So You Think You Can Dance?

It will be a battle of wills tonight as the Quinnipiac Bobcats and the Robert Morris Colonials put it all on the line for the Northeast Conference Championship and, more importantly, an automatic bid in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The game matches the No. 1 and 2 seeds of the NEC Tournament at the TD Bank Sports Center. The Bobcats and Colonials faced each other only once during the regular season with Quinnipiac winning 87-79 at Robert Morris. RMU leads the all-time series between the two teams, however at 14-8.

In the Feb. 20 meeting sophomore guard James Johnson led the Bobcats with 28 points, while junior forward Justin Rutty scored another 17 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Rob Robinson scored 16 points for RMU in the losing effort.

The Bobcats are playing in their second NEC championship game in program history as they lost to Central Connecticut State University in 2002. The Colonials meanwhile are playing in their ninth NEC title game and are the defending NEC Tournament champions.

Robert Morris advanced to this year's title game by defeating CCSU 71-63 in the first round and Mount St. Mary's 80-62 in the second round. Quinnipiac meanwhile defeated Monmouth 84-75 and Long Island University 83-78 in the second round in advancing.

The game not only matches the two top teams in the conference against one another, but also pits some of the top players in the conference against each other. Rutty was named NEC Player of the Year this season after averaging 11 rebounds and 15.2 points per game. He is joined by senior guard James Feldeine who was named to the All-NEC First Team with 17.1 points per game.

Rutty, Feldeine and the Quinnipiac offense face a tough and stingy RMU defense, which is led by NEC Defensive Player of the Year Mezie Nwigwe. The Colonials are led offensively by freshman guard Karon Abraham, who finished the season averaging 13.3 points per game.

Gametime is set for 7 p.m. tonight and will also be nationally televised on ESPN2.