One day after the Howard University men punched their first NCAA dance ticket since 1992, they will face a Power 5 program that was their opponent the last time they made the tournament.
The 22-12 Bison are seeded 16th in the Midwest Region and will face top-seed and defending national champion Kansas on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. Southwestern Athletic Conference champion Texas Southern returns to Dayton for a First Four game against Northeast Conference champion Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday.
The Bison edged defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Norfolk State 65-64 Saturday afternoon in the MEAC championship, while the Jayhawks were soundly defeated 76-56 by Texas in the Big 12 championship game.
The Bison’s last NCAA trip took place in 1992, under the guidance of former NBA point guard Butch Beard, a 100-67 loss to the Jayhawks, also a No. 1 vs. 16 match-up. That Kansas team was coached by Roy Williams and led by future NBA players Greg Ostertag, Rex Walters, and Adonis Jordan.
The 14-20 Tigers won three games in four days to claim their third straight SWAC title, capped by a 61-58 over No. 2 seed Grambling State on Saturday. This is Texas Southern’s second straight First Four appearance. Last season, they defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 76-67 before losing to Kansas 83-56 in the first round.
The First Four can be seen on TruTV as well as streamed on NCAA’s March Madness website.
