The Bracket
Road To Muni Podcast
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Fab Four Preview – Road To Muni Podcast
CCAC Tournament Game Schedule
Tuesday, February 21, 2022
Game #1: No. 8 seed Holy Cross (14-14) at No. 1 seed Olivet Nazarene (22-6) — 7 pm CT
Game #2: No. 5 seed St. Francis (16-10) at No. 4 seed Indiana South Bend (20-8) — 6 pm CT
Game #3: No. 7 seed Governors State (9-19) at No. 2 seed Saint Xavier (22-6) — 7 pm CT
Game #4: No. 6 seed Indiana Northwest (13-15) at No. 3 seed Roosevelt (19-9) — 7 pm CT
Thursday, February 23, 2022 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #5: Winner-Game #1 vs. Winner-Game #2 — TBA
Game #6: Winner-Game #3 vs. Winner-Game #4 — TBA
Saturday, February 25, 2022 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #7: Winner-Game #5 vs. Winner-Game #6 — TBA
Opening Round Breakdown
Olivet Nazarene vs Holy Cross
ONU comes into this game red hot as they closed out the regular season winning seven straight games. Their last loss you ask? Well, that was actually to Holy Cross. ONU boasts one of the top players in the NAIA in Tyler Schmidt. Schmidt was just named NAIA Player of the Week He also has garnered five CCAC Player of the Week awards this season. ONU has owned the CCAC as they won their 5th straight CCAC Regular Season Title. Now, the Tigers will try to win a CCAC Tourney Title. Holy Cross didn’t start the season off great as they had a lot of young players playing good minutes. However, at the break, they brought back their all-time wins leader in Storm Cook and Tommy Snyder has strung together a really great season as the Saints have really competed hard this semester and won some big games. Winning on the road is tough, but this is a wide open CCAC field that should provide plenty of excitement!
IU South Bend vs St. Francis
Both of these teams sit on the bubble line and need wins. St. Francis most likely needs to win tourney and get an auto-bid, but IU South Bend still has a shot at an at-large if they can make a deep run here. Dejon Barney has been a great addition to this IUSB squad. He has put up some massive double-doubles this season while Donyell Meredith and him have carried the scoring load. St. Francis has spurts where they play some really great basketball themselves. Aitor Anabitarte is 6th in the league in scoring and is capable of going for 30. These two teams split in the regular season, but IUSB is hosting today and beat St Francis by 16 at home back in December.
Saint Xavier vs Governors State
Jaden King is going to lose out to Tyler Schmidt for CCAC Player of the Year. But King is having a monster season and is one of the elite scorers in the entire NAIA. SXU is in a great spot at the 2-seed. We currently think they are in the National Tourney, but you don’t want any early exits if you are a bubble team in the CCAC! If SXU is going to get the win tonight they will have to limit Tai Walters-Whitaker. Whitaker has been on a terror over his past seven games and if Governors State wants to pull the upset tonight, they are going to need him to have another big game! SXU has held him to below double digits in both meetings this season. Both led to SXU blowout wins.
Roosevelt vs IU Northwest
Roosevelt, for about the past 2 months, was in 1st place in the CCAC Standings. The Lakers just weren’t able to hold on down the stretch as they dropped their final two games. The Lakers bring a tough zone defensive scheme that is tough to crack a they play hard and play fast. Offensively, they are really balanced that is led by Maurice Commander, who came in at the break and has been one of the best players in the CCAC. Freshman, Julio Montess II, has struggled some the past few games, but has also had a really nice year. Speaking of one of best players in the CCAC, IU Northwest will counter with Jalen Johnson, who is 4th in the CCAC in scoring. He has struggled a bit the past few games, but look for him to have a big game tonight. Both of these teams split their regular season matchups with each winning on the others home floor. Roosvelt, after losing their 1st place auto-bid chance in the final week of the regular season, now needs some wins here to get themselves into at-large consideration!
