Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament

The Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Northeast Conference (NEC). It has been held every year since the NEC was established in the 1981–82 season. The tournament is an eight-team single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The bracket is reseeded after the quarterfinals, with the highest remaining seed playing the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals. The tournament winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament.

Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament
Sport	Basketball
Conference	Northeast Conference
Number of teams	9
Format	Single-elimination tournament
Current stadium	Campus of highest seed
Played	1982–present[1]
Last contest	2024
Current champion	Wagner Seahawks
Most championships	Robert Morris Colonials (9)
Official website	NEC Men's Basketball

Robert Morris, which left the NEC in 2020 for the Horizon League, is the program that has won the most NEC Tournament Championships (9), followed by current NEC members LIU (6) and Fairleigh Dickinson (6) as well as Mount St. Mary's (also 6), which left the NEC in 2022 for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.^[2] LIU, which before 2019–20 represented only the university's Brooklyn campus, has been the only program to win three consecutive tournament championships, from 2011–2013. Robert Morris won back-to-back championships on three occasions (1982–83, 1989–90 and 2009–10), the only other programs to win back-to-back championships, Marist and Rider, are also no longer members of the NEC. Of the current conference members (9 programs), three have not won a championship. Sacred Heart has participated in all NEC tournaments since joining the conference; Le Moyne and Stonehill have yet to participate.

Through the 2022 tournament, schools transitioning from NCAA Division II were ineligible for the conference tournament, paralleling NCAA policy that prohibits such schools from NCAA-sponsored postseason play (either the NCAA tournament or the NIT). After the 2021–22 season, the NEC presidents voted to allow transitional members to participate in the NEC tournament starting with the third season of their four-year transition. Merrimack, which joined the NEC in 2019–20, was thus eligible for the 2023 tournament, its last before completing its D-I transition. Stonehill, a 2022–23 arrival, was only in its first transition year and, therefore not eligible to participate in the 2023 NEC tournament. Under the 2022 rule, should a transitional program win the conference tournament, the automatic NCAA tournament bid went to the other finalist.^[3]

Effective for the 2023–24 academic year, NEC teams transitioning from Division II are eligible for the NEC tournament during the entirety of their transition periods. If a reclassifying institution wins the NEC tournament championship, the tournament runner-up will be awarded the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If two reclassifying teams reach the final of the NEC tournament, the conference will stage an automatic qualifier game between the two non-advancing semifinalists.^[4] The rule change resulted in Stonehill and Le Moyne being eligible for the 2024 NEC tournament, since that was Stonehill's second transition year and Le Moyne's first. Similarly, Mercyhurst, which joins the NEC from Division II in July 2024, will be eligible for the 2025 NEC tournament.

History of the Tournament Final

Year	NEC Champion	Score	Runner-Up	Tournament MVP	Championship Venue
1982	Robert Morris	85–84	Long Island	Tom Parks, RMU	Arnold and Marie Schwartz Athletic Center (Brooklyn, New York)
1983	Robert Morris	79–67	Long Island	Chipper Harris, RMU	John Jay Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
1984	Long Island	87–81	Robert Morris	Carey Scurry, LIU	McCann Field House (Poughkeepsie, New York)
1985	Fairleigh Dickinson	63–59	Loyola (MD)	Larry Hampton, FDU	Reitz Arena (Baltimore, Maryland)
1986	Marist	57–56OT	Fairleigh Dickinson	Rik Smits, MARIST	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
1987	Marist	64–55OT	Fairleigh Dickinson	Drafton Davis, MARIST	McCann Field House (Poughkeepsie, New York)
1988	Fairleigh Dickinson	90–75	Monmouth	Jaime Latney, FDU	Rothman Center (Hackensack, New Jersey)
1989	Robert Morris	69–68	Fairleigh Dickinson	Vaughn Luton, RMU	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
1990	Robert Morris	71–66	Monmouth	Alex Blackwell, MONMOUTH	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
1991	St. Francis (PA)	97–82	Fairleigh Dickinson	Mike Iuzzolino, SFU	DeGol Arena (Loretto, Pennsylvania)
1992	Robert Morris	85–81	Marist	Myron Walker, RMU	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
1993	Rider	65–64	Wagner	Darrick Suber, RIDER	Alumni Gymnasium (Lawrenceville, New Jersey)
1994	Rider	62–56	Monmouth	Charles Smith, RIDER	Alumni Gymnasium (Lawrenceville, New Jersey)
1995	Mount St. Mary's	69–62	Rider	Silas Cheung, MSM	Alumni Gymnasium (Lawrenceville, New Jersey)
1996	Monmouth	60–59	Rider	Corey Albano, MONMOUTH	William T. Boylan Gymnasium (West Long Branch, New Jersey)
1997	Long Island	72–67	Monmouth	Charles Jones, LIU	Schwartz Athletic Center (Brooklyn, New York)
1998	Fairleigh Dickinson	105–91	Long Island	Rahshon Turner, FDU	Schwartz Athletic Center (Brooklyn, New York)
1999	Mount St. Mary's	72–56	Central Connecticut	Gregory Harris, MSM	Spiro Sports Center (Staten Island, New York)
2000	Central Connecticut	63–46	Robert Morris	Rick Mickens, CCSU	Sovereign Bank Arena (Trenton, New Jersey)
2001	Monmouth	67–64	St. Francis (BKN)	Rahsaan Johnson, MONMOUTH	Sovereign Bank Arena (Trenton, New Jersey)
2002	Central Connecticut	78–71	Quinnipiac	Damian Battles, CCSU	William H. Detrick Gymnasium (New Britain, Connecticut)
2003	Wagner	78–61	St. Francis (BKN)	Jermaine Hall, WAGNER	Spiro Sports Center (Staten Island, New York)
2004	Monmouth	67–55	Central Connecticut	Blake Hamilton, MONMOUTH	William T. Boylan Gymnasium (West Long Branch, New Jersey)
2005	Fairleigh Dickinson	58–52	Wagner	Tamien Trent, FDU	Rothman Center (Hackensack, New Jersey)
2006	Monmouth	49–48	Fairleigh Dickinson	Marques Alston, MONMOUTH	Rothman Center (Hackensack, New Jersey)
2007	Central Connecticut	74–70	Sacred Heart	Javier Mojica, CCSU	William H. Detrick Gymnasium (New Britain, Connecticut)
2008	Mount St. Mary's	68–55	Sacred Heart	Jean Cajou, MSM	William H. Pitt Center (Fairfield, Connecticut)
2009	Robert Morris	48–46	Mount St. Mary's	Jeremy Chappell, RMU	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
2010	Robert Morris	52–50	Quinnipiac	Karon Abraham, RMU	TD Bank Sports Center (Hamden, Connecticut)
2011	Long Island	85–82OT	Robert Morris	Jamal Olasewere, LIU	Wellness, Recreation & Athletics Center (Brooklyn, New York)
2012	Long Island	90–73	Robert Morris	Julian Boyd, LIU	Wellness, Recreation & Athletics Center (Brooklyn, New York)
2013	Long Island	91–70	Mount St. Mary's	C. J. Garner, LIU	Wellness, Recreation & Athletics Center (Brooklyn, New York)
2014	Mount St. Mary's	88–71	Robert Morris	Rashad Whack, MSM	Charles L. Sewall Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
2015	Robert Morris	66–63	St. Francis (BKN)	Rodney Prior, RMU	Generoso Pope Athletic Complex (Brooklyn, New York)
2016	Fairleigh Dickinson	87–79	Wagner	Earl Potts, Jr., FDU	Spiro Sports Center (Staten Island, New York)
2017	Mount St. Mary's	71–61	St. Francis (PA)	Elijah Long, MSM	Knott Arena (Emmitsburg, Maryland)
2018	Long Island	71–61	Wagner	Joel Hernandez, LIU	Spiro Sports Center (Staten Island, New York)
2019	Fairleigh Dickinson	85–76	St. Francis (PA)	Darnell Edge, FDU	DeGol Arena (Loretto, Pennsylvania)
2020	Robert Morris[5]	77–67	St. Francis (PA)	Dante Treacy, RMU	UPMC Events Center (Moon Township, Pennsylvania)
2021	Mount St. Mary's	73–68	Bryant	Nana Opoku, MSM	Chace Athletic Center (Smithfield, Rhode Island)
2022	Bryant	70–43	Wagner	Peter Kiss, BU	Chace Athletic Center (Smithfield, Rhode Island)
2023	Merrimack	67–66	Fairleigh Dickinson	Ziggy Reid, MRMK	Lawler Arena (North Andover, Massachusetts)
2024	Wagner	54–47	Merrimack	Tahron Allen, WAGNER	Lawler Arena (North Andover, Massachusetts)

Championships by school

Chicago State and Mercyhurst will play their first NEC seasons in 2024–25.

‡	Denotes school is a former member of the NEC, as of the upcoming 2024–25 NCAA basketball season

School	Championships	Years
Robert Morris‡	9	1982, 1983, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2020
LIU[a]	6	1984, 1997, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018
Fairleigh Dickinson	6	1985, 1988, 1998, 2005, 2016, 2019
Mount St. Mary's‡	6	1995, 1999, 2008, 2014, 2017, 2021
Monmouth‡	4	1996, 2001, 2004, 2006
Central Connecticut	3	2000, 2002, 2007
Marist‡	2	1986, 1987
Rider‡	2	1993, 1994
Wagner	2	2003, 2024
Bryant‡	1	2022
Merrimack‡	1	2023
Saint Francis (PA)	1	1991
St. Francis Brooklyn‡	0	—
Quinnipiac‡	0	—
Sacred Heart‡	0	—
Loyola (MD)‡	0	—
Le Moyne[b]	0	—
Stonehill[c]	0	—

Notes

1. From 1981 to 2019, Long Island University was represented in the Northeast Conference by its Brooklyn campus, known for athletic purposes as "Long Island" through the 2012–13 season and "LIU Brooklyn" from 2013–14 forward. After the 2018–19 season, LIU merged the athletic programs of its Brooklyn and Post campuses into a single program, now competing as the LIU Sharks, that inherited the NCAA Division I and Northeast Conference memberships of the Brooklyn campus.
2. Le Moyne, which started a transition from NCAA Division II in 2023, is not eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play in any of its sports until the 2027–28 school year. Under NEC rules, it was immediately eligible to participate in the NEC tournament.
3. Stonehill, which started a transition from NCAA Division II in 2022, is not eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play in any of its sports except men's and women's ice hockey until the 2026–27 school year. Stonehill was eligible to participate in the NEC tournament for the first time in 2024.

Broadcasters

Television

Year	Network	Play-by-play	Analyst	Sideline reporter
2024	ESPN2	Doug Sherman	Tim Welsh
2023
2022
2021		Rich Hollenberg	Dan Dakich
2020		Dave Flemming	Sydney Johnson	Meaghan McKeown
2019		Mike Couzens	Chris Spatola
2018		Rece Davis	Tom Crean
2017			Jim Calhoun
2016		Karl Ravech
2015		John Brickley	Craig Robinson
2014		Mike Crispino	Miles Simon
2013			Tim Welsh
2012		Jon Sciambi
2011[6]			LaPhonso Ellis
2010[7]		Bob Wischusen	Tim Welsh

Radio

Year	Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
2016	Westwood One	Gary Cohen	Doug Gottlieb
2015		Jason Benetti	Alaa Abdelnaby
2014		John Sadak	Donny Marshall
2013	Dial Global		Kelly Tripucka
2011[8]	Westwood One	John Tautges	Alaa Abdelnaby

See also

• Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament

References

1. Past Northeast Conference champions and MVPs, NortheastConference.org, May 16, 2013
2. "NEC men's basketball record book" (PDF). northeastconference.org. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
3. "2022 NEC Spring Meeting Recap" (Press release). Northeast Conference. June 28, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
4. "2023 NEC Spring Meeting Recap". Northeast Conference. June 15, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
5. "Robert Morris Secures Ninth #NECMBB Crown, Dancing For First Time Since 2015". Northeast Conference. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
6. http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2011/02/28/championship-week-presented-by-dick%e2%80%99s-sporting-goods-schedule/?s-sporting-goods-schedule/
7. "Championship Week Begins Thursday, March 4 | ESPN MediaZone". Archived from the original on 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
8. "We've Moved!". the506.com.