Official NCAA DII announcement
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INDIANAPOLIS – Three institutions from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference received seeding for the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championship Midwest Regional following Sunday night’s selection show aired on NCAA.com.
Great Midwest tournament champion Ohio Dominican earned the league’s automatic qualifying bid while Findlay and Hillsdale each made the field as at-large selections.
A total of 64 teams with eight schools from eight different regionals will compete. A total of 24 Division II conferences were awarded automatic qualification and the remaining 40 teams were selected at-large by the national committee.
The Midwest Regional will be conducted in Big Rapids, Mich., starting Saturday, March 10, at host site Ferris State University in Jim Wink Arena. The Great Midwest, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) all comprise the Midwest Region field.
This is the first time the Great Midwest has had more than one NCAA Championship qualifier in the Big Dance with Kentucky Wesleyan qualifying in both 2016 and 2017.
Seven of the regional tournaments, consisting of eight teams each, will be conducted March 10, 11 and 13 at regional sites. The West regional will be conducted March 9, 10 and 12. The eight regional champions will advance to the quarterfinals in conjunction with the 2018 NCAA Division II Men’s Elite Eight at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The eighth-seeded Panthers will go into the national tournament as the underdog, a position Ohio Dominican is used to after winning three games in as many days as the No. 5 to win the Great Midwest Championship.
Ohio Dominican (20-10 overall) draws top-seeded Ferris State (32-1 overall) and the Bulldogs were at the top of the Midwest Region Rankings. The Panthers have won 12 of their last 13 games, including Saturday’s Great Midwest title game over Hillsdale.
Ferris State is the GLIAC tournament champion following Sunday’s 69-61 win
Great Midwest tourney runner-up Hillsdale (21-9 overall) was positioned well to make the field entering the conference tournament but the Chargers cemented their status with wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
HC will open regional play in the quarterfinals against GLIAC tourney runner-up Lake Superior State (24-7 overall).
LSSU bumped Findlay from No. 2 to No. 3 in the final Midwest Region rankings as the nationally-ranked Oilers (26-4 overall) look to bounce back against GLVC tournament semifinalist. Drury on Saturday.
Findlay’s Great Midwest Player of the Year Taren Sullivan and first-team all-conference guard Martyce Kimbrough will look to lead the Oilers back into the Sweet 16, territory Findlay ventured into last year in the regional final against Bellarmine.
The Panthers (21-7 overall) also made the tournament field as an at-large selection and won in the GLVC opening round against Southern Indiana.