HPU women, Dixie State & BYU-Hawaii men, eye PacWest titles before NCAA II post-season play

HPU women, Dixie State & BYU-Hawaii men, must settle PacWest titles before moving into NCAA II Championship play

PHOENIX, AZ - Three Pacific West Conference basketball teams will continue their 2009-10 campaigns in the state of Washington at the end of this week when the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Basketball Championship tournaments commence in the Great Northwest.

Where they are seeded and whom they will be playing won't be known until Tuesday, March 9, after the PacWest completes in regular season.

The Hawai‘i Pacific women's basketball team will head to Seattle, WA, for the eight-team NCAA II West Region bracket that will be hosted by Seattle Pacific beginning Friday, while the Dixie State and BYU-Hawaii men's teams will travel to Bellingham, WA, where Western Washington will host the men's regional.

NCAA II Women's Championship Bracket (PDF)

NCAA II Men's Championship Bracket (PDF)

This will mark the first NCAA II appearance for the HPU and Dixie State programs, while BYU-Hawaii will make its ninth appearance in 12 years as an NCAA Division II program. Last year the Seasiders fell in the West Region finale to Cal Poly Pomona.

The NCAA announced the men's and women's 64-team tournament fields on Sunday evening but needed to withhold the seeds for the West Region brackets because the PacWest still has two men's and two women's games to play on Monday evening.

HPU will host BYU-Hawaii in both men's and women's basketball in Honolulu, while Chaminade will travel to Hawai‘i Hilo for a men's-women's doubleheader.

The makeup games were necessitated when a tsunami warning for Hawai‘i related to the Chilean earthquake forced the postponement of all four contests on Feb. 27.

Because of the implication to the PacWest standings and the West Region rankings, the NCAA granted a one-day extension to the PacWest so the games could be played.

The games could not be rescheduled during the first week of March because all four Hawaii-based teams were on the Mainland completing their conference schedules.

While the Hawai‘i Pacific women have earned the PacWest's automatic qualifier for the NCAA II tournament, Monday night's game vs. BYU-Hawaii will determine the Sea Warriors' seed in the West Region bracket and also decide the conference championship.

HPU has claimed a share of its first PacWest title and owns the tiebreaker vs. Dixie State and Grand Canyon for the automatic qualifier, but a loss by the Sea Warriors vs. BYU-Hawaii would create tri-champions featuring both the Antelopes and the Red Storm.

Although the PacWest uses tiebreakers to determine the automatic qualifiers, all three teams would receive a championship trophy.

Grand Canyon has won all three PacWest Women's Basketball Championships (2007-09) in the short history of the conference, while Dixie State is looking for its first league crown since moving to Division II.

A similar situation is occurring on the men's side. Dixie State has clinched a share of its first PacWest Men's Basketball Championship, but the Red Storm can claim the title outright and the automatic qualifier if BYU-Hawaii stumbles vs. Hawai‘i Pacific on Monday in Honolulu.

If the Seasiders win, they will share the title with Dixie State and take the automatic qualifier because of the tiebreaker scenario involving BYU-Hawaii's sweep of Grand Canyon and Dixie State's split with the Antelopes.

Since both teams have been informed that they will be competing in the West Region bracket, the automatic qualifier is somewhat of a moot point; however, both Dixie State and BYU-Hawaii have an eye toward the PacWest Championship before the post-season begins.