Cleveland State at NJIT, 7:00 PM Eastern, watchcollegeinsider.com
Three games tonight will conclude the second round of the CIT, but anyone that has followed HOOPD HD this year will have no doubts as to which one is our choice for the CIT Game of the Day. Our adopted team continues its season at home tonight as they host the Cleveland State Vikings in what may be their toughest home game yet this season. The winner of tonight’s game advances to the quarterfinal round and will be only three wins away from cutting down the nets as 2015 CIT champions.
Cleveland State enters tonight’s game at 19-14 overall after a first round CIT win at Western Michigan. The Vikings came within just a few points of winning the Horizon league regular season title, losing their final game of the season at home to Valparaiso by 3 points, thus giving home court in the Horizon League tournament to the Crusaders. The two teams met again in the Horizon league semifinals, and Valpo used its home court advantage to pull out a 5 point win en route to the league’s NCAA tournament berth.
NJIT, the nation’s lone independent, enters tonight’s home game at 19-11 overall including a huge home court win last week over New Hampshire in the first round of the CIT. Tonight’s game will be only the second of the season at home against a top-100 opponent for NJIT. The other was a win back in January over Yale, though the Bulldogs were without their top player, Justin Sears, for most of that game. The Highlanders will need to play one of their best games of the season if they want to defeat Cleveland State tonight. However, they definitely have the ability to win this game as the Fleisher Center should be rocking loud tonight. The magical story of the Team of the People could definitely continue beyond tonight — but it will not be easy. And it certainly will be the game of the night in the CIT.