Men's Basketball | 3/15/2026 7:20:04 PM

NORFOLK, Va., March 15, 2026 - The 2026 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) men’s basketball tournament champion Howard University has earned the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament and will face University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in a First Four matchup on Tuesday, March 17 at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

The game will be broadcast on truTV as part of the NCAA Tournament’s opening round. The First Four games begin on Tuesday, at 6:40 p.m. ET, with final game times to be announced.

Howard enters the NCAA Tournament as a No. 16 seed after defeating North Carolina Central in the MEAC Tournament Championship on Saturday night at Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia, securing the conference’s automatic qualification.

The Bison carry a 23–11 overall record and finished 11–3 in MEAC play, entering the NCAA Tournament on an eight-game winning streak.

Howard is led by MEAC Player of the Year Bryce Harris, who also earned MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. Harris averages 17.0 points and a conference-best 6.8 rebounds per game. Teammate Cedric Taylor III, the MEAC Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, ranks among the conference’s top performers with 17.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

The tournament appearance marks the fifth NCAA Tournament berth in program history for Howard and the third under head coach Kenneth Blakeney, continuing the program’s resurgence in recent seasons.
Howard’s previous NCAA Tournament appearances came in 1981, 1992, 2023, and 2024, highlighted by back-to-back MEAC Tournament championships in 2023 and 2024 under Blakeney.

UMBC (24–8, 14–2 America East) secured its NCAA Tournament berth after defeating Vermont, 74–59, in the America East Championship Game. The Retrievers are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018.

UMBC is led by Jah’Likai King, who averages 13.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, while DJ Armstrong Jr., the America East Tournament Most Outstanding Player, contributes 13.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per contest. The Retrievers enter the tournament on a 12-game winning streak, with their last loss coming on Jan. 29 against Vermont.

The First Four serves as the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and features the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams competing for the final spots in the 64-team bracket.

The winner of the Howard–UMBC matchup will advance to face No. 1 seed Michigan in Buffalo, New York, on March 19 in the NCAA Tournament First Round.