For the second straight year, there will be four HBCUs playing for a national championship in the Division II men’s basketball tournament.
These teams include the Virginia Union Panthers, Tuskegee Golden Tigers, Miles Golden Bears, and the Winston-Salem State Rams.
As a four-seed, Virginia Union has the best placing of all the HBCU teams in the tournament field. They will play against the fifth-seeded Fairmont State in the first round.
The Panthers had the best record in the CIAA in the regular season finishing 22-6 overall and 12-4 against the CIAA.
Their conference tournament run ended abruptly losing to Winston-Salem State in the semifinal round on a last-second game-winning shot by the Rams.
This will be Virginia Union’s first national tournament appearance since 2018.
Coming in as a seven-seed is Tuskegee who will open up their tournament run against the two-seed West Alabama.
The #D2MBB Championship bracket is
in: https://t.co/TDR3C8UCAs
: https://t.co/pxWRZyck5N pic.twitter.com/WcB9dLJxJb
— NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) March 6, 2023
Similar to Virginia Union, Tuskegee finished with the best record in the SIAC in the regular season finishing with a 20-8 overall record and a 15-5 record against the SIAC.
They also suffered a disappointing fate in the conference tournament losing in their opener against Kentucky State.
Winston-Salem State is the first of two HBCU teams that come in a No. 8 seed. The Rams open their tournament run against number one seed Indiana (Pa.).
WSSU enters the tournament coming off winning their second CIAA championship in the past three seasons.
Finally, the Miles Golden Bears hold the other eight-seed. They square off against Nova Southeastern.
Miles finished with a 20-6 overall record and a 15-5 conference record in the regular season. They went on to claim their third SIAC title in the past four seasons following their win over Benedict.
