The Aurora University Spartan Men's Basketball team, currently 18-10 overall and winners of the 2009-2010 Northern Athletics Conference a
utomatic bid learned of their NCAA Division III Men's Basketball opponent when the NCAA selection committee announced the bracket for the field of 61 Monday morning (March 1, 2010).
The Spartans will travel to Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin for first and second round contests on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6, 2010. AU will open up against the Red Men of Carthage College (22-5) from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday evening. The other two participants in the Carthage quad are the University of St. Thomas (23-4) from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) taking on Anderson University (22-5) from the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference at 6:00 p.m. on Friday night. The
winner's of game one and game two will take on each other at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday in Kenosha, Wis.
AU has made four consecutive appearances, five in six seasons, six in eight and eighth overall since 1997-1998. The appearance is also AU's fourth straight (in as many years of the conference) as a member of the Northern Athletics Conference. AU defeated Dominican University 70-64 in the NAC tournament championship game to capture the 2009-2010 NAC tournament title.
In his 16 seasons at the helm of the me
n's program,
James Lancaster has a school record 296 wins (296-131/.693). This will be Coach Lancaster's ninth appearance in the NCAA tournament, eight times as head coach of the men's basketball team and once as head coach of the Aurora women's basketball team.
The Spartans are led by a core of seniors; forward
Shane Roland (17.9 points and 4.0 rebounds), guard
Dusty Magee (15.4 points and 2.5 assists), forward
Lance Robinson (14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 7.2 assists) and guard
Ari Iventosch (14.0 points and 3.1 assists). Roland and Magee both are members of the AU 1,000 point club; Magee currently is 10th with 1,460 points while Roland is 19th with 1,196 points.
