- DMACC takes a 29-3 record and No. 3 national ranking into the tournament
- Bears will be the No. 5 seed
- DMACC is in the tournament for the fifth time since 2020
Playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Men's Basketball Championship is becoming more and more common for the DMACC men's basketball team.
And the 2024-25 season is no different as the Bears received an at-large invitation to the 2025 edition of the tournament earlier today. They will be the No. 5 seed and will face twelfth-seeded Howard Community College (HCC) in their tournament opener March 17 at 6 p.m., in the Mary Miller Center in Danville, Ill. The Bears are 29-3 overall and were ranked third in the most recent Division II poll from the NJCAA.
Sixteen regional champions received automatic bids to the tournament along with the four at-large selections. Kirkwood Community College (KCC), DMACC's arch-rival in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC), made the tournament field as the Region 11 champion. The Eagles won the title, 63-61, over Iowa Central Community College (ICCC) in the championship game. ICCC eliminated DMACC from the tournament with an 83-76 win in a semifinal matchup March 3 inside the DMACC gymnasium. The Bears were coming off winning their second consecutive ICCAC regular-season title with a 17-1 record including two wins over ICCC. DMACC split two games against KCC, each team winning on its home floor.
HCC, located in Columbia, Md., brings a 25-5 record into the tournament and qualified after winning its second consecutive Region 20 championship.
The DMACC-HCC winner will face either fourth-seeded Parkland College (PC), 13th-seeded Henry Ford College (HFC) or 20th-seeded Southeast (Neb.) Community College (SECC) March 17at 6 p.m. HFC and SECC will play March 17 at 9 a.m. with the winner moving on to meet PC on March 18.
DMACC is making its ninth appearance in the tournament since 2002 and its fifth in the past six seasons. The Bears won the national championship in 2021, finished third in 2022 and fifth in 2024. They finished fourth in 2015 and 2002 and were eighth in 2007.
The double-elimination tournament continues at the Mary Miller Center in Danville, Ill., through March 22 when the championship game will be played.