Other Post-Season Tournaments: CIT Edition

The CIT, or Collegeinsider.com Tournament, was created in 2009. Similar to the CBI, the CIT does some unique things. It consists of 32 teams, but they receive no seeds. Each rounds' matchups are determined after the previous rounds' games have finished. It makes for a different experience and one which some teams probably prefer.

This year's field has already gone from 32 to 8. Those four matchups should all be good games. UT Martin takes on Eastern Kentucky in one game. Remember, Eastern Kentucky beat Miami earlier this season. They also, ironically, beat UT-Martin earlier this season by 8 points. The Skyhawks finished behind Murray St. in the Ohio Valley West and played the Racers well twice.

Evansville, one of just two teams to beat Northern Iowa in Missouri Valley play, is still alive as well. They will play UL-Lafayette. The Ragin' Cajuns were a part of a pack of four teams jockeying for position atop the Sun Belt this season. They even have a win over NCAA Tournament Cinderella darling Georgia St.

In one of the more intriguing matchups, Kent St. will play Northern Arizona. NAU was a good team this year in the Big Sky and finished tied for third with Sacramento St. in the regular season standings. Kent St. is coming off back-to-back wins over Middle Tennessee and Texas A&M Corpus Cristi, two tough teams in their own right. The Golden Flashes actually finished with the same conference record as Buffalo in the MAC. They may be the favorite to win the whole tournament, in fact.

The last quarterfinal game is between Canisius and NJIT. Canisius is probably the most surprising team still left in the tournament. They finished in fifth place in the MAAC and just 16-14 in the regular season. They have beaten both Dartmouth and Bowling Green to get to this point, though, so you can't count them out. NJIT is also a unique circumstance because they are the only independent in D-I basketball. The Highlanders are no slouch, though. They beat Michigan, in Ann Arbor. They also beat St. Francis (NY), who won the NEC regular season title, and Yale who finished tied for first in the Ivy League.

The next round's matchups are, of course, not yet determined. That makes it harder to predict who may win, but the favorites at this point have to be Kent St. and Eastern Kentucky. Whoever makes it, you can bet these teams will be fighting hard to be one of just a few teams to finish their season with a win.