DAYTON — One of the area’s Division I basketball teams already knows they’ll be playing in the the upcoming NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament but there’s still a chance both teams will hear their names called on Selection Sunday.
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Wright State qualified for the NCAA Tournament Tuesday night after winning the Horizon League tournament, storming back from a 16-point deficit to defeat Northern Kentucky. As an automatic qualifier, Wright State is guaranteed a spot in the tournament, but their seeding comes down to the NCAA committee.
The Raiders are currently projected by several bracket experts, including well-known ESPN personality Joe Lunardi, as one of the lower seeds in the tournament and would play in one of the two First Four games featuring 16 seeds at UD Arena.
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The Horizon League has never had a team play in the First Four since it started in 2011, however several projections and experts show the Raiders will only have to drive across town to play their first game in the NCAA Tournament.
If the Raiders play in the First Four and win, their next match-up would be against a number one seed and likely one of the favorites to cut down the nets in the championship game.
While the Horizon League isn’t known for putting teams in the First Four, some of the other conferences that crowned champions last night. The Northeast Conference, Southwest Athletic Conference, and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference have put more teams in UD Arena than any other league.
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Bryant University won the NEC championship Tuesday night, and Delaware took home the Colonia Athletic Association title. Projections show these two teams could also come to the First Four as 16 seeds.
There are still several more conference champions to be crowned, but teams from the SWAC, MEAC, and Southland are all possibilities to make the trip to Dayton early next week.
For the Dayton Flyers, they are in the conversation for one of the final at-large selections, one of the teams selected by the committee that didn’t win one of the conference championships.
If the Flyers win the Atlantic 10 Tournament they will win the automatic bid from the Atlantic 10 Conference to play in the NCAA Tournament and would bypass the First Four.
However if the Flyers don’t win the A-10 title, projections show they are one of the candidates on the line between making the tournament and playing in the First Four or missing the NCAA Tournament.
To move on the right side of the line, the Flyers will need some help from some of the teams also on the bubble like Indiana, SMU, or even Xavier, to lose early in their conference tournaments. This would mean fewer teams on the bubble, and a better chance Dayton’s resume will be selected for an at-large spot.
However the Flyers have made the First Four before and got a massive home court advantage in 2015. Dayton knocked off Boise State thanks to a game-winning shot by Jordan Seibert.
Dayton could have the First Four happen again, but Flyer fans will be hoping for the most direct, guaranteed path into the tournament: win the A-10 and win the auto-bid.
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