Ithaca and Stevens to Play in NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament
Complete Tournament Bracket
NCAA Release
The NCAA unveiled its 62-team men’s basketball bracket this afternoon, and the Empire 8 will have two representatives. Empire 8 Champions Ithaca College (19-8) earned the automatic berth and will be making their 12th trip to the NCAA Playoffs and Stevens Institute of Technology (22-5) will be making its second appearance in its 97-year history as one of the 19 teams to receive an at large bid.
The Bombers will travel to Springfield (19-8) for a first-round contest on Saturday, March 2 at 7:00 pm. The winner will face the winner of the semifinal between Rochester (21-4) and Fitchburg State (16-10) in a second-round game to be played Saturday, March 9.
Ithaca is 3-15 in NCAA playoff competition. Ithaca returns to the postseason for the fourth time in five years. The Bombers suffered a 98-73 setback to host Staten Island in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
The Ducks will host Randolph-Macon College (19-9) Saturday at Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y. at 2:00 pm. The game will be contested at Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y. because the NCAA does not allow institutions in the state of New Jersey to host NCAA Tournament events because of the newly adopted law allowing legal sports wagering in the state. Though the game will be listed officially as a neutral site contest, Stevens Institute of Technology will be the host.
The Ducks went 22-5 and reached the final of the Empire 8 Men’s Basketball Championship. Despite not earning the Empire 8’s automatic berth to the tournament, the NCAA men’s basketball committee felt the Ducks did enough to earn one of 19 at-large berths to the field of 62. The 22 wins mark the third-straight year Stevens has reached or surpassed the 20-win plateau. The program has gone 64-20 over the last three seasons, finally getting to play on the national stage in 2013.
The Division III championship provides for a 62-team, single-elimination tournament that includes 42 winners of conferences whose champions earn automatic qualification and 20 teams that did not win their conference title but received at-large bids. The first round of competition begins Saturday, with two teams receiving a first-round bye. Following the regional semifinal round, regional finals will be held Saturday, March 9. The sixteen winners will play sectional games on March 16. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be conducted in Salem, Va. on March 22-23 and the final will take place on April 7 in Atlanta, Ga.