Indianapolis – The NCAA announced late Sunday evening that St. Thomas Aquinas and Daemen will represent the East Coast Conference in the upcoming Division II Men's Basketball Championship.
The Spartans and the Wildcats continue their run of consecutive NCAA Championship berths. St. Thomas Aquinas, who earned the conference's automatic bid by claiming a second straight ECC Championship on Sunday afternoon, has now been to six straight NCAA Championships.
Daemen has now earned three straight NCAA tournament appearances. The Wildcats earned an at-large bid after finishing as the runner-up in the ECC Championship.
The two ECC members have also claimed the top two seeds in the East Regional. With this year's regional bracket cut from the usual eight teams down to six due to COVID-19, both teams receive a bye into the regional semifinals.
Four Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) members comprise the rest of the field. No. 4 Dominican and no. 5 Caldwell will battle for the right to take on St. Thomas Aquinas, while Daemen gets the winner of the matchup between No. 3 Bloomfield and No. 6 Nyack.
In another COVID-19 related change to this year's tournament, the NCAA selected a predetermined site for all Division II regionals. The College of Saint Rose will play host to the regional at the Capital Center in Albany, N.Y.
The tournament gets underway on Saturday, March 13. The semifinals take place the following day, Sunday, March 14, and after a day off, the championship game will be on Tuesday, March 16.
To view the full 48 team bracket, click here.
2021 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball East Regional
First Round - Saturday, March 13
No. 3 Bloomfield (6-3) vs. No. 6 Nyack (4-4)
No. 4 Dominican (4-3) vs. No. 5 Caldwell (5-4)
Semifinals – Sunday, March 14
No. 2 Daemen (8-5) vs. No. 3-No. 6 winner
No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas (13-1) vs. No. 4-No. 5 winner
Championship – Tuesday, March 16
