Following a nearly two week layoff, the Flames return to the hardwood on Saturday at 2pm in the Vines Center. Liberty (21-14 overall, 9-9 Big South, 180 KenPom, 211 RPI) will face Central Michigan (21-14, 7-11 MAC, 163, 168) in the quarterfinals of the CIT. The Flames advanced to the quarterfinal round thanks to a win over North Carolina A&T, 65-52, on March 12th and a 2nd round bye. The Chippewas defeated Fort Wayne (94-89) and Wofford (98-94) to advance to Saturday’s game.
It will be a matchup of contrasting styles as Central Michigan has scored 80 or more points in 4 of their past 5 games and 16 times this season while the Flames rank 9th in all of Division I in holding opponents to 63.3 points per game. The Chippewas have been held under 70 points on 6 occasions this season, and they are just 1-5 in those games. Liberty is 16-3 when scoring 70 or more points this year.
Central Michigan loves to shoot the 3, having attempted the 5th most in the country and ranking 16th in the nation at making 9.9 per game. They’ve been even hotter recently, having made 17 threes in each of their CIT games.
6th year head coach Keno Davis leads the Chippewas. He owns a 98-96 overall record at Central Michigan and has advanced to the NIT once and the CIT twice. The past two wins in the CIT are Davis’ first career postseason wins. Prior to his time in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, Davis was the head coach at Drake for 1 season and Providence for 3 seasons. In his lone season at Drake, his first as a head coach, he led the Bulldogs to a 28-5 season and 5th seed in the NCAA Tournament. For his performance, he was named the national coach of the year by several publications and landed a job with Big East member Providence.
This will be the first ever meeting between the two programs. Liberty is 1-9 all-time against opponents from the MAC with the only win coming on December 3, 1994 over Western Michigan, 69-63. Liberty has lost in the quarterfinal round of the CIT in each of its previous 2 appearances in the tournament.
Central Michigan is one of just 3 schools to have the same starting five in each game this season, joining Virginia and Montana. Two JUCO transfers have been part of that starting group as Cecil Williams and Shawn Roundtree have become leaders on Coach Davis’ team. The 6’6″ Williams leads the team in scoring at 15.2 points per game. He also pulls down 6.5 rebounds and dishes out 2.6 assists per game. Roundtree, a 6’0″ guard from Mineral Area College, is averaging 14.9 points and 4.1 assists per game.
Three other players are also averaging double figures, including starters David DiLeo (12.2 ppg) and Luke Meyer (9.9 ppg). Rounding out the Chippewas’ quintet of double figure scorers is their 6th man, Kevin McKay. The 6’5″ McKay is averaging 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
All 8 of CMU’s rotational players are threats from 3-point range as each one has made at least 14 threes on the season, including the 6’10.5″ Meyer who shot 41.2% from 3. 131 of his 240 field goal attempts this season are from 3.
