GREEN BAY (GreenBayPhoenix.com) --- Making its sixth postseason appearance in the last seven seasons, Green Bay has accepted an invitation to play in the 2019 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), playing its First Round game at East Tennessee State on Wednesday (Mar. 20) night. The first round game, labeled the Hugh Durham Classic, will be played at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT inside Freedom Hall.  

"With the core of our team returning for next season, we are both excited and appreciative to be playing in this year's CIT," said head coach Linc Darner. "Our guys are really looking forward to continuing our season and the opportunity to build momentum heading into next year."

This will be the third time in four seasons under Darner that the Phoenix will make a postseason appearance. Darner led GB to the NCAA Tournament in his first season, the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in 2016-17, and now to the CIT following the current 2018-19 season. GB was knocked out in the Motor City Madness semifinals by No. 1 seed Wright State, but finished at 17-16 before earning the postseason invite.

The Bucs, who have won five of their last seven games, enter the tournament with an overall record of 24-9 after reaching the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament. ETSU won 13 of its 15 games inside Freedom Hall this season. ETSU defeated Green Bay 103-90 back on Nov. 17, 2015 inside Freedom Hall, which is the only prior meeting between the two programs. The game was a part of ESPN's 24-hour college basketball marathon and tipped off at 6 a.m. local time on ESPN2.

With 353 teams now competing in Division I college basketball, postseason opportunities for deserving teams has become increasingly more difficult. 68 teams will play in the NCAA Tournament, 32 teams will take part in the NIT, 16 teams in the CBI and an expected 20-plus teams in this year's CIT; that means GB will be a part of just the 40 percent of teams that will get to play in the postseason. In college football, 80 of the 130 FBS teams participate in a bowl game, which accounts for 61.5 percent of the teams. 

Although the CIT is a single elimination tournament, it does not follow a bracketed format. Instead, each opponent is determined by the previous round results. All games are played on campus sites with pairings announced following each round and/or game.

You can view ETSU's official release here. 

ABOUT THE CIT
Now in its' 11th year, the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament was created to give deserving teams an opportunity to participate in the postseason. The CIT has had more schools make their postseason debut (26) and more programs win their first-ever postseason game (34) than all other tournaments combined during the ten seasons since the CIT was established in 2009.

View the full and complete CIT schedule here. 

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