March Madness At Motlow

By C. Scott Shasteen
Motlow Sports Information
Tennessee’s 20 community college basketball teams will gather for the annual Tennessee Community College Athletic Association (TCCAA)/National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region VII basketball tournament next week at Motlow College’s Copperweld Arena in Moore County.
The men’s and women’s tournament champions will advance to the NJCAA national tournament, unless the regular season champion is also the tournament champion. In that case, the tournament runner-up will advance to the national tournament. The regular season champion has already clinched a berth in the national tournament, with the 18th nationally ranked Motlow Bucks clinching on the men’s side and Walters State on the women’s.
Four ‘play-in’ games will open the tournament on Tuesday, with the first tip-off scheduled for 2 p.m. each day. There will be four games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The men’s and women’s championship games will be Saturday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. All games will be broadcast live by WHMT Tullahoma Radio, with the live video feed on the iHigh.com network.
Tickets are $5 per day and can be purchased inside Nisbett Center. Nike tournament t-shirts will be on sale for $12 and media guides will be available for $5.
The top six seeds in both the men’s and women’s standings will receive first-round byes, leaving the final two teams to be decided on Tuesday. The No. 8 and No. 9 women’s seeds will open the action Tuesday at 2 p.m., followed by the No. 7 and No. 10 seeded women. The men’s No. 8 and No. 9 seeds will play at 6 p.m. and the No. 7 and No. 10 men will finish the first day’s play at 8 p.m.
The winners of Tuesday’s games will advance, finalizing the eight-team tournament field in both the men’s and women’s bracket. Wednesday will feature four women’s contests and Thursday will feature four men’s contests, leaving the final four teams on each side to square off Friday to decide who will advance to Saturday’s championship games.
The Motlow Bucks have reached the tournament championship game the previous two seasons, only to come up short both years. Had this year’s new national tournament structure been in place the last two years, Motlow would have been in the national tournament both years. No Motlow College basketball team, men’s or women’s, has ever played in the national tournament.
Participating schools in the TCCAA are: Chattanooga State, Cleveland State, Columbia State, Dyersburg State, Jackson State, Motlow College, Roane State, Southwest Tennessee, Volunteer State and Walters State.
All tournament games can be heard locally on WHMT radio at 105.1 FM and 740 AM, as well as LightTUBe television channel 11. Audio and video internet links can be found at www.tullahomaradio.com and www.mscc.edu/tccaa.
Last year’s TCCAA/Region VII Tournament was held at Jackson State in Jackson. Walters State is the defending women’s champion, while Columbia State beat Motlow to win the men’s championship.
Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics at <Facebook/MotlowSports> and <Twitter@MotlowSports>.