On Sunday (March 5), the Parkside men’s basketball team was selected for an at-large bid to the NCAA II Tournament. The Rangers (21-8) earned the seventh seed in the Midwest Region. This marks the first NCAA Tournament appearnace for the Rangers since the 2016-17 season. Leading the Rangers is coach Luke Reigel, who will be making his seventh NCAA tourney appearance in his 20-year career.
About Coach Reigel
A graduate of Wilmot High School and UW-Platteville, Coach Reigel began his head coaching career at Parkside in the 2003-04 season and led the Rangers to their first NCAA tourney appearance in 2007. In his 20-year career, Reigel has compiled a 297-264 overall record with six regular-season conference titles. Reigel became Parkside’s all-time winningest coach during the 2016-17 season.
This season, Reigel lead the Rangers to their second regular-season title since joining the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, with a 14-4 record. He was honored as the Coach of the Year.
“I told the team, we deserve to be here (in the tournament). We played a tough non-conference schedule, and we won the conference during the regular season. But following the GLIAC quarterfinals, we put our fate in others’ hands. One game does not define the success we have had this season.
“I am just really happy that this team gets to experience an NCAA Tournament. When our older guys got here, it was during the pandemic and they were forced to practice in masks and lived on campus with very few other athletes. It became a really tough freshman year for them. So for those guys to battle through those tough times and now get to experience a regional, its special.”
Up next
The Parkside men’s basketball team will head to Indianapolis to take on the second-seeded Missouri-St. Louis on 1:30 p.m. Saturday (March 11).
