Eight teams still have dreams of capturing an automatic bid to the NCAA Big Dance.

Robert Morris, Mount St. Mary’s, Saint Francis U, Bryant, St. Francis Brooklyn, Sacred Heart, Wagner and LIU Brooklyn are still alive, but only one will achieve NEC supremacy on the hardwood.

The 28th edition of the Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament tips off at campus sites on Sunday, March 9.

Click Here for Tournament Media Notes (PDF)


Here are 28 Things Everyone Should Know about the eight-team championship event…

1.    The 2014 NEC Tournament bracket contains three teams who were not here last year. Top-seeded Robert Morris is back after failing to qualify in 2013 when it finished 10th in the standings.  Under second-year head coach Lisa Cermignano, Wagner will make its first appearance since 2010. Meanwhile, LIU Brooklyn returns following a one-year absence.

2.    The 2014 NEC Tournament will follow the same “high seed host” format that was reemployed in 2011. The higher-seeded teams will host games throughout the entirety of this year’s event.

3.    Exactly one-quarter of the eight-team Tournament field is still searching for its first title. St. Francis Brooklyn and Bryant have yet to cut down the nets and capture the NEC’s automatic bid to the Big Dance. In fact, neither has ever made it through to the title game.

4.    Robert Morris owns the No. 1 seed in the NEC Tournament for the second time in its program’s history.  The Colonials have won four conference crowns, but have never done so as the tourney’s top seed.

5.    Three programs in this year’s field have won two NEC Tournament titles in the past decade -- Robert Morris (2007, 2008), Sacred Heart (2009, 2012) and Saint Francis (PA) (2010, 2011).

6.    Saint Francis (PA) became the lowest seed ever to win the event when the No. 5 seed Red Flash went all the way in 2010.

7.    Seeded fourth in 1991, Robert Morris had been the lowest seed to ever win the tournament title.

8.    Mount St. Mary’s will be making its record 23rd appearance at the NEC Tournament. The Mount’s string of 20 consecutive NEC Tournament appearances ended in 2010. After absences in 2010 and 2011, Bryan Whitten’s team is back in the postseason for the third year in a row.

9.    Sacred Heart, who has qualified for the NEC Tournament every year since it joined the league in 1999, owns the longest active streak for consecutive appearances (15).  

10. The No. 1 seed has won it all 16 times in 27 years.

11. In the 19 years since the Northeast conference discontinued the six-team bracket, the No. 1 seed has won 14 times and has only missed the final on four occasions.

12. The 1991 RMU Colonials are the only team to win the tournament while finishing the season with a sub-.500 winning percentage (13-17).

13. Saint Francis (PA) has the most tournament wins (41) and most NEC titles (11) of any conference team.

14. The Red Flash’s record win streak of 29 straight tournament victories came to a halt at the hands of Sacred Heart in the 2009 NEC Championship Game.

15. Saint Francis (PA) has made it through to the semifinal round more often than anyone else in the field. The Red Flash have been amongst the Tournament’s final four on 15 occasions, and proceeded to advance to the Championship Game all 15 times.

16. The two lowest seeds to ever meet in the Championship Game were No. 4 Robert Morris and No. 6 Wagner back in 1991. RMU prevailed, 69-61.

17. No team has ever reached the century mark in a game during tournament time. Saint Francis (PA), Monmouth and Robert Morris have all scored 92 points in a Tournament game. The Red Flash did it against Monmouth in 1994 while the Hawks scored 92 against St. Francis (NY) en route to the title. RMU did it in the 2012 NEC quarterfinal round, topping the Red Flash by a score of 92-82.

18. The largest margin of victory in a tournament game (39) came in Quinnipiac’s 72-33 triumph over Saint Francis (PA) in the 2013 Championship Game.

19. Only four players have earned both Tournament MVP and Player of the Year accolades in the same season. Monmouth’s Linda Wilson was honored with both awards during the league’s inaugural season in 1986-87, followed by Mount St. Mary’s Susie Rowlyk in 1993-94 and Saint Francis (PA)’s Jess Zinobile in 1999-2000. Most recently, Amanda Pape of Sacred Heart was tabbed with both honors in 2005-06.  Will 2014 NEC Player of the Year Artemis Spanou make it five?

20. Two of the five members of the 2013 NEC All-Tournament Team are back this March -- SFU’s Alli Williams and Mount’s Jackie Brewer.

21. Quinnipiac’s Ashlee Kelly redefined “monster game” in 2004 when she poured in 38 points and grabbed 28 rebounds during a quarterfinal showdown with FDU. Two days after her tournament record 28-rebound performance, QU’s Ashlee Kelly hauled in 26 boards and still owns the top two spots on the tournament’s all-time single-game rebounding list.

22. Robert Morris’ Chinata Nesbit, a former two-time Tournament MVP, owns the lone triple-double in tourney history (2008 QF vs. SFBK).

23. Two of the eight head coaches in this year’s field will be making their NEC Tournament debut. Lisa Cermignano has Wagner in the postseason in her second year on the job, while rookie head coach Jessica Mannetti has led Sacred Heart back to the event.

24. RMU’s Sal Buscaglia has more NEC Tournament wins (12) than any other coach in this year’s field.

25. Buscaglia is the lone active NEC head coach with a tournament title on his resume (2007, 2008).

26. No. 8 seed LIU Brooklyn will look to produce the second-ever 8-over-1 upset in NEC Tournament history. St. Francis (BK) was the first to pull off the feat when they ousted LIU Brooklyn in 2007.

27. Since 1994, the NEC Tournament champion has received an automatic bid to the NCAA’s Big Dance. Mount St. Mary’s earned the league’s first-ever auto berth and faced Iowa in the 1994 NCAA First Round.

28.  For the seventh consecutive year, the NEC Women’s Basketball Championship Game will reach a national TV audience via ESPNU.  This year’s title tilt is set for March 16 at 3:00 pm.