Northwest Missouri State: 2021-22 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Champions
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Despite all the madness, surprises and a five-loss season in Maryville, Missouri, the 2022 DII men’s basketball season ended how many felt it would back in November. The Northwest Missouri State Bearcats are your 2022 DII men’s basketball national champions, defeating Augusta 67-58.
It is the third championship in a row — a DII record — for the Bearcats and fourth in five tournaments. NABC player of the year Trevor Hudgins and his backcourt companion Diego Bernard have been there for every game. The duo are a combined 17-0 in NCAA DII tournament play — the DII record for most consecutive tournament wins, mind you — on arguably the single most dominant stretch in the history of DII men’s hoops.
Hudgins was pivotal in turning the game around. The Bearcats trailed early, by as much as seven, and it was in large part due to Tyshaun Crawford, Augusta’s 7-foot-1 big man. Whether he was scoring or drawing the double team for wide open 3-pointers, the Jaguars were controlling the game and led 17-10 halfway through the first half.
With both Bernard and Wes Dreamer on the bench in foul trouble, Hudgins took over, hitting consecutive 3s and finding a wide open Mitch Mascari for a third to take a 21-20 lead. Northwest Missouri State went on 18-4 run in the latter stages of the first half to open it up and would never trail again.
You can’t look back at the 2022 DII Men’s Elite Eight without discussing the dominance of Augusta’s big man. Crawford set a record by shooting 100% from the field in the semifinals and when you throw on top of it that he is left handed, he is a handful for any team. The 7-footer was a menace against a Bearcats whose tallest players were 6-foot-7, and even without the ball he’s a matchup nightmare, requiring multiple players to keep him at bay and creating opportunities for others.
That was the case on a late 12-2 run that got the Jaguars back in the game. Ja’Queze Kirby (7 poiunts, 9 rebounds) was terrific off the boards and helped lead the Jaguars as they got as close as one with less than four minutes remaining. Augusta had a chance to pull closer, but struggled from the line. One of the best shooting teams in DII had the Bearcats in foul trouble all game, but went just 17-29 from the free-throw line.
Northwest Missouri State was able to hold one of the best shooting teams in DII to 36.7% shooting from the field and 26% from 3. The Jaguars were a team that shot over 40% from both throughout the season. The Bearcats also won the turnover battle and dominated in points-off-turnovers margin.
The Bearcats have cemented their spot as the greatest dynasty in DII men's basketball history. Once again, they end the season as national champions, winners of the 2022 title.
LEADERS NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE AUGUSTA
Points T. Hudgins - 31 T. Crawford - 15
Rebounds B. Alexander, D. Abreu - 5 T. Crawford - 11
Assists T. Hudgins - 5 T. Crawford - 4
Steals L. Waters - 3 T. Myers - 2
3-pointers T. Hudgins - 5 T. Cracknell, M. Arnold - 2
Sand In My Shoes
Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should've changed
But I'm home now
And things still look the same
I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack
Try to forget for one more night
That I'm back in my flat on the road
Where the cars never stop going through the night
To a life where I can't watch the sunset
I don't have time
I don't have time
Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanitation
Run a bath and then clear up the mess I made before I left here
Try to remind myself that I was happy here
Before I knew that I could get on the plane and fly away
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night
To a life where I can watch the sunset
And take my time
Take all our time
I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would've been confused but
I wanna see you again
I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would've been confused but
I wanna see you again
I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I should get on, forget you
But why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would've been confused but
I wanna see you again...
Randolph-Macon: 2021-22 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball National Champions
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FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The road was long, but the destination proved unforgettable.
No. 1 Randolph-Macon topped Elmhurst in the Division III national championship game Saturday night at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum 75-45, delivering the school its first NCAA title in any sport and completing the work started three years ago, before the pandemic began.
“To be able to cut down the nets, it’s been a journey we’re really proud of,” coach Josh Merkel said after the most lopsided championship game in D-III history.
Junior guard Josh Talbert scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds and national player of the year Buzz Anthony added 14 points to lead a balanced offensive attack that delivered the Yellow Jackets the championship in the same dominating fashion they rolled through this year’s NCAA tournament.
Elmhurst went up 18-17 with 8 minutes to go in the half on a basket by Wesley Hooker, putting R-MC (33-1) behind for the first time since 5 minutes into its quarterfinal win over WPI on March 12. The Yellow Jackets responded with a 10-0 run.
“I think we were just feeling it out early on,” said junior forward Miles Mallory, who had 10 points and nine rebounds. “They came out physical. They brought the intensity, so we had to bring it back.”
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony and senior Ian Robertson put Macon ahead 35-23 with 2:18 left in the half, and it went to the locker room up 38-23.
Before 3 minutes had come off the clock in the second half, the Yellow Jackets’ lead had swelled to 44-27. Elmhurst (27-7) never really threatened Macon the rest of the way as it capped a nearly perfect season in the perfect way.
“I thought today was just a culmination of the past three years,” said Anthony, a fifth-year senior guard who came back to R-MC for this moment. “We’ve just had guys step up and step up.”
If not for a single point, a 77-76 overtime loss to Christopher Newport in November, the Yellow Jackets would have been undefeated this season. But Saturday night, no one was lamenting that lone tally, nor were they bemoaning the back-to-back title opportunities wiped out by the pandemic or the bus-flight-flight-bus travel odyssey that got them to Fort Wayne.
This night was all about finishing the job.
The Yellow Jackets have been one of the nation’s top programs for the past three seasons, but the D-III tournament was canceled in 2020 and 2021, first due to the spread of COVID-19 and then because of low participation among schools the second season.
That meant a wait of over two years to show how they could stack up on the national stage. And Macon did not disappoint.
R-MC went 16-0 in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play, breezed through the league tournament and blistered the field in the NCAA draw. Merkel talked to his team this month about “finishing like a buzzsaw,” and it did.
The Yellow Jackets had won each of their first five NCAA games by double figures, advancing to the championship game by an average margin of 23.8 points.
That included Friday night’s dismantling of No. 2 Marietta, an 81-63 win that put the Jackets in their first-ever D-III title game, positioning them to become the first Virginia team to win the title since Virginia Wesleyan in 2006.
“I do think we were a bit of a buzz saw,” said Merkel. “And so no matter what we were going to see today, I think our guys were ready.”
To travel to the Final Four, the Yellow Jackets bussed to Washington, D.C., flew to Chicago and then Toledo, then bussed to Fort Wayne — two hours northeast of Indianapolis — where the tournament’s final weekend was sharing a complex with a national alpaca show and a gun show.
The championship used to be held in Salem — from 1996-2012 and again in 2014 and 2018 — but moved to Fort Wayne the next year. That made for an easier trip — about 200 miles from Elmhurst, Ill. — for the Blue Jays fans and for a decidedly hostile environment for R-MC.
But the Macon fans, most of whom drove the more than 10 hours to Indiana, made their presence felt, too, from the opening introductions to the joyous on-court celebration when time ran out, reveling in the school’s first national title and the completion of a journey.
“I love it for all the athletes at Randolph-Macon,” said Merkel. “Because I think it shows, with hard work and a commitment and that daily, consistent approach, disciplined approach, that you can do anything. You can get here, and it’s a special feeling when you do.”
Loyola (La.) - 2021-22 NAIA Men's Basketball National Champions
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Top-seeded Loyola (La.) used a 23-4 first-half scoring run and a stout defensive effort to seize its first NAIA national title since 1945 with a 71-56 victory over Talladega (Ala.) Tuesday evening in the 84th annual NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship game at Municipal Auditorium.
Zach Wrightsil led a contingent of four double-digit scorers for Loyola with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Myles Burns added a monster performance of 17 points, 17 boards and four steals to help power the Wolf Pack attack.
The Wolf Pack (37-1) showed their balance during the game’s critical run, as five different players scored during the outburst to help extend the lead to 19 points with just over three minutes to play in the opening half. Wrightsil, who broke Loyola’s single-season scoring record in the opening minutes of the contest, poured home eight of his 10 first-half points during the early run.
Talladega battled back to close the gap to five points in the second half, but the Wolf Pack answered with an 11-2 run to stretch its lead back to double digits. The Loyola defense took care of the rest, limiting the Tornadoes to 35.8-percent shooting for the game to secure the third NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship for the Southern States Athletic Conference.
Defense dominated the early stages of the contest, with the two offenses combining to misfire on their first five shots of the night, before a pair of Terry Smith Jr. buckets, followed by back-to-back three-pointers from Brandon Davis and Andrew Fava sparked a 10-4 Loyola run that handed the Wolf Pack an 11-6 advantage.
Talladega (32-6) responded by scoring seven of the next nine points to even the score at 13-13 with just over 12 minutes left in the half, thanks in large part to two Kamron Brice triples.
But Myles Burns triggered the key Wolf Pack run with a trey at the 11:42 mark, before Cameron Dumas tallied four straight points for Loyola to make it a seven-point game. Wrightsil followed suit with back-to-back buckets, and Davis sank another three to extend the margin into double digits. Wrightsil put an exclamation point on the spurt with a dunk, making it a 36-17 contest with 3:14 to play in the half.
Loyola’s defense played a starring role all night, as the Wolf Pack limited Talladega to 7-of-30 (0.233) shooting, including just 2-of-16 (0.125) from beyond the three-point arc, in the opening 20 minutes of the contest.
After the Wolf Pack scored eight of the first 12 points after the break, Loyola appeared poised to run away with the red banner. But the Tornadoes fought back, registering an 11-0 run fueled by eight straight points from Darryl Baker. The senior guard drilled three consecutive field-goal attempts--including two from distance—and Davion Thomas connected from long range at the 13:15 mark to pull Talladega to within 44-36.
The Tornadoes drew even closer on another Baker three—his fourth of the second half—that sliced the margin to just five points with 8:26 to play.
But Loyola would not be denied its second national title, as Jaylen Galloway tipped in a Wrightsil miss to initiate an 11-2 run. Davis connected on another three-point attempt, before Wrightsil and Burns joined forces to score six straight points for the Wolf Pack.
From there, the Tornadoes got no closer than 11 points, with Loyola extending its lead to as many as 19 points once again in the closing minute.
In addition to big performances from all-tourney honorees Wrightsil and Burns, the Wolf Pack received a lift from Davis, who added 13 points, and Smith, who chipped in with 11.
Loyola finished with a 47-32 advantage on the boards and a 34-18 edge in points in the paint. The Wolf Pack also forced 18 Talladega turnovers and limited the Tornadoes to just 9-of-27 (0.333) shooting from three-point range.
Baker led Talladega with a game-high 22 points and was joined on the all-tournament Team by teammate Jervay Green.
2022 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship All-Tournament Team:
Noah Schulte, Concordia (Neb.)
Cash Williams, William Jessup (Calif.)
Bryce Davis, Arizona Christian
Ryan Batte, Thomas More (Ky.)
Jake O’Neil, College of Idaho
Jalen Galloway, Loyola (La.)
Zach Wrightsil, Loyola (La.)
Myles Burns, Loyola (La.)
Jervay Green, Talladega (Ala.)
Darryl Baker, Talladega (Ala.)
Hustle Award:
Darryl Baker, Talladega (Ala.)
National Championship Coach of the Year:
Stacy Hollowell, Loyola (La.)
Chuck Taylor MVP Award:
Myles Burns, Loyola (La.)
Dr. James Naismith-Emil S. Liston Team Sportsmanship Award:
Ben Limback, Concordia (Neb.)
National Player of the Year:
Zach Wrightsil, Loyola (La.)
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