The DII Men's basketball national championship will commence on Saturday in Evansville, Indiana at the Ford Center (3 PM ET on CBS.) The top seeded and undefeated Nova Southeastern Sharks will take on the second seeded West Liberty Hilltoppers. Neither team has ever won a national title. That will change on Saturday. That is just one of many storylines for this one. The Notre Dame College Falcons saw their season come to an end on 3/3 after a 20 point loss to the Hilltoppers. NDC was within six with under 15 minutes to play in the contest and that was the closest game that West Lib has played until Thursday when they survived a physical battle to knock off Black Hills St. 87-82. In the other semifinal Nova Southeastern kept their undefeated record intact after a 94-87 win over Cal State San Bernadino. For the second straight season the Sharks came into the Elite Eight in Evansville with an unblemished record. Last season it was Black Hills who ended that dream in the Elite Eight. The storylines don't stop there.
From 2004-2017 Jim Crutchfield was the head coach of West Liberty and built what is now one of the best programs in America. After the 2017 season Crutchfield left West Liberty to coach NSU (Fort Lauderdale, Florida.) Howlett was an assistant under Crutchfield for six years and is now in his sixth year as the head man on the Hilltop. With Crutchfield as the head man and Howlett as an assistant WLU went to six NCAA Division II Tournaments, five sweet 16's, four elite 8's, 2 final fours, and the National Championship Game in 2014.
As a player Howlett was a standout guard on four consecutive 20 win teams under Crutchfield (2005-2009.) Howlett was the nation's fourth leading scorer (23.0 points per game) his senior season. In the 2009-10 season Howlett became a student assistant under Crutchfield. Then the following season he was an assistant coach at Ohio Valley University before accepting Crutchfield's offer to return to his alma mater as an assistant coach.
Dalton Bolon (now at DI College of Charleston and Dan Moterosso) are just a couple of the stand out players that have come through West Liberty along with the likes of Sergey Bonifant.
This year's version of the Hilltoppers fell 114-107 to Wheeling on 1/21. "At that moment after that game we got together as a team I told the guys if we play our style of basketball we can win the rest of the games we play this season, "Howlett mentioned in the press conference after winning the MEC Tournament." WLU has done just that having won every game since led by Bryce Butler. The junior from Latrobe, Pennsylvania won the MEC Player Of The Year, All-MEC-First Team, MEC All- Tournament Team, MEC All Tournament Team MVP, All-Region, and was also the MVP of the Region Tournament when West Liberty knocked off #1 seeded Indiana (PA) at the KCAC (Kovalchick Center Sports & Athletic Complex.) The most underrated part of this West Lib team though might be at the defensive end. They held the MEC's second leading scorer Jaedon Wilis to five points on his senior day and also held Fairmont State's Isaiah Sanders to seven. Wills and Sanders respectively only had one other game other than those two that they did not score in double figures throughout their careers (excluding Sander's freshman year at NDC.)
Nova is a member of the Sunshine State Conference and rolled through conference play for the second straight season. Since arriving in Fort Lauderdale in 2017 Crutchfield has introduced the uptempo style that he made famous at West Lib that they still run today. David Dennis and Mark Daniels are just a couple of the best who ever played for the Sharks. Crutchfield is 428-81 in his career. He was the National Coach of the Year two times while at West Lib. He won the region coach of the year three times (2011,12, and 13.) He has also been the Coach of the Year seven times including the 2019 as the NSU head coach. Will Yoakum transferred from West Liberty for his graduate year after playing four seasons for WLU. Yoakum was the Freshman Year in the 2018 season, was two time All-Conference at WLU, was named the Mountain East Tournament MVP in the 2020 season. He was also All-Tournament team in 2022.
Two of the best programs at the DII level, outstanding coaches and a lot of solid players, some great players. Get ready for some high octane basketball in Evansville, Indiana on Saturday. MEC vs SSC. I'm ready. Are you??!!
NCAA Elite Eight Evansville, Indiana:
National Semifinals:
#1 Nova Southeastern 94 Cal State San Bernadino 87
National Title Game (Saturday 3 PM:)
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