March 9, 2001

By Gary Rubin

NCAA Division II Tournament tips off

The NCAA Division II national tournament was announced on Sunday and a number of teams played their way in with league tournament victories. First round action kicks off on March 8 followed by second round games on March 9.

Longwood College head coach Mike Leeder orchestrated one of the great turnaround seasons in recent memory and helped his team earn a postseason invitation after it won 11 of its last 14 games. The Lancers finished last season with a 4-22 record, but Leeder brought in seven new players, including four Division I transfers, and took his squad to a 22-7 record, the school's first Carolinas Virginia Athletic Conference tournament championship and a tournament bid. The 18-game turnaround has propelled the Lancers to the fourth seed in the East regional.

Leeder is in just his second year at Longwood, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary season. Leeder is no stranger to NCAA tournament play, having served as an assistant coach at Kentucky Wesleyan under Ray Harper when the Panthers won the 1999 Division II national title. Prior to his one-year stint at Wesleyan, Leeder started and coached the inaugural men's basketball program at NAIA Thomas (Ga.) College from 1995-98 while also serving as the school's athletic director.

Clarion was staring at an early off-season if it didn't win the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament title. Dr. Ron Righter's Golden Eagles made an impressive march to the PSAC tournament final and outlasted West Chester 80-77 in overtime to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Clarion now faces Salem International in the opening round.

Righter, in his 13th season at Clarion, is the school's all-time winningest coach, having surpassed 200 wins at the school this year, and has guided the Golden Eagles to an average of 20 wins a season over the past four years.

All season, head coach Kevin Schlagel's St. Cloud State Huskies were in the shadow of nationally ranked South Dakota and South Dakota State in the North Central Conference. The Huskies got their time to shine in the league's first-ever conference tournament when they knocked off South Dakota 89-76 in the final, winning the NCC's automatic bid to the tournament. In the final, St. Cloud State connected on 60 percent from the field, including an incredible 63.2 percent from three-point land. Not only did the Huskies garner the postseason bid, they even earned the right to host the regional. The Huskies' victory also cost South Dakota, the league's regular season champion, a place in the tournament altogether.

After a two-year hiatus from tournament play, Cal State Bakersfield returns to the NCAA championship tournament. Head coach Henry Clark's Roadrunners enter the West regional as the fourth seed and play Humboldt State in the opening game. Bakersfield earned its tournament bid with a dramatic turnaround after a sluggish early season 2-4 start. Clark rallied his troops and led them to 18 victories in their next 20 games and a second-place finish in the competitive California Collegiate Athletic Association. The 'Runners hope to play at least one more home game this year, as the Elite Eight travels West of the Mississippi River for the first time to Bakersfield on March 22-24.