USC Aiken comes to Montevallo as the number two seed and the reigning Peach Belt Conference regular season Champion. The Pacers are making their fourth trip to the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Tournament in the last five years. USC Aiken has made five appearances (1998, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012) in total. They are 4-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. In 2009 they made it to the NCAA Division II “Sweet Sixteen”. The Pacers are led by Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year Vince Alexander and Second Team All-Region selection Sterling Council. Council was also named First Team All-PBC while teammate Re’mon Nelson was named Third Team All-PBC and was selected to the PBC All-Tournament Team. Council leads the team with 11.8 points per game while Nelson is just behind at 11.5 points per game. Nelson has also dished out 3.6 assists per game this season. As a team the Pacers out-score their opponents by 9.4 points per game and force almost 20 turnovers a game.

Anderson University comes in as the highest nationally-ranked team in the field at 14th but is the number three seed in the tournament. The Trojans have already equaled their school record for wins after making South Atlantic Conference history by becoming just the fourth team in the league to suffer just one loss in regular-season play, while recording the most regular-season league wins in league history and notched the highest league winning percentage (.944) in conference history. The Trojans boast a 24-5 record. The Trojans are led by South Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year Jason Taylor. Junior guard Denzail Jones, the SAC Player of the Year, was named second-team All-Region earlier this week after earning SAC Tournament MVP accolades and being named First-team All-South Atlantic Conference at the conclusion of the regular season. The 5-foot-9 standout finished fifth in the league in scoring (17.0 ppg.), first in steals, seventh in assists and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio. He scored a tournament-record 50 points in AU’s double-overtime win over Newberry in the conference tournament semifinals. Senior center Taylor Shugart also garnered all-tournament and second-team All-SAC honors after leading the conference with 7.2 rebounds per game and ranked sixth in the league in field goal percentage (52.6%). The Trojans out-score their opponents by 9.1 points per game and force almost 17 turnovers per contest.

Lincoln Memorial University comes into the tournament as the number four seed and ranked 24th in the nation. The Railsplitters spent much of the season as the top-ranked team in Division II as they started the season with 15-straight wins. LMU enters with a 25-5 record. This is LMU’s second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid as last season the Railsplitters drew the No. 2 seed where they were downed by eventual region champs, Anderson University, in the opening round. The Railsplitters are led by head coach Josh Schertz. Desmond Johnson leads the team on the floor as he averages 10.8 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per game. He was named the SAC Player of the Year once season ago and was named First Team All-SAC this season. Brandon Armstrong joined Johnson on the First Team as he averages 10.1 points per game and 3.8 assists per game. The Railsplitters are out-scoring their opponents by 18 points per game and lead the nation in rebounding margin at +11.0.