Furman to face USC Upstate on the road in CIT
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Furman will open play in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) on Thursday, March 16, when it travels to Spartanburg, S.C., to face USC Upstate of the Atlantic Sun Conference in a 7 p.m. contest at the G.B. Hodge Center.
The CIT first-round match-up will mark the first meeting on the hardwood between the Paladins and Spartans. USC Upstate enters tournament play at 17-15 overall and claimed a share of fourth place in the ASUN with a 7-7 league record. The Spartans are led by Michael Buchanan, a 7-foot, 285-pound center, who averaged 16.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game en route to earning all-conference honors.
The Paladins, who are 21-11 overall and claimed a share of their first Southern Conference regular-season title in 26 years with a 14-4 league mark, will be playing in their third CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and 10th postseason tournament overall. Furman earned five NCAA tournament bids during the 1970s and made the program's sixth and most recent NCAA trip in 1980. In 1991, the Paladins captured a share of the Southern Conference regular-season title before earning a bid to the NIT. Furman dropped a 76-63 decision at ETSU in its first CIT appearance during the 2011 campaign.
Last season, Furman earned its first postseason victory in 40 years when it topped Louisiana Monroe, 58-57, in the opening round of the CIT at Timmons Arena on Daniel Fowler's buzzer-beating putback before falling to Louisiana Lafayette, 80-72, in the second round.
The Paladins are led by SoCon Player of the Year Devin Sibley, who averaged 17.7 points per game, and second-team All-SoCon forward Kris Acox, who contributed 12.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
The 32-team CIT field is made up of non-Power 5 programs, not selected to participate in the NCAA or NIT (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC teams are not considered). All 31 games are played on campus sites. In an effort to minimize travel and limit missed class time, the CIT uses the old NIT model, with future round opponents determined by results of the previous round, ensuring geographic stability. The 2009 and 2010 tournaments were contested by 16 teams. The 2011 CIT consisted of 24 teams and the field expanded to its current 32-team format in 2012.
Samford to host Canisius in CIT first round
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University basketball team found out which team it will be hosting in this week’s 2017 College Insider.com Postseason Tournament late Sunday night as the Bulldogs will be facing the Canisius Golden Griffins in the opening round of the postseason competition Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (CT) in the Pete Hanna Center.
Tuesday’s CIT game will be Samford’s first postseason appearance since the 2000 NCAA tournament. It will also be the first held on campus in school history.
Samford (19-15) will be playing in the postseason for the first time in 17 years. The Bulldogs’ last two appearances in postseason play occurred in back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 1999 and 2000. Samford won the Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference (TAAC) Tournament in both of the aforementioned seasons to receive automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.
At 19-15, Samford is in the midst of its best season in 11 years, dating back to the 2005-06 season. The Bulldogs have also achieved their first winning record in 11 years.
Additionally this year, Samford’s Christen Cunningham set the school’s single-season record in assists with 216. Only a junior, Cunningham also set the school’s career record in assists with 469.
Last week, the Bulldogs defeated both VMI and Furman in conference tournament play and advanced to the semifinal round of the SoCon tournament for the first time since 2009.
With his game-sealing steal against Furman on Saturday, the Bulldogs’ Josh Sharkey set the school’s single-season record in the category with 66. He finished the season with a record total of 70. On Jan. 2, Samford’s Sharkey set Samford’s single-season record with seven steals at Western Carolina.
Canisius (18-15) will be playing in the national postseason for a fourth time in the last five years. The Golden Griffins finished as the seventh-place team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) with a 10-10 overall record.
Canisius defeated Marist in the opening round of the MAAC tournament, 77-73, before coming up short against Saint Peter’s, 61-58, in the quarterfinals held in Albany, New York.
The Griffs have made a run to the CIT quarterfinals twice in the previous three postseason appearances, most recently in 2015, where the team eventually lost to NJIT in the round of eight after earning wins over Dartmouth and Bowling Green.
Canisius hosted a first-round game in 2014 and lost to VMI, and the team advanced to the 2013 CIT quarterfinal round with wins over Elon and Youngstown State before falling at home to Evansville. The 2013 CIT berth was the program’s first national postseason appearance since 1996.
Four Canisius players average in double-figures for the Blue and Gold, which ranks third in the MAAC in scoring average at 78.5 points per game. Junior forward Jermaine Crumpton, an All-MAAC third-team selection, leads the team with his 16.1 points per game, while fellow junior Kassius Robertson, an All-MAAC second-team choice, is next with 15.9 points per outing.
Senior Phil Valenti posts 13.9 points per game and leads the squad with 5.8 rebounds per contest, while senior Kiefer Douse chips in 11.1 points per game. The Griffs are coming off a 61-58 loss to Saint Peter’s in the 2017 MAAC Basketball Championship quarterfinal round March 3.
Canisius is a private college located in Buffalo, New York, and a premier Jesuit, Catholic University. It boasts an enrollment of approximately 4,537 students and was founded in 1870 by members of the Society of Jesus from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius.