The 2023 NCAA Division I Tournament got its first team as Fairleigh Dickinson punched the ticket for March Madness, that too, without winning their conference tournament. The reclassification rule from D-II to D-I came into play as Merrimack, which is not eligible to play in the NCAA Tourney, entered the final which means their opponents will advance automatically.
Merrimack, in the North Eastern Conference (NEC), is still completing its four-year reclassification process to become eligible for the NCAA Tournament. The NEC, however, had announced last year that it would the team to participate in the conference tournament.
In a fortunate turn of events though, Merrimack beat Sacred Heart in the semifinal on Saturday, which meant that the winner of the second semifinal between St. Francis (Pa.) and Fairleigh Dickinson would be eligible for the automatic bid for the Tourney.
The Knights completely did their part as the no. 2-seed beat no.3 seeded St. Francis 70-50, thus becoming the first team to enter the 2023 NCAA Division I Tournament. The NEC tournament title game, however, will still be played on Tuesday.
The Knights have improved dramatically this season as they currently stand at 19-14 win-loss record this season compared to a horrid 4-22 last season. The turnaround happened after Fairleigh Dickinson appointed Tobin Anderson as their head coach.
This is Anderson’s first year as the head coach with Dickinson. He was previously with Division II St. Thomas Aquinas where had been the head coach since 2013.
The Fairleigh Dickinson, however, isn’t the first team to get the automatic bid without winning the conference tournament. The Gamerocks had also earned the automatic bid for the NCAA tournament last season even though they lost to Jacksonville in the conference tournament semifinals.
The college basketball regular season is coming to an end with Selection Sunday scheduled for March 12 where 36 teams will be given seeds apart from 32 which get the automatic bids.
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