America East placed three teams into the basketball postseason tournaments as Boston University and Hartford earned automatic bids to the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, respectively. Vermont earned a berth in the Women's National Invitation Tournament and will play host to a first round game.
Fresh off its dominating win over Maine in the America East championship game, the Boston University men's basketball team found out who it will play in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night. The 16th-seeded Terriers will travel to Pittsburgh to play Cincinnati, the top seed in the West Region and this season's Conference USA Tournament champions.
The Terriers and Bearcats will meet each other on Friday, March 15 at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Tipoff is set for 7:40 p.m. EST.
The winner of the game will move on the face the winner of the N. 8 UCLA - No. 9 Mississippi contest.
The Terriers (22-9) earned an invitation to the NCAA Tournament by defeating Maine, 66-40, in the America East Championship on Saturday. Cincinnati (30-3) is ranked fifth in the country in both the ESPN and Associated Press national polls. The Bearcats, the top seed in the Conference USA tournament, were 77-63 winners over Marquette in the title game.
Hartford (16-14) will make its first NCAA appearance Saturday when it travels to Norman, Okla. to face #1 seed Oklahoma (27-3). Game time has yet to be determined. The winner of the Oklahoma-Hartford game will play the winner of the Villanova-Pepperdine game on Monday.
The Hawks advanced to the NCAA Championship with a 50-47 win over Stony Brook in the America East Championship game at Chase Family Arena in the Sports Center.
Vermont women’s basketball earned its fifth postseason appearance in the program’s history with a berth in the 32-team 2002 Postseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). It’s the Catamounts first trip to the WNIT and second postseason appearance in three seasons, having earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2000.
Vermont will host Holy Cross at 7:00pm at Patrick Gym on Thursday, March 14. All The winner will play the winner of the Siena at Saint Joseph’s contest.
The Crusaders own a record of 23-7 after falling to Bucknell, 88-74, in the championship game of the Patriot League Tournament. Vermont stands at 21-8 after falling, 60-59, to fifth-seeded Hartford in the semifinals of the America East Championship.
Vermont last hosted a postseason game in 1993, when the #8-seeded Catamounts played #9 Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The last America East team to make an appearance in the WNIT was New Hampshire in 1999.