Men’s Basketball | Mount Union to host three national powers in November

A star-studded discipline of Division III men’s basketball courses will converge on Alliance in mid-November for the M-Club Common at the McPherson Tutorial and Athletic Heart.

Mount Union, which completed past season with a 23-5 record, a berth in the NCAA match and rated No. 25 by D3hoops.com, will host Roanoke (Va.), Maryville (Tenn.) and Whitworth (Clean.) in a pair of doubleheaders on Nov. 11-12.

On Friday, Nov. 11, Roanoke and Maryville will perform at 5 p.m. with Mount Union and Whitworth to adhere to.

On Saturday, Nov. 12, the consolation video game will start at 3 p.m., followed by the event title contest. Ticket information and facts will be introduced later.

“All 4 groups had been nationally ranked at some issue previous time,” explained Mount Union coach Mike Fuline, who will start out his 12th season as the Purple Raiders’ coach with a 194-95 career history. “All 4 groups will profit from a strength-of-routine standpoint. Whitworth is really fantastic.”

Like the Purple Raiders, the other three groups are perennial meeting championship contenders.

Roanoke, a member of the Previous Dominion Athletic Meeting, concluded 18-9 past season with a few losses coming to nationwide champion Randolph-Macon, such as in the meeting championship match. The Maroons also handed OAC champion and NCAA Ultimate Four participant Marietta a 77-68 loss in mid-November.

Maryville concluded 20-4 in general final year and received its division in the United states of america South Athletic Convention. The Scots were being upset in the initially spherical of the meeting match and were not picked for the NCAA tournament.

Whitworth, situated in Spokane (also the residence of Gonzaga College), was ranked for most of very last year and garnered a to start with-place vote in the preseason poll. The Pirates finished 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the Northwest Meeting, tying for the typical-time title with Pacific Lutheran.

Whitworth gained the meeting tournament championship then lost to Trinity (Texas) 77-52 in the initial spherical of the NCAA tournament.

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“Whitworth, becoming located exactly where they are, has a difficult time obtaining [non-conference] games,” said Fuline. “Ideally, we can make it a worthwhile trip for them whilst they’re listed here.”

There are just nine Div. III basketball applications in the Pacific Northwest, and all are customers of the Northwest Conference. The future closest Div. III men’s basketball plan is Colorado College or university, in Colorado Springs, much more than 1,100 miles away. As a end result quite a few of the Pirates’ online games are played on back again-to-back again evenings.

As the Mount Union method has develop into a lot more renowned nationally, Fuline has worked to upgrade the routine. The Purple Raiders have performed The Faculty of Wooster the previous two seasons and are traveling there once more in 2022-23.

“You want to problem by yourself,” claimed Fuline, “and, again, it helps all four of us with toughness-of-program.”

Fuline hopes the two-day celebration starts a very long-time period partnership with the other educational institutions.

“With any luck ,, the 4 of us can reciprocate and we will host each other in potential seasons,” he explained.

“We would like to see good crowds equally days,” Fuline additional. “With any luck ,, the community will get enthusiastic about this party and our group and they’ll come back to help us in the course of the period.”

This article at first appeared on The Alliance Assessment: Maryville, Roanoke and Whitworth will join Mount Union in M-Club Common