COLUMBIA'S STATUS
The Lions used a 20-3 run in the first half run to shake off a rusty start and never looked back, topping NJIT 80-65 Sunday night. Maodo Lo poured in a season-high 29 points and Lukas Meisner recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

UC IRVINE'S STATUS
The Anteaters dispatched Coastal Carolina, 66-47, Sunday to reach the CIT final.

UC Irvine boasts a 7'6" center Mamadou Ndiaye, who averages 12.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.5 rejections per contest. Luke Nelson paces the squad, averaging 13.7 points and 3.9 assists.

SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday will be the first meeting between the schools.

COLUMBIA VS. THE BIG WEST
The Lions are 1-1 against teams currently in the Big West Conference. Columbia topped UC Davis in the 2006-07 season and fell to Cal State Fullerton in 1996-97.

WHAT'S ON THE LINE
The Lions will try and become just the second Ivy League team to win a postseason tournament after Princeton's 1975 NIT championship.

LO TAKES AIM AT LIONS' SCORING RECORD
With 25 points on Tuesday, Maodo Lo would become Columbia's all-time leading scorer surpassing Buck Jenkins' '93CC mark of 1,767. Lo is just 16 shy of moving past Jim McMillian '70 for second (1,758).

#WINNING
Columbia established program records for overall wins (24) and non-conference victories (14) with its triumph over NJIT Sunday.

THE SMITH ERA
Head coach Kyle Smith posted his 100th career victory on Sunday. Over the last five-plus seasons with Smith at the helm Columbia has won 100 games, the most in such a span since Columbia posted 106 wins from 1949-50 season to 1954-55. It is also the most for a Lions coach in his first six-plus seasons ever.