The road to “March Madness” starts today for Eastern, which opens the regular season in the Preseason NIT.

The Panthers (15-16, 7-9 Ohio Valley Conference in 2001-02) will take on the Broncos of Boise State at the BSU Pavilion at 8:15 (ESPN2, WHGG-FM 98.9).

The Broncos enter the game with two preseason exhibition wins against an Australian touring team (94-84) and Northwest Nazarene (81-55).

The Broncos’ probable starting lineup is inexperienced. With one senior, guard C.J. Williams; three juniors, guard Bryan Defares, redshirt guard Joe Skiffer and junior college transfer center Kostas Avgerinos and sophomore forward Jason Ellis, the Broncos’ lineup is younger than the Panthers’ who have three seniors in their projected starting lineup.

Avgerinos gives the Broncos a decisive height advantage at 7-foot, 1-inches. The Panthers’ center, junior Jesse Mackinson, is five inches shorter at 6-foot, 8-inches and senior center Jan Thompson is two inches shorter at 6-foot, 11-inches.

Defares averaged 9.4 points per game last year as a sophomore and led the team in scoring against Northwest Nazarene with 23 points. Junior college transfer Aaron Haynes led the team in scoring with 22 points against the Australian touring team.

With the exception of Avgerinos and the 6-foot-7-inch Ellis, the Broncos’ starters are 6’3″ and under. Because of Eastern’s small guards, Eastern head coach Rick Samuels expects Boise to run a fast-paced style of play.

“He will try to play an up-tempo style, but he doesn’t have the personnel for it,” Samuels says.

The Panthers appear to have all their positions set. Mackinson should line up at center bringing with him 9.6 ppg and 5.2 rebounds per game last year. Sophomore Andy Gobczynski will move into a starting role at the No. 4 position moving from the No. 3 position.

The Panthers have an all senior backcourt with Craig Lewis, J.R. Reynolds and the No.2 scorer in the nation a year ago Henry Domercant.

Lewis will try to put any concerns about the point guard position to rest.

“Our point guard is still a question mark, but Craig Lewis has the talent to get the job done,” Samuels said.

The winner of the game will go on to play the winner of the Louisiana Tech vs. Florida game.