The Aurora University Men's Basketball team is once again dancing in March and will represent the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championships. The Spartans earned the automatic bid after winning the NACC tournament championship this past weekend. The NCAA selection committee announced the field of 64 Monday morning (February 25, 2019).
 
The Spartans will travel to Augustana College (24-3) and take on the Vikings on Friday, March 1, with tip off scheduled for 7:30 p.m. following the completion of the other first round game between Capital University (20-7) and University of Wisconsin-Platteville (18-10) who tip off at 5:30 p.m.

Aurora University
The Spartans will be making their 11th overall NCAA Tournament appearance since the 1997-1998 season and their eighth in 15 seasons. The appearance is also the Spartans seventh as a member of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. 
 
AU claimed the 2018–2019 NACC men's basketball tournament title on Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Spartans defeated Illinois Institute of Technology 71-57 to advance.
 
The Spartans will enter the NCAA tournament on fire winning seven consecutive games and 13 of 17 games since the calendar flipped to 2019. The Spartans were the NACC preseason favorite to win the conference and while finishing third in the regular season, the Spartans captured the tournament championship with an overall record of 17-11 and 12-8 in the NACC.
 
Spartans v. Vikings History
This will be the 16th time that these two teams have met on the hardwood with AU holding a 2-13 record in the previous match-ups. The last time was back in the 2012-2013 season when they were paired up in Thornton Gymnasium. The Vikings defeated the Spartans 95-92. 
 
About the Spartans
AU has been led predominately by the trio of Bailey Vance, Max Vickers and Tyler Carlson on the season. Thus far in 2018-2019, Vance is averaging a team-high 14.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting 58.5-percent from the field (144-of-246).  Vickers is averaging 12.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 44.8-percent from the field (56-of-125). Carlson is averaging 12.6 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 41.0-percent (105-of-256) from the field. Both Carlson and Vickers reached the 1,000-point plateau during this years campaign.
 
In his third season at the helm of the Spartans, Robinson led AU to their second straight NACC tournament title and NCAA appearance. In three seasons, Robinson holds a 54-29 overall record and is 43-17 in NACC regular season play.
 
The Spartans are averaging 83.5 points per game while making 9.9 three-pointers per contest.  On defense, AU is allowing 80.5 points per contest while forcing their opponents to turn the ball over an average of 15.0 times per contest. In AU's last seven games, all victories, the defense has tightened down, allowing just 72.9 points per game.
 
About the Augustana College Vikings
Augustana is making its sixth straight NCAA Division III Tournament appearance and its 18th all-time. The Vikings are 42-18 in D3 tourney play, with six trips to the final four and four runner-up finishes, including 2015 and 2017. Grey Giovanine, the winningest head coach in school history with a record of 413-141, is in his 20th season at Augustana.
 
The Vikings enter NCAA play with a 24-3 record and ranked third in the nation by D3hoops.com. They claimed an unprecedented fifth consecutive College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin championship this year and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after dropping the CCIW Tournament final. Augustana has reached at least the quarterfinals in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, one of just two programs in the tourney's 44-year history to do so.
 
As a team, the Vikings rank 11th in the nation in scoring margin (16.2), 16th in field goal percentage defense (.396), 17th in scoring defense (64.2) and rebound margin (8.1), 18th in blocked shots (131) and 19th in field goal (.495) and three-point percentage (.401). Augustana averages 80.4 points per game.
 
What's Next for AU
With a victory against Augustana on Friday night, AU would move on to the second round and play the winner of Capital University and University of Wisconsin-Platteville, on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. inside the Roy J. Carver Physical Education Center on the campus of Augustana College.  Capital was the winner (three-way tie) of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), and come into Friday's contest with an overall record of 20-7.  Wisconsin-Platteville was the winner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference automatic bid after winning the conference tournament, and comes into Friday's contest with Capital with an overall record of 18-10. Capital is ranked 24th in the latest top 25 rankings by D3hoops while Wisconsin-Platteville is receiving votes.  

If you cannot make it to Rock Island, Illinois and Augustana College this weekend you can follow all of the live NCAA tournament action between the Spartans and the Vikings at athletics.aurora.edu.