NCAA Bracket

INDIANAPOLIS - It was a nail-biting wait, but Colorado School of Mines heard its named called in the field of 64 for the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship.

Mines, the South Central's eighth and final team in, will play top-seeded West Texas A&M, which will host the regional this weekend in Canyon, Texas. The game will be a rematch of last year's regional final, which Mines won at Lockridge Arena. Game dates, times, and ticket information will be announced Monday. 

The Orediggers (22-8) finished the regular season fourth in the RMAC standings and bowed out to eventual champion Regis in the RMAC Tournament semifinals. Mines is making its fifth consecutive NCAA appearance after an Elite Eight appearance a year ago. The Buffs (28-3) won their first outright Lone Star Conference title since 1994, and went on to win Sunday's LSC Tournament final over UT-Permian Basin.

Mines received an at-large bid and coming into the week eighth in the NCAA regional rankings, needed everything to fall their way in the Lone Star and Heartland conference tournaments to ensure their bubble wouldn't burst. WTAM won the Lone Star while Dallas Baptist, which was ranked seventh, won the Heartland, and no team below Mines made it past their conference tournament semifinals.

In the regional's other matchups, second-seed UT-Permian Basin plays Arkansas-Fort Smith, third-seeded Regis takes on sixth seed Dallas Baptist, and fourth-seeded Fort Lewis plays fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce. The Mines-WTAM winner will play the FLC-TAMUC winner.