NCAA Division II announces 2016 ESPN3 Basketball Game of the Week schedule

Division II and ESPN3 have announced their 2016 regular-season NCAA Division II Basketball Game of the Week schedule. The partnership, in its inaugural year, features 18 men’s and women’s basketball games and includes flex scheduling during the final two weeks of the regular season.

The schedule tipped off Dec. 5 with the annual NCAA Division II Award of Excellence Game. Bellarmine University hosted and swept McKendree University in the men’s and women’s doubleheader after being awarded the game as the 2015 Award of Excellence winner. Bellarmine won the Award of Excellence after giving 15-year-old cancer patient Patrick McSweeney the opportunity to play for the Knights in a 2014 exhibition contest against the University of Louisville.

In 2016, the ESPN3 Game of the Week series will include eight conference doubleheaders, beginning with a Jan. 9 Pacific West Conference doubleheader between Fresno Pacific University and California Baptist University. Both the women’s and men’s programs for California Baptist are nationally ranked and advanced to last year’s NCAA Division II tournament. The women’s team finished as the national runner-up in last year’s championship. Fresno Pacific is in its inaugural year as an active Division II institution.

The remaining matchups include:

Florida Southern at Nova Southeastern (Sunshine State Conference), Jan. 16. Florida Southern is the defending men’s national champion and the Nova Southeastern women advanced to last year’s Elite Eight.

Indiana (Pennsylvania) at California (Pennsylvania) (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference), Jan. 27. California’s women won last year’s Division II championship and Indiana’s men finished as the national runner-up.

Bloomfield at Philadelphia U. (East Coast Conference), Jan. 30. Philadelphia’s men and women advanced to Division II regionals a year ago. Coaches Tom Shirley (women’s team) and Herb Magee (men’s) are the winningest active coaching tandem at one school across all NCAA divisions.

Columbus State at Georgia College (Peach Belt Conference), Feb. 6. The Columbus State men’s and women’s programs each advanced to Division II regionals in 2014-15.

Cal Poly Pomona at Chico State (California Collegiate Athletic Association), Feb. 19. The Chico State and Cal Poly Pomona men’s programs each reached Division II regionals last season. The Cal Poly Pomona women advanced to last year’s regional final.

The final two doubleheaders in the schedule reflect flex scheduling with matchups announced at a later date.

2015-16 Division II Basketball Game of the Week on ESPN3