Fairleigh Dickinson is going to the NCAA tournament and they haven’t even played the Northeast Conference Tournament final yet.
The second-seeded Knights — who beat St. Francis (Pa.) 70-50 on Saturday night in Teaneck, N.J. — earned the ticket to the Big Dance when the Merrimack Warriors, the No. 1 seed, beat Sacred Heart 71-60 in the other conference semifinal in North Andover, Mass.
That’s because Merrimack is still in the midst of its four-year reclassification process from Division II to Division I, making them ineligible for the NCAA tournament.
The NEC announced last summer it would allow Merrimack to participate in the conference tournament this season.
Merrimack (17-16, 12-4 NEC) winning the regular-season title meant the championship game runner-up would advance to the NCAA tournament should the Warriors make it to the title game, and that’s what happened.
The Warriors and Knights (19-14, 10-6) will battle for the NEC title on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lawler Arena on Merrimack’s campus. It will be televised on ESPN 2.
Jordan Minor scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Merrimack past fourth-seeded Pioneers (16-17, 8-8) and into the NEC title game.
Demetre Roberts had 18 points and five assists to propel FDU in their victory over the Red Flash (18-13).
Whether FDU wins the NEC championship or not, this has been a big debut season for first-year head coach Tobin Harrison, who took over a Knights team that finished 4-22 last season.
Anderson, who had been the head coach at Division II St. Thomas Aquinas since 2013 before taking over at FDU, guided the Knights to a 15-win improvement. FDU is the first team to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament this year.
If Merrimack beats FDU, it won’t be the first team to miss out on an NCAA tournament berth despite winning its conference tournament.
According to ESPN, a similar thing happened in the ASUN conference (formerly the Atlantic Sun) tournament last season.
Bellarmine won the tournament despite being ineligible for the NCAA tournament because of its reclassification status.
Jacksonville State was the regular-season champion, so the Gamecocks earned the automatic bid even though they lost to Jacksonville in the conference tournament semifinals.
— with AP
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