Maryland-Eastern Shore at High Point, 7:00 PM Eastern, watchcollegeinsider.com
Tonight’s CIT Game of the Day comes from High Point, North Carolina as the Big South’s co-regular season champion High Point Panthers welcome in the MEAC’s Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks. High Point was en route to not only the school’s best season at the Division I level but also its first NCAA tournament bid when the Panthers had their entire season derailed in their last two games. It began in the regular season finale when they suffered a triple overtime loss at Charleston Southern, giving the Buccaneers the top seed in the Big South tournament. It then got worse when Gradner-Webb knocked High Point out of the Big South tournament, this time in one overtime, in the quarterfinals. The team led by John Brown, one of the most exciting mid-major conference players in the entire country, will look to rebound from those two heartbreaking losses at home tonight as they begin their quest for the CIT championship.
Tonight’s opponent is a team making only its second ever postseason appearance and first since the 1974 NIT. The Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks have for years been stuck in the MEAC basement, not even close enough to sniff a decent seed in the MEAC tournament, let alone a postseason bid beyond that. This season saw Bobby Collins take over as head coach. Collins had success at both Hampton and Winston-Salem State, including being the top assistant on the Hampton team that beat Iowa State as a 15 seed in the NCAA tournament, highlights of which were all over TV in last night’s First Four game and will certainly be shown tomorrow when they play Kentucky. Collins has been, in our opinion at least, the best success story in the entire country for a first year (with his current team) head coach, taking a program that won only 6 games last season and leading them to an 18-14 record, a high seed in the MEAC tournament, and a postseason bid in the CIT. Tonight, we will find out if this amazing season can continue.