INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Blue Division Champion and Tournament Champion University of St. Thomas (25-2) earned its third-straight berth into the 64-team NCAA Div. III Men’s Basketball Tournament it was announced Monday afternoon. NCAA Release | Bracket
St. Thomas claimed its third SCAC Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship title on Sunday, knocking off Trinity, 58-53, in overtime.
St. Thomas will host Lewis & Clark (15-12) for its opening round contest, the automatic qualifier out of the Northwest Conference (NWC), on Friday in Houston, Texas. Historically, the SCAC is 1-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament against NWC opponents but did win the most recent matchup when Trinity knocked off Whitworth in the opening round of the 2022 Tournament. On the other side of the bracket, American Southwest Conference champion Hardin-Simmons (18-9) takes on Cal-Lutheran (22-5) an at-large selection out of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). Friday's winners will play on Saturday, March 8 with a berth to the round of 16 on the line.
This marks the third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament for the Celts, but the first as the automatic qualifier out of the SCAC. In it previous two appearances, St. Thomas has been bounced in the opening round, last year falling to UT-Dallas, 67-63.
The championship provides for a 64-team tournament. Automatic qualification (AQ) is granted to 43 conference champions. The remaining 21 teams are selected from those teams in conferences with automatic bids that did not win their conference’s AQ. The teams are geographically paired, whenever possible.
Sixteen sites will host four teams for first- and second-round competition Friday-Saturday, March 7-8. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 14-15. Winners of the four sectional championship games will advance to the semifinals and finals on March 20 and 22. All games, except the semifinals and finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals and finals will be held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, IN.
