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New Hampshire at NJIT, 7:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at watchcollegeinsider.com
Welcome to the 2015 CIT Game of the Day feature here on HoopsHD! As we have done the past several years, we will be highlighting one game per day from the best postseason college basketball tournament in the country (or maybe second best if you include that 68 team thing that gets started this week also). Tonight, we start the CIT off with a bang, as our adopted team, the Team of the People, the only Independent team in the country, the one and only New Jersey Institute of Technology plays its first ever postseason Division I college basketball game!
NJIT enters the game tonight having gone 18-11 on the season, including the thrilling win at Michigan and having been very competitive against Villanova (the second best team in the nation according to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee). They also picked up big home wins this year over Yale and St. Francis-Brooklyn, en route to a school record 18 victories. Given this program’s success, and the fact that most of the team returns next year, NJIT is clearly a program on the rise that we do not believe will continue to be passed up by conferences for membership much longer, especially with a new athletic facility in the works.
While the NJIT story this year has been a great one, we would be remiss if we overlooked the tale of their opponent tonight, the New Hampshire Wildcats. As with NJIT, UNH is making its first ever postseason appearance tonight after putting together a 19-12 regular season that included a thrilling America East quarterfinal home win over Hartford. The Wildcats have struggled as much over the past 20+ years as any Division I program and the sudden turnaround this season has been truly remarkable. As with NJIT, this is a young team with most of its roster returning next year. Unlike NJIT, New Hampshire will have a shot at an NCAA tournament bid next year, and may even be our preseason pick next year to win the America East.
The 2015 postseason will truly begin with a bang tonight, as there are very few more exciting stories out there among teams that did not make the NCAA tournament than the two these teams have. And given that it is the only D1 game being played tonight, there is no excuse not to watch!