ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Concordia Invitational Tournament is the second longest running college basketball tournament in the country.
For more than 72 years, it's brought Concordia schools from Ann Arbor, Chicago, Wisconsin and Nebraska together, and in possibly the final tournament in existence, it produced a memory that the hometown Cardinals will never forget.
"Got it up as quick as I could and the next thing I knew, the whole crowd was around me and it just didn't feel real. I was trying to soak it in, in the moment, but it was a big blur," said senior Guard Jason Jergens, who came up with the game winning buzzer beater against Concordia Wisconsin on Friday night.
Normally, January means conference games only in college basketball but to these schools, the invitational is the event on the season calendar.
"Every year around this time, it'll be a week before CIT, and they'll be a bunch of people on campus asking you are you ready for CIT? Are you ready for CIT? And it's like we're ready for tomorrows conference game," head Coach Ricky Yahn said.
"There's really nothing quite like it, just the atmosphere. It's the greatest atmosphere I've played in just with the crowd and fans," Jergens said.
However, the clock is running out on not only the Invitational but also Concordia Athletics. At the end of the school year, the university with drastically reduce its academic programs and all athletics will be cut.
"Our guys will go to class until the end of this semester but once this season ends, then our basketball program pretty much is done," Yahn said.
This means in a matter of weeks, jobs will be lost, underclassmen will have to find a new school and a chapter in the state's history will close.
"I think the hardest part has just been accepting the finality of everything... I think the good moments we've had this year where we've seen the glimpses of the team we could become, just knowing we won't have a chance to do that," Yahn said.
"You never know when it's your last chance to play basketball and I think we've all taken that in and come together and really try to enjoy every moment, and this weekend was kind of the highlight of our year. It hasn't exactly gone our way, but... just with the school closing down and stuff, it's really brought us all together and pushed us to be better and enjoy every moment that we get," Jergens said.
Yahn and the players they say their goal is to make the conference tournament and to keep this ride going for as long as they can.
