SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State basketball team is ranked No. 4 in the first NCAA Division II South Central rankings which were released on Wednesday.
The Rams (22-2) have advanced to four NCAA tournament appearances in program history and are looking to earn their way to the national tournament for the first time since the 2009 season. The eight-team regional tournament takes the automatic qualifiers from the winners of the Lone Star, Heartland and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments and then the top five ranked teams from the region in the final regional rankings will earn an at-large bid. The top-ranked team will host the regional tournament from March 14-17.
Tarleton State (18-2) is the top ranked team in the region this week after taking a 72-68 win over the Rams to even the season series, while Metro State (20-3) is second and Colorado School of Mines (19-3) is third. Midwestern State (16-6) is fifth in the rankings, followed by No. 6 Colorado-Colorado Springs (17-4), No. 7 A&M-Commerce (16-6), No. 8 Colorado State-Pueblo (17-7), No. 9 Fort Lewis (15-7) and No. 10 St. Edward's (12-6).
The Rams have wins over Tarleton State, Midwestern State and A&M-Commerce already on their resume with regular-season games coming up against MSU and the Lions. Games played at the Lone Star Conference Championships in Allen will also count towards the regional rankings. Wins over NAIA schools do not count toward the in-region or overall records of programs, which reflects the difference in ASU's overall record and the other ranked teams. The second poll will be released on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at ncaa.com.
ASU will play Midwestern State at 8 p.m. tonight at the Junell Center before playing road games at Cameron and Texas A&M-Commerce and then finishing off the regular season with a home game against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Junell Center.
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