By Austin Shick
This year, there will be 26 automatic bids into the NIRSA National Basketball Championships through regional tournament play. This year’s championships will be held at The Ohio State University from April 22–24. Teams will demonstrate their dedication, efforts, skills, and sportsmanship in a battle for a chance at a National Championship title.
Over the February 12–14 weekend, the first regional tournament tipped off at Boston University. They’ve now hosted their 17th regional event. Boston welcomed 20 Men’s Division and 16 Women’s Division teams. Boston College swept the tournament and was crowned the Men’s and Women’s champions. Their Men’s team won 40-38 over a tight game against Villanova University while their Women’s team beat Howard university 39-26 in another great game.
Daryl Shreve, Assistant Director of Intramural and Instructional Programming at Boston College and Assistant Coach of the Boston College Men’s team, had this to say about his players: “I am really proud of the students on this team. We have been a successful club, but we had never won a major tournament in our three-year history. Winning the NIRSA Region I Tournament means a ton to these students, and they worked really hard to have this moment.”
This year, for the first time, the University of Oregon are hosts to one of the 11 NIRSA basketball regionals. An excited Amanda Deml, Assistant Director of Intramural Sports at the University of Oregon, had this to say about hosting: “Here at the University of Oregon we are truly excited to have the honor of hosting a regional basketball tournament for the first time! We have assembled an exceptional staff and we are committed to putting on a fantastic, fun, and memorable tournament for all teams, staff, student officials, and spectators. We cannot wait to welcome everyone to our beautiful campus and newly-renovated Student Recreation Center!”
Securing an automatic bid through a regional championship isn’t the only way to get in on the action at the National Championships! Registration for the NIRSA National Basketball Championships remains open and can be accessed through the online registration site. The deadline to register is Monday, April 11. Make sure your school’s best teams don’t miss out! There are options for Men’s Division and Women’s Division teams in both Club and Intramural Divisions, and there was a waitlist in all four divisions last year!
And don’t forget that teams, spectators, officials, and NIRSA professionals can use the hashtag #NIRSABB or follow @NIRSAChamp on Twitter and Instagram during the events to share their experience or to see the action in real-time. Include NIRSA’s official Twitter handle @NIRSAlive in your tweet for a chance to be retweeted to the larger NIRSA community. You can also follow @NIRSAlive on Twitter, or like the NIRSA Facebook page, to stay up-to-date on all the latest NIRSA news, updates, and member insights before, during, and after your favorite Championship Series event is over.
For more information about NIRSA Championship Series Basketball, please contactNIRSA Director of National Sport Programs, Valerie McCutchan.
