Thanks to a couple of incredibly successful college programs, San Diego is about to host a whole lot of basketball games. The NCAA Division II West Regional Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships are both being held in our town.
The Point Loma men, ranked 10th in the nation and fresh off their Pac West regular season and tournament championships, will be the #1 tournament seed and host eight teams at Golden Gymnasium. They’ll open with Western Oregon. In that group are the U.C. San Diego Tritons, who play Cal Poly Pomona, the team they just beat to win their 3rd straight CCAA Tournament championship.
Over in La Jolla, the U.C. San Diego women, ranked #2 in the country and owners of a 29-0 record, were an obvious choice to be the #1 seed so they get to play at home in RIMAC Arena. UCSD is one of just two undefeated teams in the nation, along with #1 Drury University. Their first game is against Dominican University.
The Division II Tournament is a little different than the Division I event. Instead of the much-ballyhooed Final Four, in this format there are eight regions and the winner of each goes to the Elite Eight. Here are the schedules for the opening round of each event:
Women’s Tournament at RIMAC Arena
Friday, Mar. 15 – Quarterfinals
Noon: #3 Alaska-Anchorage vs. #6 Hawaii Pacific
2:30 pm: #2 Northwest Nazarene vs. #7 Humboldt State
5:00 pm: #1 UC San Diego vs. #8 Dominican University
7:30 pm: #4 Azusa Pacific vs. #5 Cal Poly Pomona
Men’s Tournament at Golden Gymnasium
Friday, Mar. 15 - Quarterfinals
Noon: #6 Concordia vs. #3 Saint Martin's
2:30 pm: #7 Chaminade vs. #2 Seattle Pacific
5:00 pm: #5 Cal Poly Pomona vs. #4 UC San Diego
7:30 pm: #8 Western Oregon vs. #1 Point Loma
The Semi-finals will be held on Saturday and the Finals are set for Monday night in both tournaments.
