The 2014 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 64 teams that was played to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 2013–14 basketball season.
The eight regional winners met in the Elite Eight for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The championship game was played on March 29, 2014 and was aired nationally on CBS.
The Central Missouri Mules defeated the West Liberty Hilltoppers, 84–77, to win their second national championship and first since the 1984 NCAA Division II Tournament.
Qualification and tournament format The champions of 22 of the 24 Division II basketball conferences qualified automatically. The list of automatic qualifying conferences changed as follows from the 2013 tournament: The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) disbanded at the end of the 2012–13 school year, with most of the former members forming the Mountain East Conference (MEC) under a new charter. The MEC will not be eligible for an automatic berth until the 2016 tournament. The Great American Conference, which began competition in the 2011–12 school year, became eligible for an automatic berth.
In addition to the MEC, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) was not eligible for an automatic berth. Although the G-MAC began conference competition in 2012–13, it was not officially accepted as a Division II conference until 2013–14, meaning that it will not receive an automatic berth until the 2016 tournament.
An additional 42 teams were selected as at-large participants by the selection committee. As in previous years, the first three rounds of the tournament were organized in regions comprising eight participants in groups of two or three conferences (two in the Atlantic and Central regions) with seeds assigned by the selection committee. The Elite Eight regional winners met ar one site for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.
Automatic qualifiers The following teams automatically qualified for the national tournament as the champions of their conference tournaments.
Team Conference RegionCal State StanislausCCAAWestPhiladelphiaCACCEastLivingstoneCIAAAtlanticLimestoneConference CarolinasSoutheastBridgeportECCEastHardingGreat AmericanCentralFindlayGLIACMidwestSouthern IndianaGLVCMidwestSeattle PacificGNACWestNorth AlabamaGulf SouthSouthTexas A&M InternationalHeartlandSouth CentralTarleton StateLone StarSouth CentralMissouri Southern StateMIAACentralSouthern Connecticut StateNortheast-10EastMinnesota State MankatoNSICCentralChaminadePacific WestWestSouth Carolina–AikenPeach BeltSoutheastEast StroudsburgPSACAtlanticMetro StateRMACSouth CentralLincoln MemorialSACSoutheastTuskegeeSIACSouthFlorida SouthernSunshine StateSouth
Regionals
East - New Haven, Connecticut Location: James Moore Fieldhouse Host: Southern Connecticut State University
Central - Mankato, Minnesota Location: Taylor Center Host: Minnesota State University, Mankato
South - Lakeland, Florida Location: Jenkins Field House Host: Florida Southern College
South Central - Denver, Colorado Location: Auraria Events Center Host: Metropolitan State University
Midwest - Springfield, Missouri Location: O'Reilly Family Event Center Host: Drury University
Atlantic - East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Location: Koehler Fieldhouse Host: East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
Southeast - Aiken, South Carolina Location: USCA Convocation Center Host: University of South Carolina, Aiken
West - San Bernardino, California Location: James and Aerianthi Coussoulis Arena Host: California State University, San Bernardino
Elite Eight – Evansville, Indiana Location: Ford Center Host: University of Southern Indiana
All-tournament team Dillon Deck (Central Missouri) Shawn Dyer (West Liberty) Charles Hammork (Central Missouri) Cedric Harris (West Liberty) Daylen Robinson (Central Missouri)
References
External links 2014 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament jonfmorse.com