On the strength of its second straight PSAC title and 24-5 record, IUP has earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Atlantic Region tournament which will be held at West Liberty, W.Va., starting Saturday.
The Crimson Hawks will play seventh-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan (19-10) in the opening round on Saturday in what is tentatively scheduled for a 2:30 tipoff. IUP is the defending Atlantic Region champion and appeared in the national championship game for the first time in school history last March.
IUP and West Virginia Wesleyan met in the regular season this year, with the Bobcats rallying from a 15-point deficit in the second half for a 73-71 victory on December 7 in Buckhannon, W.Va. West Virginia Wesleyan has won six of the eight games in the all-time series vs. IUP.
West Liberty, the champion of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the No. 1 team in the nation with a 29-0 record, is the top seed in the tournament and will play No. 8 Slippery Rock (21-10) in the first round. The Rock made the field after reaching the PSAC championship game before losing in the final to the Crimson Hawks.
Also on Saturday, No. 3 seed Bowie State (22-5) faces No. 6 seed Mansfield (18-9) and fourth-seeded Shaw (22-8), the champion of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, plays fifth-seeded Winston-Salem State (19-7).
The winners of the IUP/West Virginia Wesleyan and Bowie State/Mansfield games play in the first semifinal on Sunday evening followed by the second semifinal between the survivors of the West Liberty/Slippery Rock and Shaw/Winston-Salem State contests. Following a day off, the championship game will be Tuesday night.
The Atlantic Region champion will join the winners of the seven other regional tournaments at the Elite 8 in Springfield, Mass., March 23-26.
IUP is making its 11th appearance in the NCAA tournament and third in a row. Last year, the Crimson Hawks defeated Fairmont State, West Virginia State and West Liberty in the Atlantic Regional at Memorial Field House to win its fifth region title.
At the Elite 8, the Crimson Hawks knocked off Valdosta State and St. Cloud State before losing to Cal Poly Pomona in the national championship game.
In its 10 previous trips to the NCAA tournament, IUP has a record of 19-9, including 15 wins in 19 regional games. In addition to its run a year ago, IUP also won region titles in 1994, 1995, 2000 and 2002 and reached the national semifinals in 1995 and 2002.
The Crimson Hawks bring an 11-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament, including wins over California, East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock to capture their seventh PSAC championship.
