Titan Men Earn Tournament's No. 6 Seed; Play Next Wednesday

Eastern Florida's men's basketball team earned the No. 6 seed in next week's NJCAA Men's National Basketball Championship tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas and will play the winner of the Ranger, Texas vs. East Mississippi game at 8 p.m. Central time on Wednesday.

The Titans received one of four at-large bids to the tournament on the basis of their No. 4 national ranking at the conclusion of the regular season which saw them win their fourth straight FCSAA Southern Conference championship and finish 27-3.

They advanced to last week's NJCAA Region 8/FCSAA Tournament for the fourth straight season but lost in the first round to Tallahassee Community College coached by Mark White, the former boss of Titan head coach Jeremy Shulman.

And where did the pair work together? East Mississippi.

"It's just like with some of the matchups in the NCAA tournament, you sit there and think 'there was some intention to create great matchups,'" Shulman said.  "I knew coming in we had a chance of playing them (East Mississippi) and sure enough we have a chance to play them.

"I think (playing Wednesday) will very much help us. We know whoever we have, Ranger coached by former University of Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie or East Mississippi, where I coached . . . two outstanding teams right there. We're going to have to prepare well this week."

The Titans advanced to the national tournament last season - for the first time since the 1999-2000 campaign – as the No. 12 seed but lost in the first round to Holmes Community College of Mississippi.

Defending national champion and 2016 Region 8 champion Northwest Florida State is the other Florida team in this year's national tournament. The Raiders earned the No. 2 seed.

For more tournament information and live streaming of all games visit www.njcaa.org.

The women's national tournament will be held next week in Lubbock, Texas and will include three Florida teams: No. 1-ranked Gulf Coast State, previously No. 2-ranked Daytona State and Northwest Florida.