CIAA Basketball Tournament Men’s Preview – 2/24/10
The opening round of the men’s bracket of the CIAA Basketball Tournament kicks off this evening, and its time to preview the match-ups and vote for the victors.
Men’s First Round
5:00 pm #6-Shaw vs. #11-Saint Paul’s
The Shaw Bears limp into the CIAA Tournament with a less-than-stellar finish to the season. Losers of six of their final ten games, SU dropped contests against title contenders Chowan, Johnson C. Smith, and St. Augustine’s. They are the second-worst scoring team in the conference (66.8 per game), and struggle with turnovers (17.5 per game). They are however, one of the best rebounding teams in the CIAA, and open against a horrific St. Paul’s team.
7:00pm #7-Elizabeth City State vs. #10-Fayetteville State
One of the more intriguing games of the entire tournament will be Elizabeth City State facing off against Fayetteville State. What the Vikings don’t bring in scoring (a league-worst 66.4 ppg) they bring with the CIAA’s best defense, allowing just over 63 points a game during the regular season. It will be a tremendous individual showdown between the two best guards in the CIAA, Viking sophomore Marquie Cooke and CIAA leading scorer Jamel Carpenter. The Broncos, under first year head coach Alphonza Kee, don’t present the best interior threat in the CIAA, yielding one of the worst rebounding and shot blocking units in the conference.
In other words, all of the components for a 7 p.m. shootout are in place.
9:00 pm #8-Livingstone vs. #9-Virginia State
The final men’s game between doesn’t reveal much in the way of statistics. Both the Trojans and the Blue Bears finished fairly middlin’ as balanced units, and it showed in the final standings. If it comes down to individual performances, the Trojans have tournament tested vets in guard Trey Mines and center Jacobe Simpson, who led VSU to surprising trip to the semi-finals in 2009. But Livingstone can counter with size on the perimeter in all-conference guard Jarred Stockton, and does bring three other double-digit scorers in guard Aaron Carruthers (11.8 ppg), and forwards Magail Cannon and Greg Henry (24 ppg, 13 rpg combined).
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