Fairleigh Dickinson (16-13, 9-5) at Saint Francis U (11-16, 8-6) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN3)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Loretto, Pennsylvania for a pivotal matchup in the Northeast Conference between the FDU Knights and the hometown Saint Francis Red Flash. With the top 2 teams in the conference being transitional teams who are not yet eligible for the NCAA Tournament, we look instead to tonight’s matchup between the 3rd and 4th place teams to see who could potentially clinch an NCAA Tournament bid in the event that Merrimack wins the NEC Tournament (bear in mind that Stonehill cannot participate as a 1st-year transitional team, but Merrimack as a 3rd-year transitional team can play in the NEC Tournament).
Coming into tonight, FDU is in 3rd place by a full game against Saint Francis. Should they end up tying Merrimack in the conference standings, FDU would clinch the #1 seed in the NEC Tournament and at worst a spot in the NIT. Saint Francis could also get as high as the #2 seed should they be able to finish a game ahead of FDU in the standings; they cannot get the #1 seed since they were swept by Merrimack in the regular season.