A record five America East men's basketball team are heading to the postseason. League champion Albany, regular-season champion Stony Brook, Vermont, Boston University and Hartford, the conference's first quintet of teams to each finish with at least 17 wins, will all continue its seasons this week.
The Great Danes, which won their third-ever America East crown Saturday and set a Division I program record for wins, will play in the NCAA tournament for the third time since 2006, while the Seawolves will play in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for the third time in four years. The Catamounts will appear in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) for the second time, while Boston U. and Hartford will both participate in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
Albany (24-10), which earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a 53-49 win over Vermont Saturday, earned a No. 15 seed and will face Duke, a No. 2 seed, in the tournament's second round in Philadelphia on Friday at 12:15 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on CBS with Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Len Elmore (analyst) and Reggie Miller (analyst) on the call.
America East teams have seven all-time NCAA wins, including two since 2005. Last season, Vermont knocked off Lamar in the first round.
On Saturday, the Great Danes scored 10 of the last 14 points in the America East title game against the Catamounts en route to improving to 3-0 all-time in America East title games. Jacob Iati scored eight points, six on a pair of key three-pointers, in the stretch, while Mike Black scored a game-high 14 points and earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor. Championship Central
This will be Albany's third-ever NCAA appearance, all since 2006. The Great Danes, who reached the tournament previously in 2006 and 2007, flirted with becoming the first No. 16 to beat a No. 1 seed in '06 before falling to UConn, then got beat by Virginia in '07 as a 13 seed.
Stony Brook (24-7) will make its third NIT appearance since 2010 after capturing an automatic bid via winning its third America East regular-season crown in four years. The Seawolves, who set a program-record for Division I wins before falling short of an NCAA bid by virtue of its loss to Albany in the America East semifinals, will be a No. 7 seed for the NIT and face No. 2 UMass on Wednesday in Amherst at 7:15 p.m. The game will air on ESPN3.
Vermont (21-11) fell short of capturing its sixth America East crown since 2003 but will make its ninth postseason appearance in 11 years. The Catamounts will play in the CBI for the second time and travel to Santa Clara for a first-round contest Tuesday. UVM beat Green Bay in the 2009 CBI before falling at Oregon St. in overtime.
Boston U. (17-12) will make its 14th-ever postseason appearance and third in the last four years. The Terriers, winners of nine of their last 11 games, will play in the CIT and visit Loyola for a first-round contest Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Hartford (17-13) is in the midst of second-best season in its Division I history, and can tie the program mark for Division I wins with one postseason win. The Hawks will make their first-ever postseason appearance and host Rider in the CIT Tuesday at 7 p.m.
America East has never sent more than three teams to a single postseason, but have had at least three teams playing into the middle of March in three of the last four years. Overall, 25 teams have reached the postseason in the last 11 years.
Stay tuned to AmericaEast.com, AExtra, Twitter and Facebook all week for postseason coverage.