This week: In their first trip to the NCAA Division II tournament, men's basketball takes on No.13 Virginia State University on March 16, at noon.

Records: Notre Dame College is 23-8 after winning the MEC Tournament Championship last weekend. Virginia State University is 27-4 after winning the CIAA Tournament on March 2.

Coaches Corner: Tim Koenig is in his sixth season as the head coach of the Notre Dame program and has an overall record of 93-87. Following his first MEC Coach of the Year honor, this is Koenig's first NCAA Tournament appearance. Lonnie Blow is in his fourth season at the helm of Virginia State's team. Blow is 98-21 at VSU, which includes a 2-2 record in the NCAA Tournament.

Rankings: Virginia State was ranked No. 13 in the March 4 National Association of Basketball Coaches' poll. VSU is a three seed in the tournament, while Notre Dame is a sixth seed.

Series History: This is the first game in which these teams will meet.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame is coming off of their most successful regular season and Mountain East Conference Tournament in program history. For the first time since men's basketball began at Notre Dame, the team had 20 regular season wins. Will Vorhees became the first player in school history to be named MEC Player of the Year and he took All-MEC First Team honors, for the third time. He is currently ranked third in NCAA Division II at 28.3 points per game, second with 22 double-doubles, first in field goals made at 327 and seventh with 11.3 rebounds per game. This season, Vorhees became the first player in MEC history to reach 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career and he took over as the all-time leading scorer (2,717) in NDC program history. Larenz Thurman was also named All-MEC First Team after scoring 17.8 points per game and dishing out 5.04 assists per game. Both are ranked in the top-10 in the conference. Head coach Tim Koenig became the first MEC Coach of the Year at NDC. In the Mountain East Conference Tournament, the Falcons defeated West Virginia State, Fairmont State and No.5 ranked West Liberty, to win their first conference title in program history. The 100-96 victory in the championship game was the Falcons second win all-time against West Liberty, and first since the 2013-14 season, Koenig's inaugural campaign as coach. Vorhees won Most Valuable Player of the tournament. His mark of 14 rebounds is the most in an MEC Championship game and his eight assists ties for most in an MEC Championship game. Thurman was named to the All-Tournament team along with Bruce Hodges III, who finished the season 16th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.17). Halil Parks shot 8-for-10 from three over the course of the tournament, setting a new MEC Tournament record for three point field goal percentage.
 
Noting the Trojans: Virginia State has won at least 22 games every year since 2015-16. They started this season with a 1-2 record, including a loss to No.2 Indiana University of Pennsylvania before winning 26 of their final 28 games. In their three wins to take the conference tournament, VSU won by a margin of 11.3 points. The Trojans led by as many as 31 points against Shaw University in the championship game. Their only conference loss of the season came against Virginia Union on February 9. Cedric Wiggins is 12th in NCAA Division II with a 3.08 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has 123 assists, which is 48 more than the player in second on his team. Jahmere Howze, who played at Urbana for two seasons, leads the team with 14.3 points-per-game and 6.2 rebounds-per-game as well as second in blocks (11) and field goal percentage (59-percent). Virginia State is a very strong defensive team. They are first in the nation, holding teams to 29-percent shooting from the three point line. They are also 12th in the country field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 40-percent defense. They average 79 points each game, which is second in the CIAA, and allow an average of 68 points, which is the best in their conference.

Looking Ahead: If the Falcons win the first round matchup, they will play the winner of two seed West Liberty against seven seed East Stroudsburg.