A Different Final Four

by James McNally on March 17, 2006

At this time of year, basketball fans are in a frenzy about the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, which brings together the best 64 collegiate teams in the country to play in an elimination tournament to determine the national champion. I just watched some first-round games last night.

But at hundreds of smaller schools, the frenzy is about to peak this very weekend. The Divison III Final Four is coming to its conclusion, with the semi-finals being played tonight, and the final tomorrow. This year’s final four are Illinois Wesleyan, Virginia Wesleyan, Amherst, and Wittenberg. There must be something about those Wesleyans!

My own brush with basketball greatness is that I attended Western Michigan Division III powerhouse Calvin College for a year back in the early 90s. They actually won the national championship in 1992 and 2000, but this year, were knocked out in the second round by local archrival Hope College.

List of Division III National Champions from 1975-2002

{ 3 comments }

1 jmcnally 03.24.06 at 8:05 pm

Virginia Wesleyan beat Wittenberg 59-56 to become Division III National Champions. This is the first national championship in any sport for the school. More information from the school’s web site.

2 jmcnally 03.25.06 at 8:59 pm
3 Pat Coleman 04.05.06 at 12:18 am

There’s a lot more about Division III basketball at D3hoops.com than the NCAA site will ever think of providing.

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