By LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor

Southern head coach, Carlos Funchess

The men’s and women’s champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and Mid Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) are all seeded 16th, last in their respective regions, as the 2023 NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament tips off this week.

MEAC women’s champion Norfolk State (26-6) and men’s champ Howard (22-12) go straight into competition against defending national champions and No. 1 seeds.

SWAC women’s champion Southern (18- 14) and men’s champ Texas Southern have in effect, play-in games. If each gets by their opponent, theywill then face No. 1 seeds.

THE MATCH UPS

Southern head coach Carlos Funchess is taking his Lady Jaguars squad to Stanford, Cal., to face fellow 16th-seed Sacred Heart (18-13) in a First Four game of the Seattle 4 Region on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET). The SHU Pioneers, as a 2-seed, knocked off top seed Fairleigh Dickinson to win the Northeast Conference Tournament and earn their automatic berth.

This will be the second NCAA bid for the Lady Jags under fourth-year head coach Funchess, the former 14-year assistant to SU head coach Sandy Pugh. Funchess also won the SWAC title and automatic bid in 2019 before losing in the NCAA to top seed Mississippi State.

If Southern can get by SHU, the Lady Jags will face region top seed Stanford (28-5) on its home floor on Friday (4:30 p.m., PT).

Fifth-year head coach Johnny Jones will be bringing the Texas Southern men to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. The Tigers are in the First Four game on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio where they will face NEC champion Fairleigh Dickinson (19-15).

As a 2-seed, FDU lost to top seed Merrimack in the NEC championship game but received the league’s automatic bid because Merrimack is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. Merrimack is transitioning from Division II to I and will not be eligible for the tournament until next season.

In his two previous First Four appearances, Jones led TSU to victories over Mount St. Mary’s in 2021 and Texas A&M Corpus Christi in 2022. The Tigers were eliminated by top seed Michigan in 2021 and top seed and eventual national champion Kansas in 2022. A win vs. FDU earns TSU a shot at East Region top seed Purdue (29-5) on Friday in Columbus, Ohio (6:50 p.m.).

Conversely, MEAC champions Norfolk State and Howard will be making their first NCAA appearances under head coaches Larry Vickers and Kenny Blakeney respectivey.

Vickers, in his eighth season leading the Lady Spartans, has the unenviable task of facing undefeated (32-0) SEC champion, women’s overall top seed, Greenville Region 1 top seed and defending national champion South Carolina on its home floor in Columbia, SC on Friday (2:00 p.m. ET). Norfolk State was last in the NCAA Tournament in 2002 under James Sweat where it lost to No. 1 seed Duke.

Blakeney’s Howard Bison will play in the West Regional in Des Moines, Iowa against top seed and men’s defending national champion Kansas (27-7) on Friday at 1 p.m. Kansas fell to Texas in the Big 12 Tournament final.

This is Blakeney’s first NCAA appearance in his four years at Howard. The Bison were last in the tournament in 1992 under then head coach Butch Beard.

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