EVANSVILLE – Great Lakes Valley Conference postseason basketball is returning to Evansville, Ind., as the Ford Center has been selected to host the 2013 GLVC Basketball Men’s and Women’s Championship Tournaments. The announcement was made by the league at a press conference at the Ford Center on Wednesday.
The quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds of the 16th annual GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments will be held at the Ford Center on March 7-10, marking the first time the conference will return to Evansville since hosting its postseason event at Roberts Stadium from 1999-2007.
“The Great Lakes Valley Conference has a storied tradition of crowning its annual men’s and women’s basketball champions in Evansville in front of large crowds that are passionate about NCAA Division II basketball,” said GLVC Commissioner Jim Naumovich. “GLVC basketball called Evansville its postseason home for nearly a decade and now has the opportunity to return and compete in the new Ford Center, a beautiful facility that will showcase GLVC basketball and its student-athletes on a grand stage.”
The tournaments will determine the GLVC Champion in both men’s and women’s basketball and the winners of the tournaments will receive the GLVC’s automatic berths to the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournaments.
The 2013 tournaments will feature 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams and be played over two weekends. On each side, four teams will earn first-round byes, while the remaining eight teams will open the conference tournament on campus Sunday, March 3, with hopes of advancing to the quarterfinal action at the Ford Center.
The Ford Center, which opened in November 2011, will be the fifth venue to serve as a neutral site host for the GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments. In addition to playing at Evansville’s Roberts Stadium, the GLVC has also held its postseason event at the TRAC on the campus of the University of Illinois Springfield in 2010, Maryville’s Moloney Arena in 2011, and the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill., last year. The GLVC Basketball Tournaments were hosted on campus sites in 1998, 2008 and 2009.
The University of Southern Indiana captured the GLVC Men’s Basketball Championship last year, while Maryville University claimed its first-ever GLVC Women’s Championship.
Tournament tickets prices and the event schedule will be announced at a later date.
2013 GLVC Basketball Tournament Press Co Gallery