CLEVELAND, OH – Wabash (13-3) has earned the top seed in the 2024 NCAC Men’s Basketball Tournament after defeating Wooster (12-4), 91-81, in a must win game to decide the 2023-24 conference champion. The NCAC Tournament begins with quarterfinal games on Tuesday, February 20th. The seeding follows the regular-season standings with the top four seeds hosting quarterfinal contests. The tie between Oberlin (8-8) and Ohio Wesleyan (8-8) for fifth was broken via the conference tiebreaker system for seeding purposes only.
This season, the Little Giants claimed their second title in three years, while Wooster leads all NCAC men's teams with 19 titles overall. Wittenberg is second all-time with 13 total titles; Ohio Wesleyan has won seven conference championships. Allegheny is the only other team to have won a conference championship with four all-time.
Quarterfinal games will all be played on Tuesday, Feb. 20, with top-seeded Wabash hosting eighth-seeded Kenyon (3-13) at 7:00 p.m. and second-seeded Wooster playing host to seventh-seeded DePauw (7-9), also at 7:00 p.m. In the other quarterfinal matchups, third-seeded Wittenberg (11-5) hosts sixth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan at 6:00 p.m., while fourth-seeded Denison (10-6) faces fifth-seeded Oberlin at 5:30 p.m. The quarterfinal games at Wittenberg and Denison will be part of a doubleheader with the women, who will play after the men’s contests. The gym will be cleared in between those games and separate tickets will be required for both contests.
Tuesday's winners will advance to the semifinals and tournament final on Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24, at the site of the highest remaining seed to emerge from the quarterfinal round. Semifinal games will be held on Friday with the host institution selecting its preferred time. The tournament final is set for 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
If one institution hosts both the men's and women's "final four," the women's semifinals will be played on Thursday, Feb. 22, and the men's semifinals will be played on Friday, Feb. 23. The championship games would then be played on Saturday with the women playing at 3:00 p.m. and the men at 7:00 p.m. In this scenario, the gym will be cleared in between games and separate tickets will be required for each contest.
This year's tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament, which begins with first-round play on March 1st.
TOURNEY TALK: Top-seeded Wabash is the defending NCAC Tournament champion after defeating Wooster by one point (81-80) in the 2023 tournament final to claim back-to-back titles. The Little Giants have qualified for the tournament every year it has been contested since joining the NCAC in the 1999-00 academic year … Second-seeded Wooster leads all teams with 17 tournament titles. Together, the Fighting Scots and Wittenberg (8) own 25-of-38 tournament crowns while Ohio Wesleyan (5), Allegheny (3), Wabash (2), Denison (1), DePauw (1), Kenyon (1) own the remaining 13 trophies (no tournament was conducted in 2021) … The Fighting Scots last won the tourney title in 2019 and are heading into the NCAC Tournament with the league’s highest winning percentage at .790 (79-21). Wittenberg follows with a .679 (53-25). Ohio Wesleyan is next at .514 (36-34), followed by Wabash at an even .500 (21-21) … Wooster has advanced to the tournament final a league-leading 29 times, while Wittenberg follows with 18; Ohio Wesleyan has 10 appearances in the tourney final, followed by Allegheny (8), Wabash (5), Kenyon (3), Denison (2) and DePauw (1) … The no. 3 seeded Wittenberg Tigers are in the hunt for their first tournament crown since claiming back-to-back titles in 2018 and ’19 … Denison, which last won the tourney title in 2016, enters the this year’s field as the four seed and will look to advance to the semifinals for the fourth-consecutive season … No. 5 seeded Oberlin returns to the tournament for the second consecutive season … Ohio Wesleyan enters the tournament as the six seed and will look to advance to the semifinal round after falling to DePauw in the quarterfinals a season ago. … No. 7 DePauw, which won the tourney title in 2015, returns to the field for the seventh-straight year and the 11th time in the last 12 competitive seasons … No. 8 seeded Kenyon enters the tournament for the first time since 2017.