCG will play host to Houston Baptist Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m., while the Catamounts will travel to face the University of Vermont Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
The Spartans are making their first postseason trip since 2001, while WCU is appearing in the postseason for the first time since 2010.
The Vermont Catamounts compete in the America East Conference and advanced to the AEC Championship game where they fell to top-seeded Stony Brook. The match-up Wednesday will mark the first meeting between the Catamounts in any sport.
Vermont boasts a 21-13 record and advanced to last season’s CBI semifinals before falling to eventual runner-up, University of Louisiana Monroe. Vermont has advanced to eight-straight postseasons and this season will mark their fourth trip to the CBI.
Coverage of WCU’s postseason tournament game at Vermont on Wednesday night will be released on Monday.
The CBI, which enters its ninth year, is a 16-team single-elimination postseason men’s basketball tournament up until the best-of-three Championship Series, with all games played at campus sites.
The other 12 teams in the field include Albany, Duquesne, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Morehead State, Nevada, Ohio, Omaha, Pepperdine, Seattle and Siena.
Western Carolina (16-17) has twice advanced into postseason play. In 1996, the Catamount men won the Southern Conference tournament and garnered the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. At the end of the 2009-10 season, WCU was selected to play in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT), dropping a heart-breaker at former SoCon rival, Marshall, 90-88.
The Spartans have appeared in a postseason tournament three times in the NCAA Division I era, prior to this year’s CBI. UNCG played in the 2001 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and played two times in the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and 2000.
UNCG posted an 11-4 overall record at home and a 7-2 mark in league play. The 11 home wins are the most for the Spartans since going 11-2 in 2001-02 while the seven league wins at home are the most since going 8-2 in league play in 2007-08. Houston Baptist finished the regular season with a 17-16 overall record and a 10-8 mark in the Southland Conference.