For the first time since the 2014 Men’s Summit League Basketball Championship, the North Dakota State Bison will arrive at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center as the No. 1 seed.
The Bison (22-8, 13-3 SL) and defending tournament champions earned that right as co-champions of the regular season along with South Dakota State (22-9, 13-3 SL).
NDSU gets the No. 1 overall seed by owning the tiebreaker between the two teams, who split the regular-season series. The tie was broken thanks to NDSU’s season sweep of South Dakota (20-11, 10-6 SL), who claimed the No. 3 seed with a 77-67 win over North Dakota.
The Bison will play in the first quarterfinal on Saturday night at 6 p.m. CT against Denver (7-23, 3-13 SL).
The Jackrabbits, who have won the postseason event each of the last two times they have been the No. 2 seed (2012 and 2016), will play Purdue Fort Wayne (13-18, 6-10 SL) in Saturday’s second quarterfinal at 8:30 p.m.
The Coyotes, who became the third Summit League team to reach the 20-win plateau, will face North Dakota (13-17, 7-9 SL) on Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
Oral Roberts (16-13, 9-7 SL) claimed the No. 4 seed and will face Omaha Sunday night.
