NIC men earn first-round bye

The North Idaho College men’s basketball team picked up a victory of sorts on Monday.

The Cardinals received the No. 5 seed to the 24-team NJCAA tournament, scheduled to unfold March 14-19 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kan.

By being seeded among the top eight teams, NIC earned a first-round bye, and will begin tourney play next Tuesday, rather than Monday. The Cardinals (31-1) will play the winner of No. 12 seed Southwest Tennessee (28-4) and No. 21 seed Spartanburg Methodist College from South Carolina (26-6), on Tuesday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. PDT.

The tournament is single elimination, until the semifinals. The only consolation bracket game is the third-place game between the semi-final losers.

NIC is at nationals for the first time since 1997.

On Sunday, the Cardinals received one of four at-large bids by the NJCAA tournament selection committee after a perfect 30-0 regular season and a No. 3 ranking in the final NJCAA polls. The Cardinals were upset in the Region 18 tournament championship game by Salt Lake Community College for their only loss of the season.

Salt Lake earned the district automatic bid by beating Cochise, the Arizona region champion, in the West District championship, 99-73. The Bruins received a No. 13 seed and will face No. 20 Northeast Mississippi. Both NIC and Salt Lake are in the same quadrant of the tournament and could possibly meet in the Elite 8 if both teams are successful in early round games.

If NIC wins its first game, the Cardinals will advance to the Elite 8 and play at noon Thursday, March 16. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 19 at 5 p.m.

All games can be viewed live on NJCAATV.

More NJCAA tourney information: http://www.njcaabbtrny.org/home1024/homepage.htm