INDIANAPOLIS – In the second edition of the NCAA's region rankings, Carson-Newman found itself slotted in sixth of the Southeast Region announced by the organization Wednesday to start the final week of the 2022-23 regular season.
The selection committee uses these rankings as a guideline to make up the NCAA Tournament field. The top eight teams in the region make the NCAA Tournament with three automatic bids going to the winners of the conference tournaments from the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and the Peach Belt Conference.
For the No. 1 team in the region, that school gets to host the Southeast Region tournament over the second weekend of March with three wins needed to advance to the National Quarterfinals in Dallas at the St. Joseph Civic Center in St. Joseph, Mo. on March 20-22 with the title game in Dallas on April 1.
Four of the top six teams in the rankings are from the SAC with Catawba and Wingate holding onto the top two slots. Georgia Southwestern and North Georgia, from the Peach Belt sandwich around Lenoir-Rhyne for spots three and five.
The rankings do not include the result from Monday night that saw the Lady Eagles beat the Bears. Carson-Newman holds a 5-6 record against the top 10 in the region. Coach Mike Mincey's team has the sixth-best strength of schedule in the region and touts an RPI of .561.
Below the Orange and Blue are Clayton State and USC Aiken, teams that C-N has defeated this year and Tusculum, a club C-N is 1-1 against before the lone Conference Carolinas team, Belmont Abbey, checks in at No. 10.
The Lady Eagles aim for a second straight win on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. against Emory & Henry. Broadcast coverage can be found on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:15.
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