2022 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament

2022 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament
2022 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2021–22
Teams	9
Site	Campus sites
Champions	Bryant (1st title)
Winning coach	Jared Grasso (1st title)
MVP	Peter Kiss (Bryant)
Television	NEC Front Row, ESPN3, ESPN2
	Northeast Conference men's basketball tournaments ← 2021 2023 →

2021–22 Northeast Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Bryant †	16	–	2	.889	22	–	10	.688
Wagner	15	–	3	.833	21	–	6	.778
LIU	12	–	6	.667	16	–	14	.533
Merrimack*	10	–	8	.556	14	–	16	.467
Mount St. Mary's	9	–	9	.500	14	–	16	.467
St. Francis Brooklyn	7	–	11	.389	10	–	20	.333
Sacred Heart	6	–	12	.333	10	–	20	.333
Saint Francis (PA)	5	–	13	.278	9	–	21	.300
Central Connecticut	5	–	13	.278	8	–	24	.250
Fairleigh Dickinson	4	–	13	.235	4	–	22	.154
* ineligible for the 2022 NCAA tournament due to transition period

† 2022 NEC tournament winner

The 2022 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Northeast Conference (NEC) for the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The tournament took place on four dates between February 28 and March 8, 2022, with each game hosted by the higher-seeded school. The tournament winner, the Bryant Bulldogs, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the first for the Bulldogs. This was also Bryant's final season in the NEC, as the school joined the America East Conference that July.

Seeds

All nine of the eligible teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.

The tiebreakers used by the NEC are 1) head-to-head records of teams with identical records, 2) comparison of records against individual teams in the conference starting with the top-ranked team(s) and working down and 3) NCAA NET Rankings available on day following the conclusion of Northeast Conference regular-season play. The round-robin record tiebreaker was used to place Saint Francis (PA), Fairleigh Dickinson, and Central Connecticut in that order for the last three seeds.^[1]

Note: Merrimack College joined the Northeast Conference from the Division II Northeast-10 Conference in 2019.^[2] At the time, the NEC did not allow transitional members to play in the conference tournament, making the Warriors ineligible until 2024. After the 2021–22 season, the NEC presidents voted to allow transitional members to compete in the conference tournament starting with their third transitional seasons, making Merrimack eligible for the tournament starting with the 2023 edition.^[3]

Seed	School	Conf.	NET ranking^[4] (February 27, 2021)
1	Bryant	16–2	218th
2	Wagner	15–3	132nd
3	LIU	12–6	243rd
4	Mount St. Mary's	9–9	267th
5	St. Francis Brooklyn	7–11	314th
6	Sacred Heart	6–12	325th
7	Saint Francis (PA)	5–13	329th
8	Fairleigh Dickinson	5–13	348th
9	Central Connecticut	5–13	345th

Schedule

Session	Game^[5]	Time*	Matchup	Score	Television
Opening Round – Monday, February 28
1	1	7:00 pm	No. 9 Central Connecticut at No. 8 Fairleigh Dickinson	67–66	NEC Front Row
Quarterfinals – Wednesday March 2
2	2	7:00 pm	No. 9 Central Connecticut at No. 1 Bryant	59–73	NEC Front Row
2	3	7:00 pm	No. 5 St. Francis Brooklyn at No. 4 Mount St. Mary's	48–78
3	4	7:00 pm	No. 7 Saint Francis (PA) at No. 2 Wagner	53–82
3	5	7:00 pm	No. 6 Sacred Heart at No. 3 LIU	75–82
Semifinals – Saturday, March 5
4	6	6:00 pm	No. 4 Mount St. Mary's at No. 1 Bryant	69–70	ESPN3
4	7	8:00 pm	No. 3 LIU at No. 2 Wagner	62–82	ESPN3
Championship – Tuesday, March 8
5	8	7:00 pm	No. 2 Wagner at No. 1 Bryant	43–70	ESPN2
*Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seed

Bracket

Opening Round Monday, February 28 NEC Front Row			Quarterfinals Wednesday March 2 NEC Front Row			Semifinals Saturday, March 5 ESPN3			Championship Tuesday, March 8 ESPN2

			1	Bryant	73
8	Fairleigh Dickinson	66	9	Central Connecticut	59
9	Central Connecticut	67				1	Bryant	70
						4	Mount St. Mary's	69
			4	Mount St. Mary's	78
			5	St. Francis Brooklyn	48
									1	Bryant	70
									2	Wagner	43
			2	Wagner	82
			7	Saint Francis (PA)	53
						2	Wagner	82
						3	Long Island	62
			3	Long Island	82
			6	Sacred Heart	75

* denotes overtime period.

Awards and honors

Tournament MVP: Peter Kiss

First Team

Alex Morales, Wagner
Tyrn FLowers, Long Island
Peter Kiss, Bryant
Charles Pride, Bryant
Hall Elisias, Bryant

Championship game brawl

During the Championship game between Bryant and Wagner, a fight between fans of both teams broke out with 4:37 left in the second half.^[6] The altercation lasted almost half an hour resulting in many fans being escorted out in addition to Wagner guard Will Martinez being ejected from the game.^[7]^[8] The game was later resumed resulting in a 70–43 Bryant victory.^[9] Before the Bryant fans would be able to storm the court, Wagner had to exit the floor to prevent any more conflict.^[10] After the game, 20-year-old Bryant student Connor Gleim was arrested by the Rhode Island State Police. Gleim was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer in execution of duty.^[11]