For the fourth time in the last five years, at least three America East men’s basketball teams will play in the postseason. League champion Albany, regular-season champion Vermont and league runner up Stony Brook all received postseason bids Sunday and will all continue their seasons this week.
The Great Danes, who won their second-straight and fourth-ever America East crown Saturday, will play in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time since 2006, while Catamounts will make their third-ever NIT bid and sixth-straight postseason appearance. The Seawolves will participate in the CBI for the first time and make their fourth postseason showing in the last five years.
Albany (18-14), which earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a 69-60 win over Stony Brook in the America East title game Saturday, earned a No. 16 seed and will face fellow-16 seed Mount St. Mary’s, the Northeast Conference champion, on Tuesday in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Dayton. The game, which will tip at 6:40 p.m., will air nationally on truTV.
On Saturday, the Great Danes scored 15 of the last 21 points in the America East title game against the Seawolves en route to improving to 4-0 all-time in championship games. Sam Rowley scored a game-high 18 points and Peter Hooley scored seven of this 15 in the deciding stretch to earn Most Outstanding Player honors of the championship.
This will be Albany's fourth-ever NCAA appearance, all since 2006. The Great Danes, who are making their second-straight tournament appearance, also made it previously in 2006 and 2007. Albany 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. Last season, the Great Danes challenged Duke before falling, 73-61.
Vermont (22-10) won its sixth America East regular-season title since 2002 and earned an automatic bid to the NIT. The Catamounts, who went 15-1 in America East play, received a No. 7 seed and will play at No. 2 Georgia on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU.
The Catamounts also made NIT appearances in 2007 and ’12, falling both times in the first round by three points or less. This will be the 19th appearances for an America East team in the tournament and the fifth-straight the league has had a team in the tournament. Last year, Stony Brook beat UMass in the first round for the league’s first NIT win since 1987.
Stony Brook (23-10) will play in the CBI for the first time and make its fourth postseason appearance since 2010. The Seawolves, which reached their third America East title game in the last four years but fell to Albany, will visit Siena in a first-round matchup Tuesday at 7 p.m.
America East teams have had success in the CBI, winning three games in as many appearances. Vermont won a first-round game in 2009, while Boston U. reached the quarterfinals in 2010.
Overall, 17 America East teams have made the postseason in the last five years.