The Kent State University of Tuscarawas Golden Eagles celebrated a hugely successful season culminated by an eight-game winning streak and a 20-9 record, good enough to impress the USCAA D2 National Basketball Championship committee and earn the No. 5 overall seed in the post season tournament in Richmond, VA, next week.
The Eagles are one of just five teams with 20-win seasons and received one of seven at-large bids awarded to the tournament. The remaining three teams won automatic bids by virtue of winning their conference championships.
They will play No. 4 seed Berkeley College (19-9) on Tuesday, March 14, at 4 pm in the Virginia State University Multi-Purpose Center. The Knights, from New York City, earned an automatic bid when they were crowned champions of the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
A quarterfinal win would pit KSU Tusc against the winner of the No. 1 seed (Penn State Wilkes Barre, 20-7) vs. either the No. 8 seed (Southern Maine CC, 18-9) or No. 9 seeded team (to be determined by a play-in game). That game would take place at VSU on Wednesday, March 15 at 6 pm.
Two consecutive wins would put the Golden Eagles into the national championship game on Thursday, March 16 at 8 pm back at VSU. A loss would send them to the consolation bracket for one game with no chance of getting back into the championship round.
Lodging and ticket information can be found on the USCAA website at the following address: https://basketball.theuscaa.com/landing/index.