TOURNAMENT BRACKET  ---  TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton College men's basketball team will host a NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament First Round game this Saturday in King Arena on the Wheaton campus. Wheaton (20-6) earned an at-large bid to the tournament and will face St. Norbert College (20-5) at 7 PM in the opening round of the 62-team national tournament. The winner of Saturday's First Round game will advance to the Second Round on March 9 against the winner of a First Round game between St. Thomas University (Minn.) and Aurora University.

Admission for Saturday's game against St. Norbert is $6 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens (over 60). Children under two years old will be admitted for free. No free passes, CCIW passes, or Wheaton Thunder season passes will be accepted for the NCAA Championship event. Advance tickets will be available at the front desk of the Sports & Recreation Complex (SRC) on the Wheaton campus beginning at 3 PM on Wednesday Feb. 27. The advance tickets will be sold from 3 PM-11 PM on Feb. 27 and from 6 AM-11 PM on Feb. 28 and March 1. The final day for advance tickets will be on Saturday March 2 from 8 AM until noon. Seating for Saturday's game will be first-come-first-served when the King Arena doors open at 5:30 PM on Saturday March 2.

Thunder head coach Mike Schauer, said of today's announcement, “I am thrilled that we got into the tournament. It is difficult to do. This time is special to me because it was so unanticipated at the start of the season. We were picked to finish fifth in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll, and were not generating a lot of buzz given how many players we lost from last year's team." Schauer continued, “But I will say that I knew in October that we had a team that was pretty good. I don't know that I would have predicted this, but better than many people may have anticipated.”

Wheaton enters the tournament with a 20-6 record this season. The Thunder finished third during the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin's (CCIW) regular season schedule with a 10-4 record during conference play.

This is Wheaton's 14th postseason appearance, and 13th in a NCAA Tournament (the 1955-56 team finished fourth in the NAIA Tournament). Schauer is guiding the Thunder into the postseason for the third time in his four seasons at the helm of his alma mater. “I think that we have made it for three of the past four years not only speaks to the success of our program, but the success of our league and our schedule. It has really been affirmed to me that we need to continue to play a good schedule, with regionally ranked opponents”, noted Schauer. He concluded, “Our string of tournament appearances also means that we continue to attract high-caliber basketball players.”

Saturday's game will be the ninth meeting in men's basketball between Wheaton and St. Norbert. St. Norbert tallied a record of 20-5 this year and earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by winning the Midwest Conference.