Ohio will play Albany in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational Wednesday in possibly Treg Setty's last game.
When someone asked Ohio's Antonio Campbell if he’d like Ohio to play in a postseason tournament prior to his team’s 88-74 conference semifinal loss to Buffalo, his answer came quickly and without hesitation.
“Absolutely, just for our young guys,” Campbell said. “Keep the togetherness going, carry it into next season.”
Campbell and Ohio will get their wish when they play host to Albany on Wednesday night in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.
Tipoff between the two teams is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Only a week ago, Ohio had hopes of playing in the NCAA Tournament, with just three MAC Tournament wins standing between it and a national berth.
With their semifinal loss, however, the Bobcats were left playing a guessing game over which tournament they may get invited to. The NIT seemed like a long shot, especially if Buffalo won the tournament. There also was the possibility of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, which the Bobcats competed in in 2014.
Ultimately, it was the College Basketball Invitational that came calling.
Ohio last played in the invitational in 2008 and paid $50,000 to host a game, according to The Athens Messenger. It paid a total of $108,000 to host three games of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2014, according to a previous Post report.
Albany will enter Wednesday’s game as the only team in the tournament with a higher win total (24-8) than Ohio (21-11). The matchup is made possible by the fact that the invitational does not have seeds.
The Great Danes had hot streaks throughout their season that compared well with the ones the Bobcats experienced. Albany won 11 games in a 13-game span at the close of its non-conference schedule and nine of its last 10 in conference play.
Albany was bounced from the America East Conference Tournament quarterfinals by Hartford, whom Albany had swept in the regular season, similar to Ohio versus Buffalo.
Albany outscores its opponents by 10 points a game and plays sound defense, allowing just 65 points per game over the regular season. It is led in scoring by a trio of similar shooters in Evan Singletary, Peter Hooley and Ray Sanders, who each average between 12 and 13 points per game.
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It will be a good matchup for the Bobcats, who ranked first in the MAC in points per game in the regular season and also carried four scorers who have averaged double digit points each game.
The contest also will be an opportunity for Ohio’s lone senior, Treg Setty, to get one more chance to play in The Convo. Setty scored 24 points on his senior night against Buffalo on Feb. 27.
“I told him I can promise him I'll never coach another one quite like him,” Ohio coach Saul Phillips said of Setty after the team’s MAC semifinal loss. “And I mean that 100 percent. Very rarely does a player come along and capture the imagination of a community like Treg did. There’s something to be said for that.”
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