INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- For the first time in over a decade the SCAC will have two men's teams competing for the national championship as regular season champion University of St. Thomas and tournament champion Schreiner University were among the 64 teams selected for the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. NCAA Release | Bracket
St. Thomas (22-3) and Schreiner (15-13) are part of a four-team pod (first and second rounds) to be played at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. Competition begins on Friday, March 3 with the winners of those games squaring off on Saturday for a trip to the sectional round.
#SCACMbb | �� BREAKING �� For the 1st time since 2012 the #SCAC is sending two teams to the @NCAADIII Men's Basketball Tournament as Tournament Champion @SUMountaineers will face @UMHB & Regular Season Champion @USTAthletics takes on @GoETBUTigers at UMHB��#SCACPride | #d3hoops pic.twitter.com/Yx0XRO09o5
— SCAC (@SCAC_Sports) February 27, 2023
This season marked St. Thomas' inaugural year eligible to compete in NCAA Division III tournament play and will be the program's first national post season competition since 2018-19 when the Celts were still a member of NAIA.
St. Thomas will begin this year's postseason journey with a first-round matchup against East Texas Baptist University (23-5), who earned the automatic bid from the American Southwest Conference by defeating Hardin-Simmons 72-64 at the Mayborn Campus Center - the site of this weekend's competition. The ASC tournament championship is the first for ETBU since 2015.
The two teams played earlier this season (November 15th) when St. Thomas edged ETBU, 83-81, as SCAC Player-of-the-Year Calvin Williams scored 22 points in the win. Tip-off for Friday night's tournament opener will take place at 4:50 p.m. CT.
Schreiner, who pulled off the biggest seed upset in SCAC tournament history by taking the league's automatic bid as the fifth seed this weekend in San Antonio, will take on the host school, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (21-5) in first round action. The second game of the evening is scheduled to tip at 7:20 p.m. CT.
UMHB, the American Southwest Conference regular season champion, was upset in the semifinal round of the ASC tournament by Hardin-Simmons, 78-71, on Friday night.
Schreiner will be making its second-ever NCAA tournament appearance. The Mountaineers dropped a first round contest to Whitman College, 87-77, in the 2018 national championships.
Sixteen sites will host four teams for first- and second-round competition Friday-Saturday, March 3-4. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 10-11. Winners of the four sectional championship games will advance to the semi-finals and finals March 16 and 18. All games, except the semi-finals and finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semi-finals and finals will be held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, IN.