FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

Complete NCAA Division II Tournament Bracket

Official NCAA Release

UW-Parkside National Tournament History

SOMERS, Wis. (Mar. 9, 2014)-- It's a familiar location and a familiar foe for the 19th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team, earning a spot in the 2014 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament for the second straight season. The Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division Champion Rangers earned the eight seed in the Midwest Region and will ship out to Springfield, Mo. to face top seed and GLVC West Champion Drury University on Saturday.

The Rangers (23-6) will be making their third NCAA Tournament appearance and seventh overall national tournament, returning to O'Reilly Arena in Springfield for the second consecutive year. UW-Parkside qualified for the NCAAs in 2006-2007 and 2012-2013 while making four straight appearances in NAIA National Tournament in 1974-1975, 1975-1976, 1976-1977 and 1977-1978.

The winner of the Parkside-Drury clash will take on the winner of fourth-seed University of Findlay (24-5) and fifth-seed Lake Superior State University (26-5). Second-seed University of Indianapolis (23-4) faces seventh-seed Bellarmine University (23-7) while third-seed and GLVC Tournament Champion University of Southern Indiana (25-5) takes on sixth-seed Michigan Tech University (22-7). The Rangers will tipoff at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the opening round with the winner playing on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. The regional final will be contested at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Seven of the regional tournaments, consisting of eight teams each, will be conducted March 15, 16 and 18 at regional sites. The West regional will be conducted March 14, 15 and 17. The eight regional champions will advance to the quarterfinals in conjunction with the 2014 NCAA Division II Men's Elite Eight at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

The NCAA Division II Tournament features 64 teams broken into eight regions. 22 of the 64 bids are awarded automatically to conference champions with the remaining 42 teams selected at large by the NCAA committee.

UW-Parkside will be traveling to Springfield for the fourth time over the last two years. The Rangers edged Drury 90-88 in overtime on Jan. 5, 2013, the last home loss for the Panthers (25-3). Parkside ended the season in Springfield last year, falling 86-75 to Michigan Tech University in the NCAA Tournament on Mar. 16. The Rangers and defending national champion Panthers met earlier this season on Feb. 13 with host Drury winning 54-52 in a defensive slugfest.