Hood Men Earn Pool C Bid to NCAA Tournament

25-Feb-07

FREDERICK, Md.--After more than 24 hours of pacing, nail-biting and finger-tapping, the Hood College men's basketball received news that their season will extend into March.

At about 9:30 p.m. Sunday evening, Hood College president Ronald J. Volpe, head coach Tom Dickman and the Blazers gathered together and hovered around a pair of computers in the Whitaker Center on campus, anxiously awaiting their fate from the NCAA selection committee.

For the next 45 minutes, the team prognosticated with one another about their chances and some donned "rally caps" in hopes of seeing their name appear on the selection list. After constant refreshing of both the D3Hoops.com and ncaasports.com web pages, the Blazers finally got the good news at about 10:18 p.m. that they had been selected as one of 18 Pool C teams to participate in the 2007 NCAA Division III Tournament.

Click here for the complete list of 59 teams selected for tournament play.

In just its fourth year as an intercollegiate program, Hood (21-7, 12-4 CAC) won the 2007 Capital Athletic Conference regular season championship and earned the top seed in the conference tournament.

The Blazers defeated eighth-seeded Goucher College and fifth-seeded St. Mary's College to earn a spot in the championship game against second-seeded Catholic University. The Cardinals used a solid second half to upend the Blazers and capture their seventh league crown.

Despite the setback, Hood is currently ranked sixth in the Mid-Atlantic Region and has a strong 20-5 record against regional opponents. The Blazers also are ranked 33rd in the latest Quality of Wins Index produced by the NCAA.

Hood will learn its opponent and site of its NCAA Tournament contest Monday morning when the brackets are released at approximately 9 a.m. ET.