Legendary Aurora Christian basketball coach Don Davidson had a saying, one that I first heard as a senior in high school when we won a regional for the first time in a while and made it to the sectional final: "Good teams play in March." We played in March that year, losing to the hosting Byron Tigers, future home of North Central point guard Mayson Whipple. Mayson got to play in March once at the collegiate level:
as a freshman on the legendary 2015 team. The men have gotten to this level in
each of the past two years. And now in 2018, the Cardinals return to The Dance.
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| Screenshot from NCAA.com |
North Central had to wait it out this year after losing a CCIW Championship game for the first time,
77-74 at Augustana on Saturday. In
a mock selection process on Hoopsville, North Central was one of the bubble teams that got in. Based on
the committee's final set of regional rankings, they appeared to agree, and North Central is in. This is the tenth NCAA Tournament berth for the Cardinals, third in a row, and fifth in seven years.
The Cardinals are one of three CCIW teams to make it to The Dance, along with auto bid winner Augustana, who picked up
their sixth CCIW Tournament championship over the weekend, and Illinois Wesleyan, who was a bubble team after dropping a pair of games to North Central over the weekend but had a strong enough resume to make it in. This makes eleven years running of the CCIW getting at least one extra bid, and the sixth time in seven years that the conference has gotten two at large berths.
So with all this in mind, let's take a trip up I-94 to see where North Central will be playing, and who will be joining them.
