Long Island University at Brooklyn is heading back to the NCAA Tournament after capturing the Northeast Conference title for the third straight year. The Blackbirds dominated Mount St. Mary’s in a 91-70 win.
Here are five things you probably didn’t know about LIU-Brooklyn:
1. The Blackbirds are the first team to win three straight Northeast Conference titles. LIU dominated the rest of the league en route to its first two titles but needed a late 15-3 push to win the NEC this time around. The 2013 title is probably the most impressive since the Blackbirds lost head coach Jim Ferry to Duquesne before the season started. Also:
2. They did it without reigning conference Player of the Year Julian Boyd. LIU-Brooklyn lost Boyd for the season when he tore his ACL on December 17. The bruising 6-7 forward averaged 17.4 points and 9.3 rebounds and generally went beast mode on the rest of the NEC.
3. They nearly went an entire month without winning a game. Immediately after Boyd went down, LIU lost six in a row between December 19 and January 10. The Blackbirds have responded by winning 15 of 18 and will head into the Big Dance with a dangerous combination of experience and momentum.
4.They score a ton of points. The Blackbirds rank 6th nationally in points per game (79.1). They play at a breakneck pace, led by speedy point guard Jason Brickman, who leads the country in assists at 8.5 per game.
5. LIU-Brooklyn is part of a two-campus university system. Long Island University-Post is actually located on Long Island and fields a Division II basketball team of its own.
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Kels Dayton is a freelance writer whose work has also appeared in SLAM Magazine. You can check out more of his work at RoundballDaily.com. Follow him on Twitter @RoundballDaily.