The Ashland University men's basketball team earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division II Tournament as the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region as announced Sunday (March 10) night on the NCAA's selection show.
The Eagles (23-6) will play in the 12th NCAA Tournament in program history, but just the second since 1991. Ashland also played in the national postseason in 2016 when they were 25-5 going into the tournament.
Ashland will play No. 4 seed Southern Indiana next Saturday, March 16 at Neil Carey Arena in Romeoville, Ill. Tip-off time will be announced early this week.
The Eagles, ranked No. 21 in the nation, began the season with 13 straight wins and have been ranked in 12 straight coaches' polls. They were fifth in each of the last two Midwest Regional rankings.
Grand Valley State earned the GLIAC's automatic bid by winning the conference tournament as the No. 7 seed.
AU boasts three All-GLIAC performers, including two first team standouts for the first time in program history. Redshirt-senior guard Ben Haraway and junior center Drew Noble hold that distinction, while redshirt-sophomore guard Aaron Thompson was an All-GLIAC second team and All-Defensive team selection. Noble was a Google Cloud Academic All-District choice.
The Eagles started their postseason last Tuesday (March 5), but lost to eventual champion GVSU in the quarterfinal. Ashland will have 10 days off between games.
Head coach John Ellenwood is in his 10th season leading the Eagles and holds a 171-109 record at Ashland.
Following are the NCAA Division II Midwest Region Tournament first-round matchups.
NCAA Division II Midwest Regional (Times TBA)
No. 1 Lewis vs. No. 8 Grand Valley State
No. 4 Southern Indiana vs. No. 5 Ashland
No. 2 Bellarmine vs. No. 7 Walsh
No. 3 Findlay vs. No. 6 Drury
AU
MBB/BB