On Saturday, the North Carolina Central Eagles defeated the Hampton Pirates 71-63 to win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament.
The 19-15 Eagles went 9-7 during conference play before making a run as the 6 seed in the MEAC tournament. They upset the 1 seed Pirates and, in doing so, move on to their second straight tournament appearance. A year ago, the Eagles -- a 16 seed -- lost 67-63 in the First Four.
According to our metrics, this year's team is not nearly as good as last year's squad. The Eagles' -8.86 nERD is far from their mark (-0.01) a year ago and positions them 312th of 351 teams.