Finally dancing! Chapman men headed to Division III playoffs

ORANGE, Calif. -  No sooner than the calendar turned to March than did the anticipation turn to ‘madness' at Chapman University. The Panthers' men's basketball team's long wait for an NCAA Division III postseason tournament berth finally ended on Monday morning. The NCAA announced that Chapman (23-2) will make its first appearance in the Division III championships, earning one of two Pool ‘B' at-large bids into the 61-team bracket. The Panthers will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (21-6) in the first round on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Hutton Sports Center.

It's been 26 years since the Panthers' last appearance in the NCAA playoffs. In 1982-83 and '83-84, Chapman reached the Division II tournament in back-to-back seasons. However, since moving to Division III in 1994, the Panthers have been shutout of the ‘Big Dance' despite 16 straight winning seasons, five 20-win campaigns and an impressive 24-3 record in 2008-09.

This season, Chapman went 23-2, including winning its final 13 regular season games and has been ranked in the top-25 since November. It's the Panthers' fifth consecutive 20-win season. In fact, after going 24-3 a year ago, only St. Thomas (Minn.) (.946) and Washington (Mo.) (.927) have a higher winning percentage than Chapman (.904) in all Divisions over the past two seasons. The No. 12-ranked Panthers' only two losses this year came on the road against Division II opponent Hawaii Pacific and by one point at home to their first-round opponent Claremont 57-56, both in December.

Chapman has benefited from a quintet that has started nearly every game together the past two years: seniors Kyle Wood, Dan Aguilar and Jared Kaiser, and juniors Justin Riley and Griffin Ramme. Ramme and Wood have provided the firepower for the Panthers, averaging 13.5 and 13.3 points per game each. Ramme has 57 three-pointers this season, shooting over 46 percent from the arc. Meanwhile, Riley leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 15.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game and has 10 double-doubles.

Claremont is the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament after defeating Pomona-Pitzer Colleges 57-53 on Saturday night. The winner of Thursday night's first-round contest will travel to Whitworth College (25-2) to face the Northwest Conference champs on Saturday in the second round. The No. 5-ranked Pirates, currently riding a 24-game winning streak, were one of three teams in the bracket to earn a first-round bye.

Tickets for the first round at the Hutton Sports Center on the campus of Chapman University will be $6 for general admission and $3 for students with I.D.

This is Chapman's 10th NCAA tournament appearance in school history. The Panthers had an impressive run of six postseason berths in seven years from 1956-63 under head coach Don Perkins. In the midst of that run, Chapman reached the ‘Elite 8' in 1958 and lost in the College Division national championship game in 1960.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Tournament bracket: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ncaa/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/MBK-D3-2010Bracket.pdf