CIT Final Preview

Schedule:
Tuesday, March 31, 7:00PM - Semifinal #1: UT Martin vs. Evansville
Tuesday, March 31, 9:00PM - Semifinal #2: NJIT vs. Northern Arizona
Thursday, April 2, 7:00PM - CIT Final: Evansville vs. Northern Arizona

Television Coverage:
All games will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network

Road to the Semifinals:

• Evansville beat IPFW (82-77), Eastern Illinois (83-68), UL-Lafayette (89-82), UT Martin (79-66)
• Northern Arizona beat Grand Canyon (75-70), Sacramento St. (78-73), Kent St. (74-73), NJIT (68-61)

Overview:
The four teams who were represented in the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament could not be more different. UT Martin was out of the Ohio Valley Conference and finished in a distant second in the West Division of that conference. They were behind Murray St., of course, so a distant second is not necessarily a bad thing. They were a very respectable 10-6 in conference play. Evansville finished at just 9-9 in the Missouri Valley Conference, but they have one of the most impressive wins of the year - a 52-49 victory over Northern Iowa. Northern Arizona was part of a pack of teams vying for the Big Sky championship. They were the three seed in the conference tournament and beat their conference rival Sacramento St. earlier in the CIT. And then there is NJIT. The Highlanders win totals over the last several years are as follows: 5, 0, 1, 10, 15, 15, 16, 13, 21. That is remarkable. They went from winning 6 games in 3 seasons to winning 21 this year alone in less than a decade, which is impressive enough. What makes it spectacular is that NJIT is not in a conference. They're an independent. And not by choice. Nobody has offered to pick up the Highlanders, and yet they have continued to improve year after year. They got over the hump this year by beating Michigan, in Ann Arbor. That's the kind of win that can put your program on the map.

The first semifinal saw UT Martin taking on Evansville. As we said, Evansville got their biggest win of the season on January 1 when they took down Northern Iowa. That is clearly the signature win here. They struggled a bit in MVC play, but that's probably because it's such a tough conference. They have proven they're a good team by getting to this point and beating UT Martin.

Northern Arizona was a dangerous team in the Big Sky this season. They knocked off Eastern Washington, who would go on to represent the league in the NCAA Tournament, on February 21 and have only lost twice since February 12. Their most impressive win in that stretch may be the 74-73 overtime victory they just got over Kent St. in the quarterfinals. The Golden Flashes are no push over, but the Lumberjacks held right with them and came away with the win. They also got an impressive win over NJIT in the semifinals who was playing inspired basketball.