Official NCAA Announcement With Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – Two programs from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference are men's basketball qualifiers for the NCAA Championship Atlantic Regional that will be held at West Liberty University following Sunday night's Selection Show.
The reduced field of 48 in the bracket was announced by the national committee as six teams from eight different regions were selected through automatic qualifier bids or at-large selections.
The NCAA had previously released two sets of "Under Consideration" rankings and one ranked edition of regional rankings prior to the Division II Selection Show.
The Atlantic Region tournament bids came from the Great Midwest, Mountain East Conference (MEC) and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). With Fairmont State earning the AQ from the Mountain East on Sunday, that left four at-large selections to be made.
Malone was coming off a Great Midwest Championship victory on Saturday against Cedarville and secured the league's AQ. The Pioneers are the No. 6 seed in the Atlantic Region and will play No. 3 West Liberty.
The Pioneers are winners of 10 straight following their first conference championship and anxiously await their first NCAA appearance with a 17-6 record. Head coach Casey Kaufman had three first team all-conference selections including Marcus Ernst, Bo Myers and Bryce Butler.
It was known that Hillsdale was going to be the top seed in the Atlantic Region an hour prior to the start of the Selection Show. The Chargers saw their postseason run in the conference tournament end against Malone in the semifinals, but the national committee recognized their overall body of work.
That season resume included a 17-game win streak, ranking as high as No. 9 in the NABC national poll, an outright regular-season conference title playing a full slate of games and the top overall seed via the Great Midwest PRS in the conference tournament.
Hillsdale gets a first-round bye along with No. 2 seed Charleston. The Chargers will get the winner of No. 4 seed Mercyhurst and No. 5 Fairmont State. All five of Hillsdale's starters were on the all-conference team in some capacity while sophomore forward Patrick Cartier was named Great Midwest Player of the Year and head coach John Tharp was voted Great Midwest Coach of the Year.
In the final set of regional rankings, the notable omission from the tournament field is Findlay after the Oilers were No. 3 in the Feb. 26 published list behind only Charleston and Hillsdale. The Oilers were ranked as high as sixth nationally and despite falling in the conference tournament semis vs. Cedarville, Findlay dropped four spots from that previous regional ranking to the Selection Show announcement. Kentucky Wesleyan was also in the Feb. 26 regional ranking going into the start of the conference tournament.
Seven regional tournaments, consisting of six teams each will be conducted March 13, 14 and 16. The west regional will be conducted March 12, 13 and 15. The eight regional champions will advance to the quarterfinals in conjunction with the 2021 NCAA Division II Men's Elite Eight. The quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games will be conducted at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana March 24, 25 & 27.
Start times and dates for the Atlantic Regional will be announced by the host institution in the near future.