CANTON, Ga. - Two league schools earned a spot in the Division III Men's Basketball Championship field as announced by the NCAA on Monday morning. Conference tournament champion Rhodes College is joined by at-large selection Trinity University on the national stage.
The Division III men's basketball bracket includes 64 teams with 43 qualifying automatically as conference champions. The reamining 21 entrants were determined by ranking in the NCAA Power Index (NPI).
Rhodes (23-4) enters the tournamnet after earning the Southern Athletic Associations (SAA) automatic bid after winning the tournament championship on Saturday. The Lynx are gearing up to head to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2017 where they squared off with Whitman in the first round falling in a high scoring match 111-98.
Rhodes is headed to the Emory University to compete with Roanoke (22-6) who captured the ODAC Championship. In the bracket with Rhodes and the Maroons will be host, Emory (22-3) and Mississippi University for Women (17-10). The two advancing teams will compete in the NCAA second round.
All season long the Lynx have been led by Phil Dotson averaging 21.4 points per game and a team high 64 three-pointers made. Aiding Dotston is Jackson Huxtable averaging 16.6 points a contest and stepping up in the SAA Championship game to drop 25 while going 8-8 from the foul line. The two earned their spot onto the SAA All-Tournament team along with First Team All-Conference honors led by the SAA Coaching Staff of the Year.
Trinity (21-6) enters the tournament as a familiar face in post season play. The Tigers fell to Rhodes in the final of the SAA tournament but have relied on their NPI ranking for a tournament berth. They will take on Whitworth (22-5) ata familiar host school from their former conference, St. Thomas (26-1). St. Thomas will play the CCS champion, Belhaven (16-12).
The Tigers have been a dominant force in the SAA led three averaging double-figures - Jackson Lawson, Will Bronson, and Dean Balo. The team shared the regular season title with Rhodes and had a big win against Emory earlier this season at 90-78.
This is familiar territory for Trinity as they have taken on many top ranked teams this season. Trinity's last NCAA appearance was in 2024 where they were narrowly defeated by UT Dallas in the first round, 67-63.
For more information on all things SAA, visit the websites of any of the participating schools, or go to the SAA's home on the internet at
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