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Sweet16preview

Men's Basketball Greg Johnson

NCAA Tournament Preview: Eagles vs. ETBU, Friday, 5 p.m.

ST. PAUL – The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will play host to the NCAA Division III Tournament's Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds on Friday and Saturday in Stevens Point, Wis. The University of Northwestern will look to continue its historic run as one of four teams in the regional bracket at Stevens Point, facing off against East Texas Baptist University at 5 p.m. on Friday with a Saturday 7 p.m. date against the host-Pointers or Emory College awaiting Friday's winner. The Eagles of Northwestern and East Texas Baptist Tigers have never faced one another.

NCAA Tournament Bracket: PDF | Interactive
Game Links: Live Video | Live Stats | Audio
Stevens Point Pool Announcement | Stevens Point Sectional Team-by-Team Notes


Tickets: $8 for adults, $4 for students for each session or $12 for both of Friday's two sessions
Location: Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse (2050 Fourth Ave., Stevens Point, WI 54481)

How they got here:
Northwestern defeated third-ranked (D3Hoops.com) University of St. Thomas 71-70 last Friday on Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School)'s (MORE-rell) buzzer-beating three-pointer -to give the Eagles their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. UNW then handed Elmhurst College an 84-75 loss on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16. Both games were at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis.

East Texas Baptist hosted its own four-team first and second round bracket last weekend in Marshall, Texas. The Tigers defeated Hendrix College 79-59 on Friday before advancing to the Sweet 16 with an 80-75 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday.

First Timers
Both Northwestern and East Texas Baptist earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament wins on Friday, meaning at least one of Saturday's remaining eight teams in the national bracket will have not won an NCAA playoff game before 2015.

Records and Conference Finish
Northwestern is currently 20-9 and went a perfect 14-0 in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) play. The Eagles won the UMAC Tournament to earn the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament. East Texas Baptist owns a 25-5 record, having gone 15-5 in the American Southwest Conference (ASC). The Tigers won three games in as many days to win the ASC Tournament.

Winning Streaks
Both Northwestern and East Texas Baptist are currently on program-record winning streaks. The Eagles have won their last 18 games dating back to January 10; the Tigers have won six consecutive games, twice winning eight or more straight contests in 2014-2015.

Grosz Notables
Northwestern head coach Tim Grosz's teams have won 20 or more games in seven of his 15 years at the team's helm. In the same span of time, UNW has claimed 12 outright or shared UMAC regular season championships including the last three. The Eagles have won all of the last five UMAC Tournaments and have claimed all of the league's automatic qualifiers since the conference was granted an AQ in 2011. Grosz boasts the highest winning percentage of any other Northwestern men's basketball coach with a 287-152 (65.3) win-loss record. Coach Grosz's 287 all-time victories are tops among the six men who have coached the Eagles.

Career Milestones
Junior Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) scored 14 points in last Saturday's win over Elmhurst with his 14th point, which came on a three-pointer in the second half, being the 1,000th of his career. Carney was named the UMAC Player of the Year on March 3. Junior Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy) has 491 career rebounds to his name in three years' time. Should Janson reach 500 career boards, he would be the 19th player in Northwestern's 41 years of sponsoring basketball to hit that mark. Janson was named as a member of the five-team All-UMAC Defensive Team in the same league postseason awards announcement.

Northwestern in the national rankings
As a team, Northwestern ranks 13th in the nation in turnovers per game, averaging 10.1 per contest. UNW is also one of the least fouling teams in Division III, committing 14.7 fouls per game, a number that ranks 15th nationwide.

SportsCenter
Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School)'s game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer against St. Thomas from March 6 earned the No. 4 spot on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 plays. The game's final 39 second sequence was later featured on SportsCenter.

Last time at Quandt
Northwestern last played at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, losing to the then 14th-ranked Pointers 71-54.

 
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Players Mentioned

Michael Carney

#10 Michael Carney

G
6' 0"
Junior
Caleb Janson

#11 Caleb Janson

F
6' 4"
Junior
Porter Morrell

#21 Porter Morrell

G
6' 0"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Michael Carney

#10 Michael Carney

6' 0"
Junior
G
Caleb Janson

#11 Caleb Janson

6' 4"
Junior
F
Porter Morrell

#21 Porter Morrell

6' 0"
Sophomore
G