The Radford University men’s basketball team earned a 16-seed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and will facee fellow 16-seed LIU Brooklyn in the First Four of the Big Dance last night.
The winner of Radford/LIU Brooklyn will face No. 1 Villanova in Pittsburgh on Thursday, March 15. The Highlanders (22-12) and the Blackbirds (18-16) have never met.
Coincidently, the winner of the Villanova contest could set up an all-Montgomery County matchup with the winner of the Virginia Tech-Alabama game.
Radford is making its third NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and first since 2009 after winning the Big South Championship to earn an automatic bid one week ago. The team is led by Big South Coach of the Year Mike Jones, Big South Freshman of the Year Carlik Jones and First Team All-Big South honoree Ed Polite, Jr.
LIU Brooklyn earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after upsetting top-seeded Wagner, 71-61, in the Northeast Conference Championship.
The title was the Blackbirds’ sixth overall and first since 2013. That year, the Blackbirds were named a No.16 seed, and traveled to Dayton to face No. 16 seed James Madison as one of the First Four games in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. In that game, LIU rallied from a 12-point, first-half deficit to take a one-point lead five minutes into the second half against James Madison but were unable overcome poor shooting and fell to the Dukes, 68-55.
Radford University Coach Mike Jones (center) watches Sunday’s NCAA Big Dance Show, patiently waiting the name of their opponent. The Highlanders were scheduled to play LIU-Brooklyn last night.
The Blackbirds are led by NEC Tournament MVP Joel Hernandez (20.9 ppg) and Raiquan Clark (17.4 ppg). Clark is the team’s top rebounder with 7.1 per game, while possessing a 55.7 field goal percentage. Hernandez dishes out 2.6 dimes a game, while shooting 38.0 percent from beyond the arc.
In their first trip to the Big Dance in 1998, the No. 16 Highlanders fell to a No. 1 Duke team that featured Elton Brand and Shane Battier, 99-63, in the first round. Then in 2009, No. 16 Radford fell, 101-58, to a No. 1 North Carolina squad that was led by Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green.
The 2018 tournament will mark the first time the Highlanders will play outside of the South Region after playing their 1998 game in Lexington, Kentucky, and the 2009 contest in Greensboro, North Carolina.
