Brian Dandrea and the Blue Streaks will be travelling to Greensboro, North Carolina, for their NCAA first round game
3/1/2010 10:08:28 AM
The John Carroll University men's basketball team learned that it will be heading south for spring break after all.
As the 2010 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship bracket was revealed, the Blue Streaks were selected as one of 19 at-large teams in the field of 61, and will face Maryville College of Tennessee (23-4, Great South Athletic Conference champions) in the first round.
The game will take place on Friday, March 5, in Greensboro, North Carolina, on the campus of Guilford College. John Carroll and Maryville are schedueld to take to the court in the opener at 6:00 p.m., while host Guilford (26-2, Old Dominion Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion) will take on Christopher Newport (15-12, USA South tournament champion) at 8:00 pm.
The winner of the JCU-Maryville first round game will face either Guilford or Christopher Newport in the second round on Saturday, March 6, at 7:00 p.m. for the right to advance to the regional semifinals.
All games this weekend will take place at the Guilford College Ragan-Brown Field House.
For information on John Carroll tickets and transportation, call 216 397-2098.
John Carroll, with a record of 20-6 and regular season champion of the Ohio Athletic Conference, is making its 12th appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament and its sixth in the last eight years. The Blue Streaks have enjoyed a fair amount of success in its previous 11 journeys into the NCAA playoffs, reaching the round of 16 in 2005, 2007 and 2009, the national quarterfinals in both 1998 and 1999, and finishing third in the nation in 2004.
The Blue Streaks are 19-13 all-time in NCAA tournament action, including 19-8 in nine appearances under current head coach Mike Moran. Since Moran first took a JCU team to the Division III Championship in 1996, JCU has managed to win at least one tournament game in eight of those nine appearances.
John Carroll is 10-6 in road games in the NCAA tournament since 1998, posting wins over Wooster (1998 and 2004), Hampden-Sydney (1998), Ohio Northern (1999), Mississippi (1999), Wittenberg (2004 and 2005), Maryville (2004), Amherst (2004) and Lake Erie (2007).
Against the teams in the Guilford "pod", JCU is 2-1 against Maryville (wins in 1997 and 2004, loss in 2000), 0-1 against Guilford (loss in 2009 "sweet 16") and 1-3 against Christopher Newport (losses in 1981, 1986, and 2000, win in 2006).
The last time John Carroll played games in Greensboro was on December 20-21, 2006, when the Blue Streaks defeated none other than Christopher Newport before losing to Greensboro College in the final of the 2006 Greensboro Classic.