Augsburg College improved to 24-3 overall with a 102-91 victory over Nebraska Wesleyan in a first-round NCAA Division III national playoff game on Thursday night (3/4/99) at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall.
Augsburg finished with a 24-4 record with an 85-53 loss to Wisconsin-Platteville, the defending national champions, in a second-round game on Saturday night (3/6/99) at Williams Fieldhouse in Platteville, Wis.
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Tournament Preview
MINNEAPOLIS (2/28/99) -- The Augsburg College men's basketball team received an at-large bid for the 48-team NCAA Division III national playoffs Sunday night, and will host a first-round tournament game on Thursday night, March 4.
The 23-3 Auggies, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season champions for the second year in a row, will host 19-4 Nebraska Wesleyan on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Si Melby Hall in Minneapolis. Augsburg was seeded fourth in the six-team West Region, while Nebraska Wesleyan was seeded fifth.
Tickets are $4 for adults and $3 for students (NO passes are accepted) and can be purchased Wednesday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Student Affairs office in the Christensen Center, adjacent to the information desk. No phone orders will be accepted. Tickets will also be available at the door at Si Melby Hall. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
This is Augsburg's third appearance in the NCAA Division III national playoffs. Previous appearances were in 1985 and 1998. Thursday's game will be Augsburg's first-ever home contest in NCAA tournament play. Prior to 1982, Augsburg had appeared 10 times in NAIA District 13 play and six times in the NAIA national tournament.
The winner of Thursday's game between Augsburg and Nebraska Wesleyan will play at the West Region's top seed, Wisconsin-Platteville, on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Platteville, Wis. The Pioneers, defending national champions, are 25-2 overall.
Augsburg had a 19-game winning streak snapped by Gustavus Adolphus in the MIAC's playoff championship game Saturday night. The 21-5 Gusties earned an automatic bid and the No. 3 seed in the West Region, and will host No. 6 seed Pomona-Pitzer (17-8), the champions of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in St. Peter, Minn. The winner of the Gustavus/Pomona-Pitzer game will travel to Fayette, Iowa, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. to face No. 2 West Region-seed Upper Iowa (23-4), champions of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The two West Region brackets are cross-matched with the two Midwest Region brackets for the Midwest Sectional on March 12-13. In the Wisconsin-Platteville/Augsburg/Nebraska Wesleyan bracket, the survivor will face the survivor of the following Midwest schools: No. 2 Manchester (Ind., 23-4), No. 3 Wheaton (Ill., 19-6) or No. 6 Washington (Mo., 16-9).
In the Upper Iowa/Gustavus/Pomona-Pitzer bracket, the survivor will face the survivor of the following Midwest schools: No. 1 Franklin (Ind., 22-5), No. 4 Ripon (Wis., 20-4) or No. 5 Illinois Wesleyan (17-8). Those cross-bracketed games, at the top Midwest seed's court, will be held on March 12, with the winners meeting March 13 to earn a trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four, to be held at Salem, Va., March 19-20.
