AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College is the No. 8 team in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings for men's basketball which were released this afternoon. It marks the last of three polls that will be released by the Regional Advisory Committee. The NCAA announces 10-team rankings for each of the eight regions across the country for three successive weeks leading up to the NCAA Championship selection announcement, which will be made this year on Sunday, March 6.
The East Region of NCAA Division II is comprised of teams from the East Coast Conference, the Northeast-10 Conference and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The eight-team NCAA Championships East Regional —one of eight regional tournaments that comprise the 64-team NCAA tournament—will consist of three automatic berths and five at-large selections, and it takes place March 12-15 at a site that is yet to be determined.
Bentley (20-4) of the Northeast-10 sits atop the NCAA Regional poll for the third straight week, while Franklin Pierce University (17-9), Saint Anselm College (17-9), Dominican College (20-6) and Pace University (19-8) round out the top five. The bottom five consists of the University of New Haven (17-8), St. Thomas Aquinas College (24-4), Daemen (19-8), Southern New Hampshire University (13-11) and Adelphi University (17-10).
Under the guidance of eighth-year head coach Mike MacDonald, the Wildcats have posted a 19-8 overall record so far this season, as well as a 16-2 mark in ECC play. Daemen owns an 18-5 in-region record this season and a 2-2 mark against teams included in this week's regional rankings—having defeated No. 5 Pace (83-72) and No. 7 St. Thomas Aquinas (73-61) and having lost to No. 2 Franklin Pierce (83-80) and St. Thomas Aquinas (75-70 OT). The Wildcats were scheduled to play No. 1 Bentley and No. 3 Saint Anselm, but those games were canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.
Daemen has won 14 of their last 16 contests and are coming off a 67-55 defeat of Queens College (N.Y.) in the regular season finale this past Saturday. The Wildcats will enter postseason play as the No. 2 seed in this week's ECC Championship tournament and will play in the semifinal round this Saturday, March 5 at 3:30 p.m. They await the winner of tonight's first round contest between third-seeded Molloy College sixth-seeded University of the District of Columbia. The semifinal and final rounds of the ECC Championship are being held at Aquinas Hall on the campus of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 18 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
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