The 2009 MEAC regular season and tournament champion Morgan State Bears earned a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament and will face the Oklahoma Sooners as part of the South Region. The game tips off at 8:40 p.m. (CT) Thursday, March 19, at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Morgan State will enter tournament play with a 23-11 overall record and their second consecutive regular season championship. The Bears defeated Norfolk State, 83-69, on Saturday, March 14 at the conference basketball tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C. The tournament championship is the second overall for the Bears since 1977.
The last two MEAC teams to earn a No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament were victorious over their No. 2 seed opponent including Coppin State over South Carolina in 1997 and Hampton over Boise State in 2001.
The Sooners, who finished in second place in the Big 12 Conference with a 13-3 mark, earned an at-large bid to the tournament. Oklahoma (27-5) is making their 26th NCAA Tournament appearance and 13th in the last 15 years.