LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
There is a black college team other than the men’s and women’s champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and Mid Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in the 2026 NCAA Div. I Basketball Championship’s Big Dance.
The men of Tennessee State, the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament champion, joins the party this year.
The Tigers (23-9), playing under first-year head coach Nolan Smith, received a 15th seed and will face 2nd-seed Iowa State (27-7) in Friday’s second round of the Midwest Regional in St. Louis (1:50 p.m. CDT on CBS).
Smith and Howard men’s head coach Kenneth Blakeney are two coaches who played at Duke that are leading black college teams into the tournament.
MEAC Champs
Blakeney, in his eighth season leading Howard, led the Bison (23-10) to the regular season title and their third MEAC tournament title and NCAA berth in the last four seasons (see TOURNAMENT FINALS RECAPS). This will be the fifth overall NCAA appearance for the Bison.
For the second time during Blakeney’s run, Howard was seeded 16th and this time was placed in the Midwest Region in Tuesday’s First Four game vs. America East regular season and tournament champion UMBC (24-8). The winner of the Howard/UMBC contest will face region top seed Michigan (31-3) in Thursday’s second round in Buffalo, NY (7:10 p.m. on CBS).
In Blakeney’s first title in 2023 after beating Norfolk State in the MEAC final, the Bison were a 16th seed and fell to top seed Kansas in the second round. In 2024, after beating Delaware State in the MEAC final, the Bison lost to Wagner in the First Four.
Regular season champion and top women’s seed Howard under 12th-year head coach Ty Grace ended Norfolk State’s run of three straight MEAC Tournament titles and NCAA berths in Saturday’s title game win over NSU. It earned the Lady Bison’s (26-7) their second NCAA berth under Grace and seventh overall.
Howard received a 14th-seed and will travel to Columbus, Ohio to face the third-seeded Ohio State Lady Buckeyes (26-7) on Saturday (11:30 a.m., on ESPN) in a first round Fort Worth I Regional game. As the fifth seed in the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State lost 72-62 to top seed UCLA in the semifinals.
In Grace’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2022, Howard earned the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory defeating Incarnate Word in the First Four before falling to South Carolina in the second round.
SWAC Champs
Both SWAC men’s champion Prairie View A&M and women’s champion Southern are seeded 16th and will play in First Four games this week.
Prairie View prevailed in the SWAC tourney despite entering the tournament as the eighth seed. The Panthers (18-17) will be making their second appearance in the Big Dance under 11th year head coach Byron Smith who first won the SWAC title and NCAA berth in 2019.
They faced Lehigh (18-16), tournament champions of the Patriot League, in Wednesday’s First Four game in Dayton with the winner meeting South Region top seed Florida (26-7) in Friday’s (9:25 p.m. on TNT) second round. Prairie View won one other SWAC title and earned an NCAA berth under Elwood Plummer in 1998.
Southern (19-13) under eighth-year head coach Carlos Funchess, was placed in the Sacramento 4 Region First Four and will face Southern Conference tournament champion Samford (16-18) in Columbia, S. C. on Thursday (6:00 p.m. on ESPN2). This is Southern’s seventh appearance and fourth under Funchess.
Awaiting the winner on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN) is region top seed South Carolina (31-3). As the top seed in the SEC Tournament, USC lost to 3rd-seed Texas in the championship game.
OVC Champs
Nolan Smith’s Tennessee State team won its last four regular season games to earn a share of the OVC regular season title with Morehead State, its first top finish in 31 years. The Tigers then walloped Morehead State in the OVC tournament to earn its first NCAA appearance since back-to-back dates in 2023 and 2024 during the Carlos Rogers era.
TSU (23-9) is seeded 15th in the Midwest Region and will play 2nd-seed Iowa State (27-7) Friday (1:50 p.m. on CBS) in St. Louis, Mo. ISU lost to eventual champion Arizona in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
