LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
It’s back to the NCAA Basketball Tourna- ment this week for MEAC men’s champion Norfolk State, SWAC men’s champion Texas Southern and SWAC women’s champion Jack- son State. Howard, the MEAC women’s cham- pion under head coach Ty Grace, is the only one of the four Div. I HBCU hoops champions that was not in the same position a year ago.
The TSU men and Howard women will play in what’s now called “First Four” games, Tues- day and Wednesday respectively. Norfolk State plays at defeneding champion Baylor Thursday while Jackson State is seeded 14th but has a tough date with 3rd-seed LSU on Saturday.
WOMEN
Howard (20-9) won a conference-record 11th MEAC tournament title after knocking off Norfolk State Saturday. It will be the Lady Bi- son’s 11th NCAA appearance but the first under Grace, who is in her seventh season.
Howard took on Incarnate Word Wednesday (March 16) at 7 p.m. in Columbia, S.C., live on ESPNU in a First Four game.
Incarnate Word (13-16), under head coach Jeff Dow, was the sixth seed in the Southland Conference Tournament and knocked off top seed Houston Baptist in the semifinals before defeating Southeastern Louisiana Sunday in OT for the title. UIW won four games in four days to take the title.
The Howard/UIW winner faces No. 1 over- all seed South Carolina (29-2) in the first round Friday (March 18).
SWAC ladies champion Jackson State (23- 6) earned a 14th seed in the Spokane Region of the women’s tournament, one spot up from its 15th seed a year ago. The Lady Tigers will face LSU (25-5) in its first year under former Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, Saturday at 4 p.m. CT in Baton Rouge, La. Mulkey won three national titles while leading Baylor. Reed’s JSU squad lost to Mulkey’s Baylor team 101-55 in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Six-four JSU senior center Ameshya Wil- liams-Holliday led the SWAC in scoring (19.0 ppg) and averaged 11.2 rebounds per game, second-best in the conference. She also led the conference in blocks (2.7 bpg.) and shooting per- centage (.579).
MEN
The Texas Southern men faced Southland Conference Tournament champion Texas A&M-
Corpus Christi in Dayton, Ohio in a men’s First Four game Tuesday evening (5:40 p.m.). The winner of Tuesday’s game heads to Fort Worth, Texas to face No. 1 Kansas on Thursday (8:57 p.m. CDT) at Dickies Arena in a first round Mid- west Region contest.
This marks the third consecutive First Four appearance and fourth all-time for Texas South- ern. TSU has won its past two First Four ap- pearances in 2018 and 2021 with the latter over Mount Saint Mary’s (60-52) in Bloomington, Ind. due to the modified NCAA Tournament for- mat in 2021. The Tigers lost in the first round to Michigan 82-66 last season.
TA&MCC was the fourth seed in the South- land Tournament and knocked off top-seed Nicholls in the semifinals and second-seed New Orleans in the championship game.
TSU is 1-2 all-time against the Islanders with the last meeting between both teams in 2007 as current TSU Vice President for Inter- collegiate Athletics Kevin Granger served as head coach for that game during a 72-64 win in Corpus Christi. Steve Lutz is the Islanders’ head coach.
Eighth-year head coach Robert Jones takes the Spartans of Norfolk State (24-6) to their sec- ond straight NCAA Tournament appearance and third overall when they face East Region top seed and defending national champion Baylor (26-6) Thursday (2 p.m.).
Last season, Jones and the Spartans won a First Four match up with Appalachian State, 54- 53, before falling to overall #1 seeded Gonzaga, 98-55. In 2012, NSU pulled off arguably one of the biggest upsets in tournament history when as a #15 seed knocked off #2 seed Missouri, 86-84, in the first round. Jones was an assistant on that team.
Baylor fell in the Big XII Tournament quarterfinals this season to Oklahoma, 72-67. Baylor finished the regular season with a 26-5 overall record and went 14-4 in the Big XII. This is the third meeting between the two teams with the Bears winning the previous two. On November 13, 2009, BU won 86-58 in Waco and again on December 30, 2014, 92-51.
