GREENVILLE, North Carolina -- The MEAC’s Savannah State Tigers pay Greenville a visit to battle the ECU Pirates in the 1st Round of the CIT Tournament tonight bringing with them a solid 11-5 conference record and an impressive list of out-of-conference NCAA and NIT tournament quality opponents. The Tigers may not have fared well against the powerhouses of Florida, St. Louis, Middle Tenn., Ohio State, and Marquette this year; but those games may have primed them very well for MEAC conference play; which is also an interesting story. Norfolk State “pulled a Memphis” this year and went rough-shot in the MEAC by going a perfect 16-0 in conference, including a win against Savannah State.
Interestingly, Norfolk State is also one of the common opponents that both ECU and Savannah State played this year with the Pirates actually defeating Norfolk State in Minges in late December by a 74-63 final score. Other common opponents include Campbell, which Savannah State defeated and we lost too; in addition to a respectable 3-point loss to UCF and a blow-out loss to Marshall by double digits. In the MEAC conference Savannah State's 5 losses for the most part were to the upper half of the 13 team league.
Bottom line – the overall records and common opponents trend toward an evenly matched game when the Tigers and Pirates clash for this 1st round of the CIT.
ECU head Coach Jeff Lebo mentioned that Savannah State is an experienced group and will be as good as a defensive team as the Pirates has played all season. True to form, the Tigers were ranked in the top 10 nationally in 3 PT FG defense, scoring defense, and steals per game at the end of the 2012-13 season. While the Pirates have ...
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