Face No. 7 seed Winona State in First Round
NCAA Central Regional Bracket
NCAA DII Tournament Bracket
Mesa State men’s basketball team earned a berth to the NCAA Central Regional tournament as the No. 2 seed in the eight team tournament field. The tournament will be hosted by No. 1-seed Minnesota State-Mankato, March 13, 14 and 16th in Mankato, Minn.
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference will be represented by four teams and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference will send four teams. Metro State, New Mexico Highlands and Colorado School of Mines will enter the tournament as the No. 5, 6 and 8 seed respectively.
MSC, ranked #23 in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Poll finished the season 22-5 and clinched the RMAC regular season title.
It marks the third NCAA tournament berth under Head Coach Jim Heaps and the fifth overall. The Mavericks earned post season trips in 1998-’99 and 2003-’04. MSC lost in the first round of each of those two previous regional tournaments. In 2003 MSC lost at Metro State (102-72) and in 1999 the Mavericks fell to South Dakota (79-74) in Wayne, NE. (host Wayne State).
In 1993-’94 and again in 1994-’95 MSC played in the post season tournament. The Mavericks were in the North Central Region at that time and lost in the first round to North Dakota State 75-65 (’94) and again in the following year (’95) fell to North Dakota State 85-76. In 1994 the tournament played a consolation match which the Mavs lost 96-87 to North Dakota.
MSC will look to win its first post season regional game in school history Saturday in Mankato. Times will be announced Monday morning.
Central Regional Tournament
No. 1 Minnesota State Mankato vs. No. 8 Colorado School of Mines
No. 4 St. Cloud State vs. No. 5 Metro State
No. 3 Augustana (S.D.) vs. No. 6 New Mexico Highlands
No. 2 Mesa State vs. No. 7 Winona State
The winner of the Central Region will advance to the 2010 Elite Eight in Springfield, Massachusetts, March 24-27 at the Mass-mutual Center.