SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word men's basketball team found out late Sunday that they will be hosting the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the McDermott Convocation Center in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
The Cardinals (18-10) are in their second year as a member of NCAA Division I and are playing in their first postseason tournament as a member of Division I. The Ragin' Cajuns (20-13) are a member of the Sun Belt Conference. They won seven consecutive games at the end of the season before losing to Georgia State in the conference tournament semifinals. This will be the first ever meeting between the two teams.
UIW finished the regular season in fifth place in the Southland Conference and they are the seventh highest scoring team in the nation at just under 80 points per game.
Ken Burmeister is in his ninth season with the program and had led the team to 39 victories in the first two years of Division I play. They are led by first team all-conference guard senior
Denzel Livingston (Houston/Waltrip HS) who is averaging 22.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. On the defensive side of the ball he has 37 blocks and 71 steals to lead the team. Junior
Kyle Hittle (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) was an honorable mention all-conference choice and is averaging 15.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game while leading the SLC with a 42.2 three-point percentage. Freshmen
Jontrell Walker (Aurora, IL/West Aurora HS) and
Traylin Farris (Pearland/Manvel HS) are each scoring in double figures.
The Cardinals went 11-2 at home this year and they are 24-3 at the McDermott Center over the past two seasons. Tickets are available online at
www.uiwtix.com. UIW students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to purchase reduced price tickets starting on Monday at 11:30 a.m. at West Gate Circle.
The Ragin' Cajuns are under the direction of Bob Marlin who is in his fifth year with the program and he led the team to the NCAA Tournament last year after winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The 2013-14 team was led by NBA lottery pick Elfrid Payton. This year's edition of UL Lafayette has two players, Shawn Long and Jay Wright, who earned all-conference honors. Long was named first team for a second straight season. The 6-9 forward leads the team with 16.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Wright earned third team honors and is averaging 9.2 points and 3.5 assists per game.
The CIT is in its seventh year and includes 32 teams from Mid-Major conferences around the country. The field includes four teams from the Southland Conference as Northwestern State, Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi were also invited. The CIT and the NIT will each be using an experimental 30-second shot clock for their tournaments this year.
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