Valparaiso University to Battle Michigan State in NCAA Tournament

After five days of constantly looking at brackets, listening to various college basketball “experts” and scouring over scores from NCAA conference tournament games, the wait finally concluded for Valparaiso University students and fans on Sunday evening. The team, coaches and supporters gathered at Valparaiso University on Selection Sunday to learn that the Crusaders have received a No. 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a daunting opening round matchup with No. 3 Michigan State.

The tournament pairings send the Crusaders to Auburn Hills, Mich., one of the closest possible destinations at approximately four hours away. However, the contest is virtually a home game for the Spartans.

“Michigan State is one of the best programs in the country,” Valparaiso head coach Bryce Drew said. “They’re extremely well coached, very physical. It’s like a home game for them, so we need as many fans as we can get out there.”

The Crusaders will partake in the earliest tip time of the tournament, 11:15 on Thursday morning. The game will be televised nationally on CBS with Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Rachel Nichols slated to call the action.

“We’re just going to kind of go through the same sort of routines we went through all year,” senior Ryan Broekhoff said. “Try to stick with what’s been working for us. There’s going to be a lot of excitement and nervousness before the game, but we just have to prepare hard during the week and see what happens. Anything can happen in March.”

Many bracket projections had the Crusaders as a No. 13 seed rather than a No. 14.

“Any seed is a good seed when you haven’t been in nine years,” senior Erik Buggs said. “We’re taking what we get.”

Senior Matt Kenney said the Crusaders would have liked to have been a No. 13 to avoid the matchup with 25-8 Michigan State.

“We have to play a very good team in Michigan State,” Kenney said. “This is not going to be easy by any means. We have great coaches and they will find weak points in their game and have us ready.”

Although Valparaiso has known since Tuesday night’s victory over Wright State that it would be a part of the tournament field, hearing its name called during the selection show on CBS was still a special moment.

“It’s a little bit of a dream,” Broekhoff said. “When I first came here four years ago, that was our goal, so it’s been a long time coming. It’s an amazing experience to see it finally come up.”

When asked for his recommendation to the Valparaiso student body in regard to Thursday’s game, Kenney joked, “Skip class.”

The two teams met in the 2000 NCAA Tournament, when the Crusaders suffered a lopsided 65-38 defeat. The last time Valparaiso played Michigan State, the Spartans came away with a 90-60 victory in East Lansing on Nov. 2, 2009. Kenney knows the Crusaders have a tall task to avoid a repeat of those two prior meetings.

“They’re a tremendous team; they play in arguably the best conference in the nation,” Kenney said. “They’re real big, real athletic, they’ve got some big guys down low, they can really run the floor, so it’s going to be a very tough game, but we’re going to prepare hard this week and practice hard and we’re going to do our best to go out there and beat them.”


For a full photo gallery from the Selection Sunday Party, follow this link!!