The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BOTH the Men’s NCAA Tournament’s field of 68 and the National Invitation Tournament will have a Bahamian presence in 2013.

Buddy Hield and the Oklahoma Sooners were chosen to the main event on Selection Sunday while Shaquille Cleare and the Maryland Terrapins were granted a berth to the NIT.

The Sooners, who finished 20-11 on the season, are the No.10 ranked team in the South Region. They will take on the No. 7 team in the region, the San Diego State Aztecs, Friday, March 22 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia, at the Wells Fargo Centre.

The game is slated to tip off at 9:20pm Eastern Standard Time, televised on TBS.

With the tournament berth, Sooners’ head coach Kruger became the first head coach in Division I history to guide five programmes to the NCAA Tournament.

Should they advance to the round of 32, the Sooners will face either the No. 2 seed Georgetown Hoyas (25-6) or No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (24-10).

Hield finished the regular season with averages of 8.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and two assists per game for the Sooners.

Hield suffered a broken bone in his foot February 11 in a win over TCU and was expected to miss up to four to six weeks.

After the game it was discovered that he sustained a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot and underwent surgery February 12. He missed just five games and returned March 6 against West Virginia.

After beginning the season as a key reserve, Hield emerged as one of Oklahoma’s best defenders, worked his way into the starting lineup in mid December and has helped revitalise the Sooners’ programme into Big 12 contenders.

Oklahoma finished tied for fourth place in the Big 12 and this season marks their first NCAA Tournament appearance in four years.

In the history of the head-to-head matchup, Oklahoma is 3-0 all-time against San Diego State.

For Cleare and the Terrapins (22-12), their hopes of an NCAA tournament at-large bid were not realised, despite a r�sum� that included a pair of wins over Duke, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region.

They will host the Niagra Purple Eagles (19-13) 7pm tonight in the NIT first round, televised live on ESPN2.

The Purple Eagles won the MAAC regular season title but lost to Iona in the MAAC semifinals. This year extended the Terps NCAA tournament drought to three consecutive seasons.

Despite the Duke wins, Maryland finished with a 4-10 record against the top 100 teams in the Ratings Performance Index.

Cleare finished the regular season averaging 4.1 points and three rebounds per game.