This won't be the first trip to the NCAA Tournament for the Hillsdale College men's basketball team.
But it's never looked quite like this before for the Chargers.
Hillsdale, the 2020-21 Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season champion, will be making its sixth NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in program history in 2020-21, and it will do so for the first time as one of the tournament's eight No. 1 seeds.
The Chargers (20-2) were chosen as the number one seed in the Atlantic Region for this year's tournament, another first for Hillsdale, which made its previous five NCAA appearances in the Midwest Region.
The Atlantic Region tournament includes six teams and will take place in West Liberty, West Virginia at the Academic, Sports & Recreation Complex on the campus of West Liberty University.
The top seed comes with a bye to the second round of the tournament, and Hillsdale will meet the winner of Mercyhurst (11-0) and MEC Tournament champion Fairmont St. (15-4) on Sunday with a berth to the regional final on the line.
Hillsdale was the top seed in the Atlantic Region in the final NCAA Division II regional poll last week, but looked like they might fall from that spot after an 74-64 upset loss to fourth-seeded Malone in the G-MAC Tournament semifinal on Friday.
The Chargers, however, benefited from an equally chaotic weekend around the region, as the G-MAC's second seed and the third seed in the final Atlantic Regionl poll, Findlay, also lost in the semifinals, and neither of the top two seeds in the Mountain East Conference tournament, Charleston and West Liberty were able to bring home a title, either.
That opened the door for Hillsdale to remain in the top spot in the region despite the loss and earn an extremely valuable first-round bye in the process.
That chaotic final week sets up what looks like a wide-open tournament. Hillsdale and sixth-seeded Malone, the two G-MAC representatives, each handed the other a loss this season, and the three MEC representatives, second-seeded Charleston, third-seeded West Liberty and fifth-seeded Fairmont State all beat each other as well. The true wild card in a field of wild cards is Mercyhurst, the owner of the nation's best scoring defense that built an impressive resume as an independent this season -- but against a schedule of questionable strength. Without a true favorite, the door is open for any of the six teams to make a potential Elite Eight run -- and that especially includes the top seed in the region.
The Chargers have made five NCAA tournament appearances in program history -- 1994-95, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2011-12 and 2017-18 -- but are looking for their first NCAA Tournament victory since the 2000-01 season, when the Chargers beat Gannon 60-58 in a Midwest Regional quarterfinal before falling to eventual National Champion Kentucky Wesleyan in a 73-71 thriller in the semifinal round. That victory over Gannon is still the only NCAA tournament win in program history, a win total that Hillsdale would like to add to this season.
Stay tuned to hillsdalechargers.com for more updates on the dates, times and opponents Hillsdale will see in West Virginia, as well as preview of the potential semifinal matchups later this week.
Photo by Anthony Lupi