Just eight teams remain in the DII men’s basketball championship. The DII Men’s Elite Eight heads to Pittsburgh on March 27, where Nova Southeastern looks to win yet another national championship.
If you want a great storyline, look no further than the quarterfinals. Standing in the No. 1 Sharks’ way of more hardware is No. 8-seeded Black Hills State. It was this very matchup in 2022 that ended Nova Southeastern’s 31-0 season in a stunning 77-67 quarterfinals upset. That obviously changed the Sharks’ trajectory, who have appeared in every championship game since.
How did we do on our predictions this year? Every year, there is a “team to beat” and a “team to watch” picked in each region. Five of the “teams to beat” — Nova Southeastern, Cal State East Bay, Gannon, Daemen and Michigan Tech — made it to the Elite Eight. Two of the “teams to watch” also snuck through as No. 6-seeded Black Hills State won its third South Central Region title in five years, and No. 2-seeded Lander remained red hot to win the Southeast Region. The only complete swing and miss was the Central Region, where Washburn was absolutely stunned by No. 8 Minnesota Duluth, opening the door for Oklahoma Baptist.
So, DII men’s basketball’s biggest stage is set. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.
The DII Men’s Elite Eight: How to watch
The DII men’s basketball championship moves to ESPN+ and CBS for the remainder of the tournament. Quarterfinals action begins March 25 on ESPN+, with games starting at noon ET and then (tentatively) 2:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The semifinals are two days later, on March 27, and will be at 6 and 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+. The championship game then heads from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis and will be played at 1 p.m. ET on April 5. You can watch this game on CBS.
The final eight, by the numbers
| School | Scoring offense | scoring defense | Rebounds | Assists | Steals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSU | 100.2 | 76.8 | 42.7 | 18.8 | 11.9 |
| CSUEB | 76.9 | 63.1 | 38.5 | 14.8 | 10.2 |
| Gannon | 95.9 | 73.5 | 42.6 | 18.4 | 13.0 |
| Daemen | 84.0 | 66.3 | 40.9 | 18.8 | 7.7 |
| Lander | 80.6 | 69.3 | 36.9. | 15.6 | 7.6 |
| MTU | 74.7 | 66.5 | 38.2 | 13.5 | 6.8 |
| Okla. Baptist | 77.5 | 68.2 | 38.0 | 13.0 | 7.8 |
| BHSU | 82.5 | 69.5 | 38.1 | 17.8 | 5.9 |
The DII Men’s Elite Eight, previewed
No. 1 Nova Southeastern. Of course, the Sharks are in the DII Men’s Elite Eight. Nova Southeastern has made the Elite Eight in every tournament it has played in since 2019 (reminder: The 2020 tournament was canceled, and the SSC opted not to play the 2021 season). You want stats? This team is No. 1 in DII in scoring and assist-to-turnover ratio, No. 2 in scoring margin and rebounds, and No. 4 in turnovers forced per game. You want metrics? The Sharks had the No. 1 RPI and PI in the South Region and the No. 2 KPI in all DII. Ryan Davis and Dallas Graziani have never lost a game at home in their Sharks’ careers as they extended their record-setting home winning streak to 105-straight games in sweeping the South Region once again. Can Nova Southeastern exorcise its demons and get past Black Hills State? While no current players were on that team, now-coaches Nick Smith and RJ Sunahara were starters on the court that day. You can be sure those two have this team laser-focused on arguably the trickiest No. 8 seed in DII history.
No. 2 Cal State East Bay. The Pioneers were 11-17 a year ago and had really never even sniffed a tournament berth. Now, they are the last remaining undefeated team in all college basketball and have won their first CCAA and West Region championships to make their first trip ever to the DII Men’s Elite Eight. And they didn’t simply sneak into the Elite Eight. The Pioneers upended Cal Poly Humboldt State by 19 points, took down Cal State Dominguez Hills (and the Toros’ underrated defense) by nine before taking down Point Loma by 15 in the West Region championship game. Can a No. 2-seeded, 33-0 team be a Cinderella? Maybe not, but as far as storylines go, they are the beaus of the ball.
No. 3 Gannon. The Golden Knights are back in the DII Men’s Elite Eight for the second time in three years. They are proving that 2022-23 historical turnaround — when then-head coach Jordan Fee did the unthinkable and took a 3-win team to a 32-win team and Elite Eight berth in a single season — was no flash in the pan. Earlier this season, I said Gannon was one of just three teams that can potentially defeat Nova Southeastern, and that remains true. Fee brought Sharks’ head coach Jim Crutchfield’s high-tempo system to Gannon, and though he is gone, his former assistant, now head coach Easton Bazzoli, continues to run opponents out of the gym. Just take a look at the stats of the remaining teams. Gannon and Nova Southeastern are nearly identical. If this were to be the finals matchup, it could be as thrilling as the Nova Southeastern/West Liberty showdown from 2023.
No. 4 Daemen. There is no team as experienced as the Wildcats remaining in the field. The starting five — Benjamin Bill, Justin Glover, Ryan Heath, Justin Hemphill and Zack Philipkoski — were all on the team in last year’s tournament. That kind of leadership in the transfer portal is pretty wild, and could be what propels Daemen to a quarterfinals win. The only question here is history, and the East Region doesn’t fare well in the Elite Eight. However, I don’t know that we have seen an East Region team this dominant in the past decade. The Wildcats have just two losses in the past two seasons and have lost only one East Region game over that span.
No. 5 Lander. Remember what I said in the tournament preview? It isn’t always the best team that turns heads. Sometimes, it is the hottest team with all the momentum that makes an unexpected run. That is what the Bearcats are doing, entering just their second Elite Eight in program history. Winners of 13 in a row, this team had to battle through the likes of quality teams like North Georgia and Lenoir-Rhyne to get to Pittsburgh. To make things more exciting, the Bearcats best player is freshman Jacob Daniels, who has found another gear in the postseason. He put together arguably the best game of his young career when it mattered most, dropping 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting with a career-high nine rebounds against Lenoir-Rhyne in the Southeast championship game.
No. 6 Michigan Tech. “The Huskies have a pretty brutal non-conference schedule to open things up, including DBU and Lenoir-Rhyne in the Classic this coming weekend, but if they can walk away .500 or better, they will be in great shape. This is my early pick to win the Midwest.” That was what was said on Nov. 1 in the preseason Power 10 rankings, before the DII men’s basketball season opened in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. Lo and behold, here we are, and four months later, the Huskies are indeed Midwest Region champs. It is the first appearance for Michigan Tech, and it is led by one of the best scorers in DII, Marcus Tomashek. Tomashek has averaged 22.5 points per game over the last three seasons, hitting 113 3-pointers this season, with his 3.32 hit per game sixth-best in DII. He was on another level in the Midwest Region tournament, scoring 34, 23 and 33 while going 16-for-32 from 3-point land. He is their biggest scoring weapon, and arguably the biggest scoring weapon in the entire DII Men’s Elite Eight.
No. 7 Oklahoma Baptist. The Bison not only made program history by advancing to their first-ever DII Men’s Elite Eight, but they are the first GAC team to ever win the Central Region title. The Central Region was thrown on its head when then-31-1 Washburn lost to No. 8-seeded Minnesota Duluth, which the Bison wound up defeating in the championship game. If Tomashek is the best natural scorer in the field, the Bison’s Terry Coner Jr. isn’t far behind. The 2024 GAC freshman of the year had a breakout season, averaging 20.0 points per game for the first time in his three years in Oklahoma, a three-year span filled with many accolades, mind you. He scored 24 points in the Central Region championship game.
No. 8 Black Hills State. Ahhh, the Yellow Jackets in March. Simply put, there is no more dangerous team in the bracket than Black Hills State. The Yellow Jackets made program history in 2022, winning their first-ever RMAC title, which clinched their first-ever spot in the DII men’s basketball championship. They didn’t stop there, marching their way to the national semifinals in that historic upset over Nova Southeastern. How did they follow that up in 2023? They snuck in as the No. 6 seed and upset the Nos. 3, 2 and 1 seeds in a row to once again win the South Central and advance to the Elite Eight, where their season ended in the national semifinals once again. Now, back in the tournament for the first time since those historic runs, the Yellow Jackets have to have the Sharks on edge. They have that March magic, and Cam Lowe is as good as any player remaining in the field. This team took down DBU to get here, and pretty much held court the entire second half. Make no mistake: This is no underdog 8-seed.
