Feb. 26—The regular season didn't end well for the WVU Tech men's basketball team. But, as is often the case in late February and early March, a second chance awaits.
The Golden Bears earned the No. 4 seed for the upcoming River States Conference Tournament. They will begin play at home, hosting No. 5 Indana-Kokomo in a quarterfinal game Wednesday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
Tip-off will be 7 p.m.
For the first time, a points system was used to determine the playoff field. The top five teams from the East and West divisions qualified, then the points system was used for seeding. The system took into account conference games only and rewarded teams for wins on the road and wins against teams with high win percentages.
Seeding was based on points regardless of division. WVU Tech, 17-9 overall, was 10-7 in league play and finished with an average of 3.382 points.
Three of the top five seeds are from the East.
February has not been kind to the Golden Bears, who have gone 2-4 this month. That includes a three-game losing streak heading into the tournament. One of those losses came to regular season champion and No. 1 seed Point Park, which will join the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year.
Point Park has already earned an automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament.
The other two losses came to rival Rio Grande and Shawnee State, a first-year member of the conference that won the 2021 NAIA national championship.
The tournament begins Monday with a pair of play-in games. No. 8 Rio Grande will host No. 9 Indiana East at 7 p.m. and No. 7 Indiana Southeast will host No. 10 Midway at 7:30 p.m.
In the quarterfinals, No. 6 Ohio Christian will play at No. 3 Shawnee State. Point Park will host the Rio Grande/Indiana East winner, and No. 2 Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, the West Division champion, will host the Midway/IU Southeast winner.
The semifinals are set for Saturday and championship for Tuesday, March 5. Those games will be played at the sites of the higher seeds.
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5