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Somerset, NJ - The 33rd annual Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament will tip off on March 11 with eight teams holding onto championship dreams.

After experimenting with a Pod hosting format in 2018, the postseason tournament reverts back to its traditional form this March.

It all starts with four quarterfinal round matchups on Monday, March 11 followed by a pair of semifinal games on Thursday, March 14. The 33rd #NECWBB Championship Game will unfold on Sunday, March 17 at 2:00 pm.

All games will be hosted by the higher seeds and teams will be re-seeded after each round.

Here are 33 things that every engaged fan should know about the NEC's 33rd annual women's basketball championship tournament, the winner of which will receive an automatic bid to the Big Dance.

1. Robert Morris owns the top seed for the fourth time in its history. The Colonials, who last occupied the No. 1 line in 2017, have won two conference crowns and own a 7-1 record when playing as the top seed in the NEC Tournament.

2. Robert Morris, which is on the cusp on a 20-win season, owns the highest overall win percentage (.655) amongst teams entering this year’s tournament.

3. Wagner and Mount St. Mary’s are back in the postseason after failing to qualify for last year’s event.

4. There are three first-time NEC Tournament participants amongst the eight head coaches – Heather Jacobs (Wagner), Maria Marchesano (Mount St. Mary’s) and Linda Cimino (St. Francis Brooklyn).

5. Fairleigh Dickinson’s Pete Cinella will make his ninth appearance, the most amongst current NEC coaches.

6. Twelve of the 15 women who were named to one of the three 2019 All-NEC Teams (including all five First Teamers) will participate in the tournament.

7. The top-five scorers on the NEC season leader board compete for teams who qualified for the postseason event.

8. Only one of the five members of the 2018 NEC All-Tournament Team – Saint Francis U’s Jessica Kovatch, the reigning MVP – returns for the 2019 edition of the annual postseason affair.

9. Bryant is the lone team in this year’s tournament field to have yet to win it all. The Bulldogs, which became postseason eligible in 2013, made it through to the title game in 2017.               

10. 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.

11. For the 12th 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 17 at 2:00 pm ET.

12. Mount St. Mary’s will make a record 27th appearance at the NEC Tournament in 2019.

13. 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 (20).

14. Saint Francis U has the most tournament wins (47) and most NEC titles (12) of any conference team.

15. SFU has made it through to the semifinal round more often than any NEC program. The Red Flash have been amongst the Tournament’s final four on 18 occasions, and proceeded to advance to the Championship Game 17 times.

16. Robert Morris has advanced to the Championship Game in each of the past five seasons.

17. The No. 1 seed has won it all 19 times in 32 years.

18. In the 24 years since the Northeast conference discontinued the six-team bracket, the No. 1 seed has won 17 times and has only missed the final on five occasions.

19. Saint Francis U became the lowest seed ever to win the event when the No. 5 seed Red Flash went all the way in 2010. St. Francis Brooklyn later matched that feat in 2015.

20. Seeded fourth in 1991, Robert Morris had been the lowest seed to ever win the tournament title until 2010.

21. 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.

22. The 1991 RMU Colonials (13-17) and the 2015 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers (15-18) are the only teams to win the tournament while finishing the season with a sub-.500 winning percentage.

23. SFU’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.

24. Saint Francis U owns the longest active tournament win streak at three games. Prior to conquering the 2018 bracket, the Red Flash fell to Central Connecticut in the 2017 quarterfinal round.

25. The 2015 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers are the lone team to win three consecutive tournament road games en-route to the title.

26. St. Francis Brooklyn is responsible for the lone 8-over-1 upset in NEC Tournament annals. The Terriers defeated top-seeded LIU Brooklyn in the 2007 quarterfinal round.

27. Sacred Heart and Saint Francis U became the first-ever teams to score at least 100 points in a tournament game, and they did it while facing one another in a 2014 quarterfinal tilt. SFU prevailed, 132-124, in double overtime as the two teams accounted for the second-highest scoring game in NCAA Division I history. Both teams had exceeded the 100-point mark by the end of regulation play.

28. Prior to 2014, no team had ever reached the century mark in a tournament game. The single-game scoring high was 92 points, a mark that was hit by Saint Francis U, Monmouth and Robert Morris.

29. 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.

30. 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.

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

32. Former Robert Morris head coach Sal Buscaglia owns a conference-record 20 tourney wins.

33. Seven players have earned both Tournament MVP and Player of the Year accolades in the same season. Saint Francis U’s Jessica Kovatch did it last March after Robert Morris’ Anna Niki Stamolamprou achieved the feat in 2017. 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 U’s Jess Zinobile in 1999-2000. Amanda Pape of Sacred Heart was tabbed with both honors in 2005-06 and Robert Morris’ Artemis Spanou snagged both awards in 2014.