Thomas More earns a pair of Tuesday playoff basketball games in Saints’ 1st year in NCAA’s GMAC

Thomas More men’s basketball coach Justin Ray was as surprised as anyone else when the postseason playoff news came out of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.

At 12-8 in the conference’s regular season, it looked like the TMU men had just missed out on the No. 4 spot in the league which would give the Saints a home playoff first game as the women (17-10 overall, 13-7 GMAC) had earned as the fourth-place team in their new NCAA Division II conference.

But that’s not how it works in the GMAC. The Thomas More men, along with the women, will host at home Tuesday against Hillsdale in both games with the women opening the doubleheader at 5:30 p.m. and the men following at 7:30.

The unknown factor was that with the 13 men’s basketball teams not playing a full round-robin schedule, the league weights a team’s schedule against its strength. And thanks to a December win over a Walsh team that moved up into the top quadrant of the league in the last week, TMU managed to edge out a Hillsdale team it split with for the fourth and final home slot despite a 12-8 league record to Hillsdale’s 13-7.

“We weren’t expecting that either,” Ray said. But the Saints will take it in something of a return to their old NAIA ways when both basketball teams – women’s and men’s – hosted playoff games almost every year.

Interestingly, both TMU teams will face the Hillsdale men’s and women’s teams in a matchup of the No. 4 and No. 5 teams. Even more interestingly, the teams split their four regular season games this season. But unusually, all four of the teams won their road games.

The TMU men (17-11 overall) beat Hillsdale, 71-70, on the road in early January, then lost to Hillsdale three weeks ago, 73-65, at the Connor Convocation Center. For the TMU women, the pattern was the same, winning,65-55, at Hillsdale, losing, 69-60, at home in the same time frame.

As the No. 4 teams, both TMU teams drew into the bracket with the GMAC’s No. 1 teams – Kentucky Wesleyan for the men, Ashland for the women, which would make for very tough semifinal road games Friday.

Here are the details for Tuesday’s games:

Game Times:
• Women’s Basketball Hosts Hillsdale, 5:30 P.M.
• Men’s Basketball Hosts Hillsdale, 7:30 P.M.

Tickets:
• $10 for adults
• $7 for military and seniors
• Children 5 and under get in free
• Purchase tickets at this link —Hometown Ticketing – Thomas More University (thomasmoresaints.com) before arrival, tickets are limited.
• Stream:
Women’s: https://greatmidwestdigitalnetwork.com/thomasmoresaints/?B=1006881
Men’s: https://greatmidwestdigitalnetwork.com/thomasmoresaints/

Livestats:
Women’s: https://thomasmoresaints.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
Men’s: https://thomasmoresaints.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.