{"id":168464,"date":"2026-03-19T19:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168464\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T19:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:05:37","slug":"who-are-the-queens-university-royals-meet-the-ncaa-tournaments-no-15-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168464\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are the Queens University Royals? Meet the NCAA Tournament\u2019s No. 15 Seed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state of North Carolina is an annual mainstay in the Division I men’s basketball NCAA Tournament<\/a>. This year, the Duke Blue Devils are the No. 1 overall seed, and the North Carolina Tar Heels are the No. 6 seed in the South region. <\/p>\n

The state of North Carolina might also produce an all-time Cinderella: The 15-seed Queens University Royals. The Carolina Panthers have even thrown their weight<\/a> behind them. <\/p>\n

Queens University of Charlotte, often referred to just as Queens University, officially began its reclassification process from Division II to Division I in July 2022. By June 2025, Queens University completed the process and received permission<\/a> to activate full Division I status. That means this is the Royals’ first year of Division I NCAA Tournament eligibility.<\/p>\n

The Royals men’s basketball team has already made its inaugural Division I season a success. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Royals pulled off<\/a> a 98-93 overtime upset over Central Arkansas to win their first-ever Atlantic Sun Conference championship. Senior guard Chris Ashby led the way with 34 points, while senior guard Nasir Mann earned ASUN Tournament MVP.<\/a> The victory automatically punched<\/a> Queens’ ticket to the Big Dance \u2014 the Royals’ first-ever taste of March Madness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a life-changing moment for us,\u201d Queens head coach Grant Leonard told The Charlotte Observer<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be unbelievable for our admissions [department] and for the publicity for the school. I\u2019m just so proud of everyone for believing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard added, “It\u2019s always the plan to go to the [NCAA] tournament in your first year of eligibility, but it\u2019s almost impossible to accomplish. And we did. I\u2019m just so proud of everyone \u2014 the administration and the entire coaching staff and all the players \u2014 for sticking with us through the tough times.”<\/p>\n

The Royals finished the regular season 21-13 overall and 13-5 in conference play, good for third<\/a> in the ASUN, so they’re entering the NCAA Tournament with experience in upsets. Queens University had to go through ASUN’s No. 1 and No. 2, Central Arkansas and Austin Peay, respectively, to win the ASUN Tournament. <\/p>\n

However, it goes without saying that the Purdue Boilermakers will be a substantial step up in competition when the No. 15 Royals meet No. 2 Purdue in the West region’s first round. <\/p>\n

Purdue was ranked as the preseason No. 1<\/a> team in the country. While Purdue’s 27-8 regular season was a relative disappointment, the Boilermakers are starting to live up to the preseason hype. Purdue boasts Braden Smith, a revered top point guard in the nation, and upset the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines to win the Big Ten Tournament.<\/p>\n

It will take everyone for Queens to be bracket busters. Luckily for them, the Royals are deep. Queens had six players average double-digit points this season: Mann (13.4), Yoav Berman (12.6), Jordan Watford (11.9), Ashby (11.7), Avantae Parker (11.3), and Carson Schwieger (10.2). Any one of them could be the hero.<\/p>\n

Purdue is a 25.5-point favorite, but the Boilermakers do have a recent history of suffering a nightmare first-round exit. <\/p>\n

Up to now, only two No. 16 seeds<\/a> have upset No. 1 seeds in men’s NCAA Tournament history: No. 16 UMBC topped No. 1 Virginia in 2018, and No. 16 FDU beat No. 1 Purdue in 2023. The history of No. 15 seeds upsetting No. 2 seeds is similarly rare. It has only happened 11 times<\/a>, most recently by Princeton in 2023.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, simply making their NCAA Tournament debut is a triumph for the Royals. Last season, Queens University competed in the College Basketball Invitational, featuring teams that do not make the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. The Royals fell<\/a> to Cleveland State in the CBI quarterfinal. <\/p>\n

The Royals will attempt to make history and become overnight national darlings when they take the court against Purdue at 7:35 p.m. EST on Friday night. You can watch the game on truTV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of North Carolina is an annual mainstay in the Division I men’s basketball NCAA Tournament. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[63551,63552,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-168464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}