For the first time in history, Fort Wayne enters The Summit League Men’s Basketball Championship as the top seed.
Eight teams begin play at The Summit League Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Saturday, March 5 and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament will be determined in the championship game Tuesday, March 8.
The Mastodons (23-8, 12-4 Summit League) earned their first Summit League regular season title as regular season co-champions and seek their initial tournament title and NCAA appearance. IPFW, which owns a league-best No. 14 ranking in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25, will meet No. 8 seed South Dakota (14-17, 5-11) Saturday, March 7 at 6 p.m. CT (Midco Sports Network / ESPN3).
The Summit’s other regular season co-champion, South Dakota State, is seeded second and opens play in Saturday’s nitecap. The Jackrabbits (23-7, 12-4) match up against No. 7 Oral Roberts (14-16, 6-10) at 8:30 p.m. CT (MidcoSN / ESPN3).
Sunday’s quarterfinals session begins with No. 4 seed IUPUI (13-18,9-7) against No. 5 seed and defending tournament champion North Dakota State (18-12, 8-8) at 6 p.m. (MidcoSN / ESPN3). No. 3 seed Omaha (18-12, 10-6) makes its Summit League Tournament debut when it faces No. 6 Denver (15-14, 7-9) at 8:30 p.m. (MidcoSN / ESPN3) to close out the quarterfinal round.
Monday’s semifinals begin with the winner of No. 1 vs 8 game against the winner of the No. 4 vs. 5 game at 6 p.m. followed by the winners of the 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 games at 8:30 p.m. Both semifinals will air on MidcoSN / ESPN3.
Tuesday’s championship game is set for 8 p.m. and will be televised live on ESPN2 and on WatchESPN.com.
