DE PERE, Wis. – The University of Northwestern will play its NCAA Division III Tournament first round opponent on a neutral court for the first time in the Eagles' five-year history of receiving invitations to the "Big Dance." UNW faces the University of St. Thomas at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in the Schuldes Sports Center on the campus of St. Norbert College.

NCAA Tournament Bracket: PDF | Interactive
Game Links: Live Video | Live Statistics
St. Norbert Pool Announcement | Northwestern NCAA Tournament Announcement 



Northwestern Notes
Northwestern is currently 18-9, having gone a perfect 14-0 in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) play. 2014-2015 is the first year that the Eagles have gone 14-0 against league opponents; UNW has gone undefeated in the UMAC before, but in a 10-game schedule (10-0 in 1994-1995).

The Eagles' UMAC regular season championship is the program's 26th since Northwestern began sponsoring men's varsity basketball in 1973-1974. UNW has won three straight conference titles, and Northwestern has claimed 12 UMAC trophies in Tim Grosz's 15-year tenure as head coach.

2015 is Northwestern's fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, a streak matched only by UNW's opponent, St. Thomas, in the state of Minnesota. The Eagles are still in the hunt for their first NCAA postseason victory. In three of the last four years, Northwestern's first round opponent went on to claim the NCAA Championship, including in 2011 when the Tommies won it all after a 70-60 first round victory over the Eagles in St. Paul.

Northwestern had five players mentioned in Tuesday's UMAC postseason awards release. Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) and Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) were selected to the all-conference first team, with Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School) being a second team All-UMAC selection. Carney was voted the league's player of the year, while Grosz was named the UMAC Coach of the Year. Caleb Janson (Pierz, Minnesota/Pierz Healy) was selected to the five-member UMAC All-Defensive Team and Cody Sprenger (Grey Eagle, Minn./Long Prairie-Grey Eagle) was Northwestern's individual recipient of the UMAC Sportsmanship Award. The Eagles also won the UMAC Team Sportsmanship Award, having claimed that honor every year since its inception since 2012. Carney and Gisler both received UMAC All-Conference Second Team honors in 2014.

Northwestern is currently on a 16-game winning streak, which is a new program record. The previous mark of 15, which the Eagles broke with a win over Minnesota Morris in the UMAC Tournament championship game, belonged to the 2009-2010 team.

In addition to winning 12 UMAC titles in his career as head coach, Grosz boasts the highest winning percentage of any Northwestern men's basketball coach. Grosz enters Friday's game with a 285-152 (65.2) all-time win-loss record with six 20-win seasons. Coach Grosz's 285 victories are tops among the six men who have coached the Eagles.

Carney and Janson are both approaching career milestones. Carney is 22 points away from 1,000 for his career, while Janson currently stands at 481 career rebounds.

Carney has averaged 15.5 points per game this season, which ranks among the UMAC's top five. The junior has committed a mere 0.4 turnovers per contest while making 42.7 of his three-point field goal attempts. Junior Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) (7.4) and Janson (7.0) are third and fourth in the UMAC's rebounds per game 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 the Division III ranks, committing 14.7 fouls per game which ranks 15th nationwide.

St. Thomas Notes (Courtesy of St. Thomas Sports Information)
The Tommies, winner of both the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular season and tournament championships, were ranked No. 3 in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 poll and will enter this weekend with a 24-3 record.

St. Thomas is making its 16th NCAA Division III Tournament appearance. The Tommies have made 10 consecutive appearances and won the national championship in 2011. St. Thomas, who lost 88-77 to Augustana last year in the first round, is 23-15 all-time in the tournament.

St. Thomas has rallied back from a deficit in its last two games in the MIAC Tournament. The Toms defeated Bethel 66-63 in a hard-fought, emotional MIAC Playoff championship game on Sunday. St. Thomas held on after going on a 21-6 run to build a 10-point lead with seven and a half minutes to play. Two days earlier, St. Thomas rallied from three points down in the final 16 seconds to force overtime and eventually win 83-79 over Gustavus Adolphus. UST snared two offensive rebounds in the closing seconds, and Marcus Alipate sank a 14-foot shot to tie with 01.50 left on the clock. Both games were home contests for the Tommies.

St. Thomas is scoring an average of 75.3 points per game, and is shooting 48.3 percent from the floor, 43.1 percent on 3-pointers and 70.5 percent at the free-throw line. Opponents are scoring an average of 62.0 points per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the floor, 34.5 percent on 3-pointers and 62.7 percent at the free-throw line.

Over the last five seasons, the Tommies are 31-7 against teams outside the MIAC.

St. Thomas has won or shared an unprecedented 10 consecutive conference regular-season championships. The previous MIAC high was seven in a row set by Hamline from 1946-53. The Toms have won 45 total conference crowns: 31 regular-season, 14 playoff titles.

St. Thomas has reached the MIAC playoffs 28 times in the 31-year history of the format, and its all-time record in the event is 35-15, including a 32-7 on-campus record. UST has a league-best 14 playoff crowns, including titles in eight of the last 10 years.

St. Thomas has 14 top-two conference finishes in the last 15 seasons, and has a record streak of consecutive MIAC playoff berths now at 16.

St. Thomas needed just one win to become the third NCAA Division III men's program to reach 1,600 victories, and a Feb. 21 win against Hamline gave them that milestone.

UST reached victory number 1,500 in the program's 104-year varsity history on Feb. 27, 2011 when it beat Gustavus 83-77 in the MIAC playoff championship game.

Coming into this season, only five D-III programs had surpassed 1,530 all-time victories -- Wittenberg (Ohio) (1,692), Wooster (Ohio) (1,627), St. Thomas (1,578), Illinois Wesleyan (1,575), and Hope (Mich.) (1,537).

When senior guard Marcus Alipate scored 30 points Jan. 19 in an 80-69 road win at Bethel, it marked the first 30-point game by a Tommie basketball player in seven seasons (214 games). Tyler Nicolai scored 32 as a freshman in a win at St. Olaf in December 2007. Alipate became the first Tommie to surpass 25 points in the five-year era of the new Schoenecker Arena on Jan. 31 when he tallied 28 in a 90-75 defeat of Augsburg. He came back Feb. 4 in a win at St. Mary's and scored 21 points with a career-best seven treys.

Fourth-year head coach Johnny Tauer has guided the Toms to a 98-18 record (.845). Prior to taking over the program in May 2011, he was an 11-year assistant coach. He previously was a four-year player at UST from 1991-95. He's just the third head coach for Tommie men's basketball since 1954. The 42-year-old already has the rare distinction of competing in the Division III national semifinals as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He swept conference and West Region Coach of the Year awards in 2013. Tauer is the latest St. Thomas head coach to guide a team to the MIAC team championship in his/her first season. He's one of six UST rookie coaches to win a crown in the last 15 years alone, joining John Tschida (2001 softball), Thanh Pham (2003 volleyball), Sara Evens (2005 women's golf), Chris Olean (2010 baseball) and Scott Blanchard (2015 Men's S&D).

UST played nine January games over a 29-day span. They won all nine games of the hectic month.


In Friday's Other Game (Notes courtesy of St. Norbert Sports Information):
St. Norbert (24-1), the four-team pod's host, will face Elmhurst College (19-7) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The Green Knights from St. Norbert are making their fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last six years. Elmhurst, who is making its fourth NCAA Division III Tournament appearance, was an at-large invitee to this year's postseason.

St. Norbert and Elmhurst are tied 4-4 in an all-time series begun in the 1999-2000 season. The Green Knights have won the last two games in the series, including the last meeting in a 74-48 win over the Bluejays on Nov. 23, 2010 at Schuldes Sports Center. St. Thomas leads St. Norbert 6-3 in an all-time series begun in the 1949- 50 season. The two teams have not met since a 61-48 St. Thomas win on Dec. 14, 1991 in St. Paul, Minn. Northwestern leads St. Norbert 1-0 in a series started during the 2009-10 season. The Eagles topped the Green Knights 72-70 in a Nicolet Bank Tournament game on Dec. 29, 2009 at Schuldes Sports Center in De?Pere.

St. Norbert, ranked No. 5 in the D3hoops.com Top 25, enters the tournament 24-1 overall. The Green Knights ran their winning streak to 15 games with a 91-73 win over Grinnell in the championship game of the Midwest Conference Tournament. Senior forward Andrew Schwoerer, the co-MWC?Player of the Year, leads the Green Knights with 16.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Senior guard Austin Elliott is averaging 13.8 points and 4.6 assists per game. Senior center Steven Hofacker is averaging 10.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Ben Bobinski is netting an average of 8.3 points per game. St. Norbert is scoring an average of 79.2 points per game, and is shooting an NCAA all divisionsbest 54.7 percent from the floor, 43.0 percent on 3-pointers and 74.5 percent at the free-throw line. Opponents are scoring an average of 60.9 points per game while shooting 38.8 percent from the floor, 33.4 percent on 3-pointers and 68.4 percent at the free-throw line. St. Norbert became the first Midwest Conference men's basketball team to post consecutive unbeaten league seasons in 64 years after finishing 18-0 for the second-straight year. The Green Knights, who have won a record 44 consecutive games against MWC opponents, were the first team to go two years without a league loss since Beloit in 1950 and 1951. St. Norbert's current streak began with a 57-52 win over Ripon on Feb. 12, 2013 in De?Pere. St. Norbert is 55-1 in its last 56 games against MWC?foes. Grinnell was the last MWC team to beat the Green Knights, posting a 104-99 overtime win on Feb. 9, 2013 in Grinnell, Iowa.

Elmhurst enters the tournament 17-9 overall after finishing in third place in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin at 9-5. The Bluejays have lost their last two games, both to Illinois Wesleyan. Elmhurst lost 80-67 this past Friday in a CCIW Tournament semifinal game. Junior guard Kyle Wuest is averaging 14.8 points per game. Junior forward Erik Crittenden is netting 11.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Junior guard Bryant Ackerman is averaging 10.7 points per game, while junior forward Will Nixon is averaging 8.4 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game. Elmhurst is scoring an average of 76.3 points per game, and is shooting 43.7 percent from the floor, 35.1 percent on 3-pointers and 74.6 percent at the free-throw line. Opponents are scoring an average of 68.1 points per game while shooting 40.4 percent from the floor, 31.6 percent on 3-pointers and 71.4 percent at the free-throw line.