INDIANAPOLIS- After seeing its PSAC Tournament run come to an end on Wednesday night in the PSAC Quarterfinals, the West Chester University men's basketball team (23-6) got the news it had been hoping for on Sunday night as the Golden Rams learned they would return to the NCAA Tournament as the sixth seed when play gets underway on Saturday. West Chester will open its NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at noon vs third-seed Virginia State (21-8), who enters the Tournament well rested after capturing the CIAA Tournament title the week before the PSAC Tournament getting underway.
The Golden Rams matchup against Virginia State will be just the third all-time meeting between the Golden Rams and Trojans after the two teams split the first two meetings in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, West Chester opened the series with a home-court victory over VSU by an 85-78 final before falling to Virginia State in Ettrick on the first weekend of the 2023 season by an 82-62 final.
West Liberty (27-4) earned the top seed in the Atlantic Regional despite a 122-114 loss to Fairmont State in triple overtime in the Mountain East Conference Tournament final on Sunday afternoon.
West Chester is one of three PSAC teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Rams are joined in the field of 64 by PSAC Champion Gannon, who enters as the second seed, and seventh-seeded East Stroudsburg, which will open the Tournament against Gannon on Saturday.
West Chester returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the end of the 2019 season, when the team appeared in the Tournament as the eighth seed. In that tournament, the team fell to top seed and host Indiana (Pa.) by a 74-65 final.
The 2024-25 season has already been a historic year for head coach
Damien Blair and his Golden Rams as the first time PSAC East Coach of the Year led his charges to their first outright PSAC East Regular Season crown since 2006 and enter the PSAC Tournament with 23 wins, which is tied for the program record for wins in a single season. West Chester has won 23 games on two other occasions in its history, doing so first in 1998-99 before duplicating the feat in 2015-16. West Chester landed three players on the All-Conference team as
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover), who led the team in scoring, averaging just under 16 points per game and
Davante Dennis (Baltimore, Md./Red Lion) were both First Team honorees, while
Joshua Walker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Upper Marlboro) was a Second Team honoree.
West Chester appeared in the NCAA Tournament at the end of both these seasons and makes its 11
th appearance in 2025. The Golden Rams enter the 2025 Tournament with a record of 1-10 in NCAA Tournament games after notching its first NCAA Tournament in the 2018 Atlantic Regional at Virginia State with an 82-77 victory over Wheeling.
The Golden Rams saw their PSAC Tournament run come to a close in the PSAC Quarterfinals to fourth-seeded Millersville, who nearly knocked off PSAC Tournament Champion, Gannon, in the PSAC Semifinals on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Golden Knights 89-87 in overtime.
West Chester will return to West Liberty University for the NCAA Tournament this weekend, making its second trek to the Hilltopper's Academic Sports and Recreation Complex of the season after opening its season at West Liberty in early November. In this visit to the ASRC, West Chester fell to West Liberty in the season opener by a 114-91 final before falling to Wheeling in the second game of the weekend by an 88-68 final.
Additional information including coverage links, and a full preview of the Tournament will be available on wcupagoldenrams.com early this week.
