August 18, 2011

Men's Basketball to Host CBE Classic at the UC

MACON, Ga. – Mercer University has been selected as one of two sub-regional game sites for the 2011 College Basketball Experience (CBE) Classic, it was announced today. The Bears will welcome three other teams – Niagara, South Dakota State and Sam Houston State – to the University Center on November 21-23.

The Bears will also play a regional round game at Missouri on November 14 (8 p.m.). MU will play Sam Houston on Nov. 21, Niagara on Nov. 22 and South Dakota on Nov. 23. Bowling Green University is the CBE Classic’s other sub-regional site.

“To be selected as one of just two sub-regional sites in the entire nation for a tournament like this a great honor for our university,” MU head coach Bob Hoffman said. “This will give basketball fans in the middle Georgia region the chance to see three teams which would not necessarily play in this area otherwise. Likewise, it is another chance for the entire campus and Macon community to put our best foot forward in welcoming these teams.”

The 2010 CBE Classic was won by defending national champion and then top-ranked Duke, which beat then No. 4 Kansas State (82-68) to earn the title. Duke freshman Kyrie Irving earned Tournament MVP honors for averaging 14 points and 6.5 assists during the Championship Rounds.

In all, 12 teams are participating in the 2011 CBE Classic nationwide. Among those are Georgia, Cal and Notre Dame, which will join Mizzou in the tournament’s championship rounds in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 21-22 at the Sprint Center.

The trio of teams coming to Macon should provide fans with an opportunity to experience several different styles of basketball.  Bears fans will also be looking at three first-time opponents for their team, as Niagara, South Dakota State and Sam Houston have never played Mercer previously (although Hoffman was an assistant at the University of Oklahoma when it defeated Niagara in the 2005 NCAA tournament and also lost a regular season meeting to Sam Houston State when he at Texas-Pan American).

The Niagara Purple Eagles were 8-23 last season, but are only a season removed from an NIT post-season appearance in 2009 and three years since their last NCAA tournament bid in 2007. In all, Niagara has been to the NIT 13 times and the NCAA tourney three times (also going in 1969 and 2005). Now in his 14th season, the Purple Eagles are coached by Joe Mihalich. Mihalich is a two-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference “Coach of the Year.”  Niagara returns sophomore Marvin Jordan, who was named to the MAAC all-Rookie team for averaging 11.8 points per game a year ago.

The Sam Houston State Bearkats rolled up 18 wins (18-12 overall) and earned its third consecutive Southland Conference West Division championship last year in Jason Hooten's first season as head coach. Senior center Antuan Bootle is the lone returning starter for a young Bearkats squad that will feature four top junior college transfers and two talented freshmen. Since 2000, Sam Houston is as the winningest team in the Southland Conference, losing to eventual Southland tournament champ Texas-San Antonio in the 2010 conference semifinals. SHSU played in the 2004 CBE event, as well. The Bearkats and the Mercer Bears have the common denominator of both losing at UTEP in non-conference games last year (SHSU fell, 74-65, while MU lost, 87-74).

Scott Nagy is in his 17th year as the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits' head coach. He is coming off of a 19-win season (19-12 overall) and returns four starters in 2011-12. SDSU lost in the Summit League semifinals in 2010-11, falling to eventual champion and NCAA tournament participant Oakland University. The back court of junior Nate Wolters (19.5 ppg, 188 assists), the school's first-ever first-team all-Summit League selection, and senior Griffan Callahan (8.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg) will be key for the Jackrabbits. SDSU also played in the 2005 CBE Classic.

Bob Hoffman's first three years at Mercer have been marked by steady improvement that has landed the Bears in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament each year. His 2011-12 squad will be a young one, with only one senior returning (2010-11 transfer Justin Cecil); however, they will be in good hands at the point guard position with sophomore Langston Hall (8.2 ppg), a 2010-11 Atlantic Sun all-Freshman team selection.

The CBE Classic is named after the College Basketball Experience, the award-winning and highly interactive college hoops fan-facility adjacent to Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., which also features the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Opened in October 2007, the College Basketball Experience is the nation's only facility that celebrates, in its entirety, the sport of men's collegiate basketball. The tournament, in partnership with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), was initially established in 2001 as the Guardians Classic.

Mercer’s men’s basketball team will be releasing its entire 2011-12 schedule early next week.