University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament and will play in the Midwest Regional, which is scheduled for March 14-17 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The regional is being hosted by 13th-ranked and top-seeded University of Indianapolis. Ticket prices and game information will be released on Monday.
The Screaming Eagles (22-8), the defending NCAA II Midwest Region champions, return to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second-straight season and are making their 22nd regional appearance in the last 28 seasons. USI, the 1995 NCAA II National Champion, has appeared in the NCAA II Tournament 27 times in the history of the program and has a record of 35-29 in tournament play.
The Eagles are the sixth seed in the regional and start national tournament action Saturday when they take on 16th-ranked and third-seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis (27-5). USI has never played UMSL in the NCAA II Midwest Regional, but leads the all-time series, 39-14, despite going 1-2 against the Tritons this season.
In addition to the USI-UMSL match-up, the bottom half of the bracket features second-seeded Truman State University (24-6) against 10th-ranked and seventh-seeded Ferris State University (27-6). Truman won the GLVC Tournament championship Sunday with a win over UMSL.
The top half of the regional bracket includes UIndy taking on eighth-seeded Walsh University (25-6), the Great Midwest Athletic Conference champion. The final match-up features fourth-seeded Michigan Tech University (23-8) battling against fifth-seeded Bellarmine University (20-8).
The winners of each of the NCAA II region advance to play in the Elite Eight at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, March 26 and 28. The NCAA II National Championship game is slated to be played during the Division I Final Four in Atlanta, Georgia, April 5.
