TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (March 12, 2023) – TCC Men's Basketball received an at-large bid to the NJCAA Division I Tournament on Sunday evening, announced on the NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Selection Show. The tournament, which starts Monday, March 20, takes place at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The Eagles enter the tournament as the #12 seed and will play Trinidad State (23-7, 12-0) in the first round on Monday, March 20 at 8:30 PM CT. Trinidad State received an automatic bid to the tournament after winning the Northwest Plains District Championship 78-77 over Casper College.
The winner of Monday's game will take on the #5 seed Salt Lake on Wednesday, March 22 at 2:00 PM CT.
After advancing to the FCSAA/NJCAA Region 8 Championship Game, where the Eagles lost narrowly to Northwest Florida State, they are now 28-5 on the season. 25 of their 28 wins came against NJCAA Division I opponents, and they are 7-4 against teams ranked in the NJCAA Top 25.
This is the fifth time in program history that the Eagles have qualified for the NJCAA Tournament but will be just their fourth trip to Hutchinson, Kansas. The tournament was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 19 schools have reached the tournament more times than TCC.
TCC's first trip to Hutchinson came in 1997 under head coach Mike Gillespie. In 2006, TCC finished as national runners-up, after falling in the National Championship game to the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. The Eagles' next trip to Hutch came in 2011, where they reached the quarterfinals.
