Four teams from the women’s side and four from the men’s side of America East have all qualified and accepted bids for postseason play this week.
The Maine women (26-8), losers of the America East title game 59-58 to Albany, will play Quinnipiac (24-8) on Friday in Connecticut at 7 p.m. in the first round of the NIT. The Bobcats from Quinnipiac had a 19 game winning streak before their loss to Iona in their conference championship game. In the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), both the UMBC women’s team and Stony Brook have accepted bids. UMBC (17-13) will host Fairfield (16-14) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. while Stony Brook (17-14) will also play Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when it visits 19-11 Youngstown State.
On the men’s side, Albany (24-8) and Vermont (21-13) will both play in the CBI. Albany will visit 20-11 Ohio at 7 p.m. Wednesday while Vermont will host 16-17 Western Carolina also Wednesday night at 7. UNH (19-12) will play for the second consecutive year in the College Insider Tournament (CIT). The Cats will visit 19-13 Fairfield Wednesday night at 7.
The two teams gathering the most attention on the national level are the champions of the league and both got automatic bids into the field of 64 of the NCAA tournament. The Albany women, who are 27-4, will play their first round game on Friday afternoon at 12 p.m. against SEC power Florida (22-8). The Stony Brook men, who are 26-6, will play Thursday night at 9:40 p.m. against 26-8 Kentucky. The Seawolves are led by Jameel Warney who scored a championship record 43 points in the America East title game win over Vermont. Both Albany and Stony Brook games can be viewed nationally. The Albany game will be televised by ESPN 2 while Stony Brook and Kentucky will be shown on CBS.
