Northwestern State stayed a game behind Stephen F. Austin and Oral Roberts in the Southland yesterday with their win over McNeese State. We also saw the Baltimore Ravens win a game of mild importance. With football finally behind us, the SCGD today turns its attention to a very special matchup in the Colonial Athletic Association.
At 7:00 PM Eastern tonight, UNC-Wilmington will be traveling to Towson, Maryland to take on the Towson Tigers. The importance of this game: it is a battle between the two members of the CAA that have been banned from postseason play this season due to their APR (Academic Progress Rate) scores. Towson and UNC-Wilmington are two of nine teams that have been banned from postseason play due to APRs this season, with the most notable team being the UConn Huskies.
The other special note in this game has to do with last season’s performance by Towson. As has been documented, Towson controversially won the “Centenary Award” last season with their 1-31 record. Their one victory, of course, was a home win last January over none other than UNC-Wilmington.
As for this season, Towson has been one of the most surprising stories all year. They are sitting at 11-12 heading into tonight’s game and 6-4 in the CAA. UNC-Wilmington, on the other hand, is only 8-13 overall and 2-6 in conference. Towson’s story would be all the better if they had a shot at picking up a bid to the Big Dance this season, but just finishing at or above .500 would be a huge accomplishment coming off their disastrous 2011-12 campaign.