If you know where Lipscomb University is located without looking it up, you’re either an alum or someone with way too much time on your hands. I’ll save you the trouble. The tiny school is located in Nashville, Tennessee and competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Lipscomb Bisons basketball team is doing its best to make people notice. They reached the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time and advanced to the NIT championship to face the Texas Longhorns by taking down Wichita State on Tuesday night.
Lipscomb Bisons vs. Texas Longhorns
Date and Time: Thursday, April 4, 2019, 7 p.m. ET
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
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Lipscomb vs. Texas TV Coverage: ESPN
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Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said before the game against Wichita State that “we’re a good team.” No argument here. You hear folks at Indiana and TCU saying how they got snubbed by the NCAA Tournament committee, but it was the Bisons who were the most deserving that didn’t get an invite.
They went 23-6 and tied for the A-Sun regular season title. They reached the final of the conference tournament before losing by six to Liberty. This is a squad that reached the Big Dance the season before, and the Bisons still got shafted by the committee. No problem, take the automatic NIT invite and run the table. Lipscomb won its first three NIT matchups in ‘true’ road games before taking down the Shockers on Tuesday night.
The Longhorns also felt they deserved an NCAA bid, but losing four of five to end the regular season and dropping the Big 12 tournament opener to Kansas pretty much sealed their fate as a non-participant. Getting the chance to play more basketball is always ideal and winning an NIT title isn’t all that bad.
The games have been close and the Horns have proven to be a tough out. They also had the benefit of playing the first three games in their gym, which I’m sure helped their cause. Texas got by South Dakota State, 79-73, and ousted Xavier, 78-76, in overtime. The last two weren’t as close with the Horns taking out Colorado by 13 and avoiding a sweep at the hands of Big 12 rival TCU with a 58-44 win in Tuesday’s semifinal round.
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Even when opponents know what’s coming they can’t stop it. Lipscomb’s Garrison Mathews is closing out his career in style and there’s just one more item on his checklist. Mathews buried his fifth three-pointer of the game with just over a minute remaining to lift the Bisons to a comeback 71-64 win over Wichita State in the semifinal round.
Mathews hit 9 of 22 from the field and was 11 of 12 from the stripe for 34 points. This performance came a game after he tallied a career-best 44 to take down NC State in Raleigh. The A-Sun player of the year averages over 21 points per game and shoots 45 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from deep.
With the three-point line pushed back as part of the NIT’s experiment with possible rules changes, Mathews adjusted to the additional distance by hitting 13 of 28 triples over the last two games. He’s averaging 28.8 points in the NIT leading an explosive Bisons’ offense that averages nearly 84 points per game for the season.
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North Carolina State couldn’t do it. Neither could Wichita State. Texas gets its chance to try and stop Mathews with the NIT trophy at stake. The Longhorns aren’t known for scoring a lot of points so this matchup will pit strength against strength. The Horns got a bonus when Kerwin Roach II was reinstated to the team in time for the Big 12 tournament, and though he didn’t lead the team to a win there, he’s been solid in the NIT. Roach had his best game Tuesday scoring 22 points and Texas throttled TCU. I don’t see them having that much success against Lipscomb, mainly because Mathews will get his points, and Lipscomb is playing for all the non-power conferences to show that there are good teams from other leagues.
College Basketball Score Prediction: Lipscomb 73, Texas 67
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