DAYTON OH (Sporting Alert) — Two more games are on the fixture for the NCAA Tournament First Four on Wednesday night.
The Games will be streamed live on NCAA.com, as well as live TV broadcast on TRU TV
LIU Brooklyn and James Madison will meet in the first game at 6:40 pm ET, and then La Salle and Boise State face-off at 9:10 pm ET at the University of Dayton Arena.
On Wednesday night, James Madison (20-14, 11-7 CAA), finally make another appearance at the NCAA tournament after waiting 19 year gap, will be without its leading contributor Rayshawn Goins, who has been suspended by his team for the first half of the First Four clash with LIU Brooklyn (20-13, 12-6 NEC) after he was arrested over the weekend.
The 6-foot-6 senior forward, who is leading his team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 12.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing justice.
“It’s definitely going to affect us because we play through him,” point guard Devon Moore said.
“It’s going to be hard for the first half, not having him. But Coach has drawn up a good game plan for us and we’re definitely going to try to stick to it.”
Head coach Matt Brady, who made the decision to suspend his star player for the first 20 minutes of the game, is confident that the rest of the players on the court would not be affected by the minor setback.
“It’s just a blip on the radar screen,” Brady said of Goins’ action.
“We’re not going to let it impact our team, our performance, certainly our mindset.”
LIU Brooklyn, meanwhile, come into the contest on a five game winning streak and will be hoping to put early pressure on their opponent, especially without Goins’ presence.
“Them not having him in the first half very well could be a problem for them,” said LIU Brooklyn guard C.J. Garner.
“But I’m not sure about that. We’re going to go out there and play hard and just see how things go.”
In the night’s other game, La Salle (21-9, 11-5 A 10), despite losing 69-58 in its last outing to the Butler Bulldogs in the Atlantic 10 last week, and dropping the previous game at Saint Louis, will enter the University of Dayton Arena full of confidence to take on Boise State (21-10, 9-7 MWC).
