Hopkinsville High School graduate and former basketball player Chris Crutchfield and his University of Omaha basketball team will play St. John’s in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Omaha is a No. 15 seed and enters the tournament for the first time with a record of 22-12. The Mavericks won the Summit League championship last weekend. They will take on Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad, which is a No. 2 seed, at 8:45 p.m. Thursday in Providence, R.I., in a West region game.
Crutchfield is in his third year as coach of the Mavericks. He played college football and basketball at Omaha after graduating from Hopkinsville High School in 1987.
Meanwhile, Kentucky is a No. 3 seed in the Midwest region and will play Troy at 6:10 p.m. Friday in Milwaukee. The Wildcats are 22-11 and Troy, which won the Sun Belt Conference tournament, enters the game at 23-10.
Airtime for the Kentucky-Troy game is 4:30 p.m. on Lite 98.7 FM.
Louisville will be the No. 8 seed and play No. 9 Creighton in a South region game at 11:15 a.m. Thursday from Rupp Arena in Lexington. The game will air on CBS and is the first game of the round of 64.
In the Women’s NCAA Tournament, Kentucky earned a No. 4 seed and will play Liberty at 11 a.m. Friday at Memorial Coliseum.
Murray State will be playing in the tournament for only the second time and the first time since 2008. The No. 11 Racers will meet the No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes at 11 a.m. on Saturday in Norman, Okla. Murray won the Women’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Sunday 83-62 over Belmont.
The University of Louisville women’s team will begin play Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, as a No. 7 seed against No. 10 Nebraska. The game will air at 5 p.m. on ESPN.
UNOmaha photo