BRACKET | National Tournament Press Guide (PDF)
SEWARD, Neb. – The bracket is now set. After sewing up GPAC regular season and postseason titles, the Concordia University women’s basketball team has earned the overall No. 1 seed for the 2019 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championships. The reward is a first-round matchup with eighth-seeded Wilberforce University (Ohio) at 12 p.m. CST on Wednesday, March 6. This will mark the 18th all-time national tournament appearance for the Bulldog program.
Concordia has qualified for the national tournament for the 11th time in head coach Drew Olson’s 13-year tenure. The Bulldogs withstood significant losses in the backcourt from the 2018 graduations of Dani Hoppes and Mary Janovich while putting themselves in position for another hopeful deep March postseason run.
“It’s just a really special group,” Olson said following Tuesday’s GPAC tournament championship game victory over Dakota Wesleyan. “Every year is a unique, different team. This team is full of phenomenal kids – tough as nails. I love them.”
A week from today, Concordia will return to the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, which has hosted the NAIA Division II women’s championship since 1998. The Bulldogs have enjoyed plenty of success in the building having reached at least the semifinal round in three of the past four seasons. The only thing they haven’t done is cut down the final net. Concordia finished as a national runner up in 2015 and again in 2018.
It’s fair to say that the Bulldogs have the ability to be the last one standing when the dust settles. Concordia has won 12 games against the national qualifying field and owns at least one win over each of the other three No. 1 seeds in the bracket: Dakota Wesleyan, Northwestern and Southeastern (Fla.). The field includes six GPAC squads, including first time national qualifier Dordt. The Defenders would likely match up with Southeastern in the second round should they get past IU Northwest (Ind.) in the first.
Wilberforce (14-12) will be a completely unfamiliar opponent for Concordia. Also known as the Bulldogs, Wilberforce earned an automatic bid to the national tournament via a third-place finish in the Association of Independent Institutions Conference tournament. Wilberforce is located in Wilberforce, Ohio. On paper, these Bulldogs appear to play a much slower pace. They average 64.6 points while allowing 61.8 points. Head coach Derek Williams’ squad has limited opponents to 38.2 percent shooting.
It’s always a challenge for unfamiliar foes to deal with the Bulldog press. With 1,009 turnovers forced this season, Concordia needs just six more to break the program single-season record of 1,014 by the 2014-15 national runner up squad. A couple of other milestones are worth watching. Quinn Wragge (1,729 career points) needs eight more points to move into fifth place on the school’s all-time scoring list. In addition, GPAC Player of the Year Philly Lammers is five points away from 1,500 for her career.
The winner in next Wednesday’s matinee will move on and play either fourth-seeded Sterling (Kan.) or fifth-seeded Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) at 12 p.m. CST on Friday. Concordia has a history with both programs at the national tournament. In national tournament matchups, the Bulldogs are 3-1 versus Cardinal Stritch and 2-0 versus Sterling.
NOTES:
- In its first 17 appearances at the national championships, Concordia has posted a record of 29-17 with six trips to the national semifinals. The Bulldogs are 11-6 overall in first-round games, including a 10-4 mark in the last 14 first-round contests. All of the program’s 17 national qualifying seasons have come since 1992 – the same year the NAIA split into two divisions for both men’s and women’s basketball.
- Concordia carries a record of 12-3 this season against teams that have qualified for the national tournament. The Bulldogs have beaten each of the other three No. 1 seeds. Their victories over qualifying squads have come against No. 2 Southeastern, No. 3 Dakota Wesleyan (three), No. 4 Northwestern, No. 13 Hastings (three), No. 16 Dordt, No. 19 Morningside, No. 20 Indiana Wesleyan and No. 24 Saint Francis (Ind.).
- Seven of the 15 players on the Bulldogs’ official national tournament roster have prior experience at the national tournament. These seven individuals have combined for 47 career games over appearances from 2016 through 2018. Senior Quinn Wragge has the most experience on the national stage during that time, having played in each of the program’s last 10 national tournament games. Wragge has averaged 13.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game in those contests. She was named to the All-Tournament Second Team last season. In her first national tournament game (2016 vs. Goshen College), Wragge notched 24 points and 10 rebounds.
- GPAC Player of the Year Philly Lammers has the next most national tournament experience with nine games played at the Tyson Events Center. The Omaha native has averaged 15.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game at the national tournament. While helping the Bulldogs to the title game, Lammers was named All-Tournament First Team in 2018. Lammers has an active national tournament string of three games in a row with at least 20 points. She put up a combined 69 points last season in national championships contests versus Jamestown, Northwestern and Dakota Wesleyan. Lammers is nearing a milestone, now five points away from 1,500 in her career.
- In the program’s first 46 games at the national tournament, the Bulldogs have averaged 73.5 points per game (3,385 total points) while allowing an average of 65.1 points (2,994 total points). The school record for most team points scored in a single tournament game was broken in 2017 in the 101-66 first-round win over Bryan College (Tenn.) (previous high was achieved in 2015 in the 92-82 win over College of Saint Mary). The Bulldogs’ stingiest defensive effort occurred in 2005 when they held Western Baptist to just 28 points in a 70-28 first-round victory.
- Concordia has now advanced to the national championship game twice in program history (2015 and 2018). In the first instance, national player of the year Bailey Morris led the way, averaging 17.6 points at the tournament in leading the Bulldogs to wins over Bryan College (76-35), College of Saint Mary (92-82), University of Jamestown (76-59) and Briar Cliff (72-62). Concordia was edged in the championship game, 59-57, by top-ranked Morningside. Then a year ago, the Bulldogs cut through Stillman College (75-52), Taylor University (71-50), Jamestown (79-61) and Northwestern (84-77) on the way to the title game. The Bulldogs were beaten in the championship, 82-59, by Dakota Wesleyan.
- Head coach Drew Olson has been at the controls for each of Concordia’s past 11 national tournament appearances (including 2019). Olson also helped the Bulldog men to two national tournaments as a player and was part of three such trips to the grand stage as an assistant men’s coach at Bellevue University.
- Olson became the fifth coach in program history to lead the Bulldogs to the national tournament when he made his first appearance as head coach in 2008. Now with 11 national tournament appearances, Olson has eight more than Todd Voss for the most among head coaches in school history. Here are the all-time records for Bulldog coaches at the national tournament:
- Drew Olson: 18-10 (11 appearances; two national title game appearances; four Fab Fours)
- Todd Voss: 8-3 (three appearances; two Fab Fours; one quarterfinal finish)
- Mark Lemke: 2-2 (two appearances; one quarterfinal finish)
- Micah Parker: 1-1 (one appearance)
- Carl Everts: 0-1 (one appearance)
- Concordia has made a living in the NAIA national rankings. It has appeared in 92-straight top 25 polls dating back to the 2011-12 preseason rating. Throughout this season, the Bulldogs have been rated no lower than third while holding down the No. 1 ranking in six of this season’s eight polls. Concordia is aiming to finish a season with a national ranking for the 10th time under Olson. The program’s highest final ranking was No. 2 in 2015 and 2018. Five-straight senior classes have played for ranked Bulldog teams for their entire collegiate careers.
- Great Plains Athletic Conference members have won 13 of the last 18 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championships. Northwestern has five national titles during that stretch while Morningside has four and Hastings three. The GPAC had advanced at least two teams into the Fab Four six-straight years until the streak was snapped in 2014. Two or more GPAC teams have reached the semifinals in 14 of the past 18 years. In 2012, Concordia, Briar Cliff and Northwestern all appeared in the semifinals. Then in 2015, the semifinals were GPAC exclusive as Briar Cliff, Concordia, Hastings and Morningside were the last four left standing.