Drexel to face Illinois in NCAA Tournament on Friday
Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) champion Drexel is a No. 16 seed in the Midwest Region and will face No. 1 seed Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Friday, March 19. The game will be played at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis and will tip at 1:15 EDT Friday on TBS.
This will be the Dragons’ fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, including three consecutive appearances from 1994-96. DU is 1-4 all-time in the event. Its only win was a 75-63 upset victory over Memphis in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before falling to eventual national finalist Syracuse in the second round in the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
This will be Drexel’s first meeting against Illinois in program history. The Fighting Illini (23-6) defeated Ohio State, 91-88, in overtime in the final of the Big Ten Championship on Sunday. Ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Poll, Illinois is led by first-team all-conference selections Kofi Cockburn (17.6 ppg/9.6 rpg) and Ayo Dosunmu (20.7 ppg/6.3 rpg),
The Dragons (12-7) earned their NCAA Tournament berth with a 63-56 victory over Elon last Tuesday in the championship game of the Hercules Tires CAA Men’s Basketball Championship, held at the Atlantic Union Bank Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Drexel is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.
Drexel is led by junior guard Camren Wynter (16.8 ppg), who received first-team All-CAA accolades and was chosen as the Most Outstanding Performer at the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Teammates grad student forward Zach Walton and grad student forward James Butler joined Wynter on the all-tournament team, while Butler was a third-team All-CAA selection.