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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University basketball team will begin play in the 2017 College Insider.com Postseason Tournament on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs welcome the Canisius Golden Griffins to the Pete Hanna Center for the opening round of the 34-team competition.
 
Tuesday's CIT game will be Samford's first postseason appearance since the 2000 NCAA Tournament. It will also be the first held on campus in school history.
 
Samford (19-15) will be playing in the postseason for the first time in 17 years. The Bulldogs' last two appearances in postseason play occurred in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 1999 and 2000. Samford won the Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference (TAAC) Tournament in both of the aforementioned seasons to receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Bulldogs faced St. John's in 1999 and Syracuse in 2000.
 
At 19-15, Samford is in the midst of its best season in 11 years, dating back to the 2005-06 season. The Bulldogs have also achieved their first winning record in 11 years.
 
Additionally this year, Samford's Christen Cunningham set the school's single-season record in assists with 216. Only a junior, Cunningham also set the school's all-time career record in assists with 469.
 
Last week, the Bulldogs defeated both VMI and Furman in conference tournament play and advanced to the semifinal round of the SoCon Tournament for the first time since 2009.
 
With his game-sealing steal against Furman in the quarterfinal round of the SoCon Tournament, the Bulldogs' Josh Sharkey set the school's single-season record in the category with 66. He finished the season with a record total of 70. On Jan. 2, Samford's Sharkey set Samford's all-time, single-season record with seven steals at Western Carolina.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Canisius (18-15) will be playing in the national postseason for a fourth time in the last five years. The Golden Griffins, or Griffs as they are affectionately known, finished as the seventh-place team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) with a 10-10 overall record.
 
Canisius defeated Marist in the opening round of the MAAC Tournament, 77-73, before coming up short against Saint Peter's, 61-58, in the quarterfinals held in Albany, New York.
 
The Griffs have made a run to the CIT quarterfinals twice in the previous three postseason appearances, most recently in 2015, where the team eventually lost to NJIT in the round of eight after earning wins over Dartmouth and Bowling Green.
 
Canisius hosted a first-round game in 2014 and lost to VMI, and the team advanced to the 2013 CIT quarterfinal round with wins over Elon and Youngstown State before falling at home to Evansville. The 2013 CIT berth was the program's first national postseason appearance since 1996.
 
Four Canisius players average in double-figures for the Blue and Gold, which ranks third in the MAAC in scoring average at 78.5 points per game. Junior forward Jermaine Crumpton, an All-MAAC Third-Team selection, leads the team with his 16.1 points per game, while fellow junior Kassius Robertson, an All-MAAC Second-Team choice, is next with 15.9 points per outing.
 
Senior Phil Valenti posts 13.9 points per game and leads the squad with 5.8 rebounds per contest, while senior Kiefer Douse chips in 11.1 points per game. The Griffs are coming off a 61-58 loss to Saint Peter's in the 2017 MAAC Basketball Championship quarterfinal round March 3.
 
Canisius is a private college located in Buffalo, New York, and a premier Jesuit, Catholic University. It boasts an enrollment of approximately 4,537 students and was founded in 1870 by members of the Society of Jesus from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius.
 
ABOUT THE CIT
The 2017 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) is a single-elimination tournament featuring 34 NCAA Division I basketball teams. The first round will be played March 13–15, 2017, while the second round is slated to be held March 17–20.
 
Additionally, the quarterfinal round of the CIT is scheduled to be played March 23–26, with the semifinals March 29, and the championship game to be played March 31.
 
The CIT uses a model in which there is no set bracket. Future-round opponents are determined by the results of the previous round.
 
FACEBOOK LIVE
The 2017 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) will broadcast live on Facebook. 
 
At least 28 CIT games will be broadcast exclusively through Facebook Live, including all first round, second round and quarterfinal matchups. This enables the CIT to bring the excitement of postseason basketball to Facebook's global community of sports fans, which includes more than 650 million people connected to at least one sports Page on the platform.
 
COLLEGEINSIDER.COM
CollegeInsider.com was founded in 1996 with their online coverage dedicated exclusively to college basketball. In 1998, CollegeInsider.com created the Mid-Major Top 25 that has become the measuring stick for teams outside the power conferences and is now trademarked.
 
Each year, CollegeInsider.com presents 17 national awards in basketball named after some of the greatest coaches in the history of the game including Clarence "Big House" Gaines, Lou Henson, John McLendon and Lute Olson.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The 2017 CIT will be the eighth in the history of the tournament. The CIT was created by CollegeInsider.com in 2009 in order to give deserving teams an opportunity to participate in the postseason.
 
Since then, the CIT has had more schools make their postseason debut (25) and more programs win their first-ever postseason game (24) than all other tournaments combined.
 
In addition, the CIT has produced three NBA Lottery picks and two Top 10 selections including Damian Lillard (6th overall in 2012). Lillard was named 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year, marking the first time since 1955 that a tournament other than the NCAA Tournament had produced the NBA Rookie of the Year.
 
This season, Samford is making its first appearance in the CIT.
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordHoopsFOE and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.
 
Past CIT Champions
 
2016 – Columbia
2015 – Evansville
2014 – Murray State
2013 – East Carolina
2012 – Mercer
2011 – Santa Clara
2010 – Missouri State
2009 – Old Dominion

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