For Morgan State, NIT will suffice
BLACKSBURG, Va. – So it wasn’t exactly what the Morgan State Bears fought all season for. But despite losing the MEAC Championship game against crosstown rival Coppin State, the Bears are still tournament-bound.
By virtue of winning the conference’s regular-season championship, Morgan State will hit the road again, this time for the 71st annual National Invitational Tournament, which for them begins Wednesday night at top-seeded Virginia Tech in the first round. The NIT appearance will mark the Bears’ first in Division I.
Head coach Todd Bozeman won’t be the first to say that he’d prefer his team be dancing among the field of 65, but to earn an NIT berth as a consolation prize, and especially coming out of league where all 11 teams play every game as if it were their last, he’ll gladly accept the invitation.
“Our goal was to get to the postseason,” said Bozeman. Obviously, we wanted to get to the NCAA’s, but we’re really excited about where we’re at and looking forward to it.”
Without leading scorer Jamar Smith in the lineup, Morgan fell to the MEAC Champion Eagles Saturday night, 62-60, on Tywain Mckee’s game-winning floater with three seconds remaining. Before that heart-breaking loss, the Bears have ridden the combination of sophomore guard Reggie Holmes and junior guard Marquise Kately to help get Bozeman’s squad to the regular-season championship and an NIT trip.
“Not having our leading scorer out there makes a difference, but they’ve stepped up and filled the void,” said Bozeman. “But we’ll need some more help from the other guys to beat (Virginia Tech).”
Needless to say the Hokies (19-13, 9-7 ACC) are bitter after being snubbed from getting into the field of 65. After losing a close contest in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game to North Carolina, Virginia Tech will lean on two key guards to show the NCAA Selection Committee they should’ve considered them for an at-large bid.
Junior A.D. Vassallo and senior Deron Washington have put up some impressive numbers for the top-seeded Hokies. Vassallo is averaging a shade over 17 points-per-game, while Washington contributes a 12.4 scoring average. Tech also led the ACC in scoring defense and has been a force on the boards, outrebounding the opposition in 25 of their 32 contests.
“We just want to go in and play to the best of our ability,” said Bozeman. “They’re an outstanding transition team and play extremely hard, and our transition defense has to be huge for us.”
For Morgan, they’re also making a bit of history this week with becoming the second MEAC school to participate in a postseason tournament. To have a pair of teams come from the mid-major conference is satisfying to Bozeman.
Of course, an upset win on Wednesday night would be much sweeter.
“It’s good to have two teams from our league playing in the postseason,” he said. “You want to represent the conference as best as you can.”
Wednesday night’s winner will face the victor of the VCU-UAB contest in the second round.
