*Release Courtesy The PAC*
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Washington & Jefferson College has locked up the number one seed and home court advantage throughout the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Men's Basketball Championship Tournament, which will take place February 21-26.
On February 2 the PAC announced changes to its men's and women's basketball championship tournament format in response to the challenges created by ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols and the potential for a disparity in the number of regular season conference games played. The PAC, in consultation with the PAC Presidents Council and the PAC Athletic Administrators Council, modified its basketball championship tournament format by advancing all 10 men's and women's programs to their respective championship tournaments.
Seventh-year head coach Ethan Stewart-Smith led W&J to the No. 3 seed in last year's championship tournament, falling to No. 6 Thiel College 69-64 in the quarterfinal round on March 16.
W&J owns nine PAC titles, with its most recent coming in 1994-95. W&J's last championship tournament win came in 2012-13. The No. 5 Presidents earned a 70-64 quarterfinal victory at No. 4 Bethany on February 19.
Tournament play begins Monday with a pair of play-in games. Seventh-seeded Franciscan University (9-15, 7-11 PAC) will host 10th-seeded Bethany College (2-18, 2-13 PAC), while eighth-seeded Grove City College (9-15, 5-12 PAC) will host ninth-seeded Saint Vincent College (3-21, 2-16 PAC).
In Tuesday's quarterfinal round, top-seeded W&J (21-4, 16-2 PAC) will host the No. 8 Grove City-No. 9 Saint Vincent winner while second-seeded Chatham University (19-4, 14-4 PAC) will host the No. 7 Franciscan-No. 10 Bethany winner. Third-seeded Westminster College (16-8, 13-5 PAC) will host No. 6 Thiel College (8-15, 7-10 PAC) while No. 4 Geneva College (14-9, 12-5 PAC) will host No. 5 Waynesburg University (13-12, 9-9 PAC).
In Thursday's semifinal round, the winner of the No. 8/No. 9 and No. 1 quarterfinal will face the winner of the No. 4/No. 5 quarterfinal while the winner of No. 7/No. 10 and No. 2 quarterfinal will take on the winner of the No. 3/No. 6 quarterfinal.
This year's title game is slated for Saturday, February 26. The title game will be hosted by the highest seed remaining after Thursday's semifinal round.
Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. PAC and institutional passes are not accepted at PAC Championship events. Students from PAC host institutions will be admitted for free with a valid college ID.
The winner of the PAC's Championship Tournament will receive the league's automatic qualifying bid to this year's Division III Championship Tournament. Forty-four conferences have been granted automatic qualification to this year's 64-team championship. The selected Division III Championship teams as well as the first and second round site selections will be announced Monday, February 28 on ncaa.com. First and second round games are scheduled for Friday-Saturday, March 4-5.
