It took a quarter-century, but Morgan State is finally going to the postseason as a Division I team.
The Bears, which lost 26 games two season ago and at least 20 games nine times since the 1990-91 season, clinched their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title since 1977 as a Division II school on Saturday evening.
But Coach Todd Bozeman is only focused on one game: Coppin State (12-19, 7-8) at Hill Field House on Thursday night at 7:30.
“When you are a competitor you always want to compete, so I don?t know if it even matters what?s on the line,” he said. “You still have a chance to add to your victory total, and when you are talking about a crosstown rival, those guys play pick-up ball in the fall together and you see each other all the time.”
Morgan State?s 39-36 win over Delaware State in Dover on Saturday, combined with Norfolk State?s 87-72 loss at Hampton later that evening, guaranteed the Bears (19-9, 13-2) the top seed in the MEAC Tournament at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C., on March 11-15.
Norfolk State (14-13, 10-4), held the tie-breaker against the Bears with a 71-69 win on January 14, but even if Morgan State loses to Coppin State to finish the regular season, the result of the Spartans? final game is moot.
If the Bears fail to win the league tournament and its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the regular season title guarantees ? at worst ? a spot in the 32-team National Invitation Tournament later this month.
The regular season conference title is just the second in school history, as Morgan State won its only regular season and tournament titles as a Division II team in 1977, its most recent trip to the postseason.
“We have our fate in our hands,” senior guard Jerrell Green said, “that?s how we like it.”
But fate may be getting ready to play a cruel joke on the Bears, who were picked to finish fourth in the MEAC during the preseason.
Senior guard Jamar Smith (17.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg), who has scored 20 or more points 11 times this year, missed the game against Delaware State (12-15, 9-6) due to an undisclosed foot injury. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder and MEAC Player of the Year candidate scored just three points in 22 minutes in the team?s 66-62 overtime win against Hampton.
The Bears missed Smith?s scoring against Delaware State, shooting just 32.6 percent from the floor and recording just six assists against 11 turnovers. Bozeman said Smith?s X-ray results were negative, but the team will reevaluate him today.
Without Smith, the Bears will rely on the play of MEAC Defensive Player of the Year candidate Boubacar Coly (9.5 ppg, 11.1 rpg) and junior forward Marquise Kately (12.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg). Coly, a senior forward, entered the weekend ranked sixth in rebounding and 17th in blocked shots (2.7 pg) in Division I.
“Everybody?s goal in the beginning of the year is the NCAA Tournament,” Bozeman said. “The fact that we are guaranteed a postseason is good, but you still have things to play for.”
