STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – UW-Stevens Point men’s basketball players, coaches, family and friends gathered on campus on Monday, awaiting to see if and when the Pointers would play in the NCAA Tournament. Ultimately, the Pointers are heading west.
UWSP will play in St. Peter, Minn. at Gustavus Adolphus. It’s there that they’ll play Mary Hardin-Baylor out of Texas in their NCAA Tournament opener. This is UWSP’s first NCAA Tourmanent bid since the 2017-2018 season.
“It’s why they came here,” said head coach Kent Dernbach. “When we talked about getting Pointer basketball back at a national level, it’s competing in NCAA Tournaments and now we have to take the opportunity.”
UWSP will come in hungry. They’re coming off a loss at home in the WIAC semifinals to UW-La Crosse. They believe going into another tournament that they level of competition they faced in the regular season has them ready for this run.
“You’re able to learn from each one of those situations and your’re able to learn from all of those situations because you’re playing that good of players, that good of coaching staff and that good of a team in general on a nightly basis,” said Dernbach. “You have to come ready to play.”
The players understand that as well. Junior Josiah Butler is excited by the opportunity.
“We know it’s one game and we’re done, but to us, to me, I don’t think of it as pressure,” said Butler. “I see it as excitement and we can take ourselves as far as we want to go.”
The Pointers play Mary Hardin-Baylor on Friday at 4:50 p.m.
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