Milwaukee, Cleveland State Tip Off Postseason in CBI, NIT Contests

Men’s Basketball Schedule:
CBI: Milwaukee at Texas Christian, 8 p.m. ET
NIT: (6) Cleveland State at (3) Stanford, 11 p.m. ET – ESPN2

Just a week ago, both Milwaukee and Cleveland State were stinging after losses in the Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship. Now, both are optimistic that a second chance will allow them to find the postseason success that eluded them in Valparaiso, Ind.

Milwaukee heads to Fort Worth, Tex., to face TCU in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational presented by Zebra Pen. The Panthers have won five of their last six games, with that lone loss coming in the second round of the Horizon League Tournament.

Milwaukee will be making its sixth-ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance when it starts play in the CBI this week. The Panthers have been in the NCAA Tournament three times and the NIT twice. UWM is 3-3 all-time in the Division I NCAA Tournament and 1-2 in the NIT, including a loss at Northwestern last year.

UWM has hit the 20-win milestone for the second time in three seasons, marking just the 11th time in 115 years of basketball at the school where the team has recorded 20 or more victories in a season and the third under head coach Rob Jeter, who was recently elected to the inaugural class of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.

The Panthers have never met TCU, who boasts a 17-14 record built largely on a 13-3 record at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The Horned Frogs fifth in the MWC behind four teams that made the NCAA Tournament.

Late at night, Cleveland State returns to the NIT for the second straight season, heading west to face third-seeded Stanford at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The appearance is just the seventh postseason berth in Vikings’ history, but fifth to the NIT and third under Gary Waters.

The NIT appearance marks the 10th time in 16 years as a head coach that Gary Waters has taken a team to post-season play and his seventh appearance in the NIT, owning an 8-6 record in those appearances. He was 2-1 while at Kent State, taking the 2000 team to the quarterfinals. At Rutgers, Waters' teams made three appearances, losing in the opening round in 2002, going 4-1 to finish in second place in 2004 and making a second round visit in 2006. At CSU, Waters lost in the first round of the 2008 NIT at Dayton and last year, he led the Vikings past Vermont in the first round before falling to the College of Charleston.

After reaching the second round of the NIT last year, the Vikings are optimistic of going further based on the return ot form of D’Aundray Brown,who returned in the Horizon League semifinals against Detroit on March 3. Brown, who came off the bench to play 32 minutes, scored 17 points and added seven rebounds and two steals. He went 5-of-7 from the floor, hitting his lone three-pointer, and made 6-of-7 at the free throw line.