STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – UW-Stevens Point men\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
UWSP will play in St. Peter, Minn. at Gustavus Adolphus. It\u2019s there that they\u2019ll play Mary Hardin-Baylor out of Texas in their NCAA Tournament opener. This is UWSP\u2019s first NCAA Tourmanent bid since the 2017-2018 season. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s why they came here,\u201d said head coach Kent Dernbach. \u201cWhen we talked about getting Pointer basketball back at a national level, it\u2019s competing in NCAA Tournaments and now we have to take the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
UWSP will come in hungry. They\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re able to learn from each one of those situations and your\u2019re able to learn from all of those situations because you\u2019re playing that good of players, that good of coaching staff and that good of a team in general on a nightly basis,\u201d said Dernbach. \u201cYou have to come ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players understand that as well. Junior Josiah Butler is excited by the opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know it\u2019s one game and we\u2019re done, but to us, to me, I don\u2019t think of it as pressure,\u201d said Butler. \u201cI see it as excitement and we can take ourselves as far as we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pointers play Mary Hardin-Baylor on Friday at 4:50 p.m. <\/p>\n
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