2018 NAIA DII Women's Basketball Championship Tournament Preview
SIOUX CITY, IOWA -
(Schedule |
Bracket) The 27th annual NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship, presented by Mercy Medical Center and Seaboard Triumph Foods, tips off tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Tyson Events Center. The single-elimination event runs through the championship final on March 13.
The first 30 games of the national championship will be broadcast live on
www.NAIANetwork.com – the NAIA’s official video platform. The championship final is distributed on ESPN3 for the fifth-straight season on March 13 at 6 p.m.
This year’s field consists of 22 automatic berths and 10 at-large spots. Automatic qualification was given to conference regular-season champions, regular-season runners-up, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined by using the final regular-season Coaches’ Top 25 Poll.
No. 3 seeded
Indiana Tech (29-4) and No. 6 seeded
Bryan (Tenn.) (25-9) - out of the Liston Bracket - will be the first teams to compete at the Championship at 8:30 a.m. Bryan secured their automatic bid by virtue of winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament. Indiana Tech received their automatic bid by being the Regular Season Champions of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
The No. 1 overall seed
Southeastern (Fla.) takes the court tomorrow against No. 8 seeded
Cornerstone (Mich.) at 5:15 p.m. The Fire are the only team coming into the tournament as the only undefeated team this season. The Fire earned their automatic bid as both The Sun Conference Regular Season Champion and also as the Tournament Champion.
Two-time defending champions
Marian (Ind.) open their tournament Thursday, March 8th at 5:15 p.m. against
St. Thomas (Fla.). The Knights went 32-2 in the regular season and captured their automatic bid by being the Crossroads League Regular Season Champion.
The Great Plains Athletic Conference boasts the most teams in the tournament this year wth five.
Alice Lloyd (Ky.), Anteope Valley (Calif.), Northwest Christian (Ore.), and
Stillman (Ala.) are all making their first ever national tournament appearance.
In total, 22 of the 32 teams are returning from last year's tournament.
For more information about Division II Women's Basketball, click
here