{"id":169364,"date":"2026-03-20T16:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169364\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:34:44","slug":"where-is-queens-what-to-know-of-purdues-opponent-in-mens-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169364\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Queens? What to know of Purdue’s opponent in Men’s NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queens is looking to make some noise in its first Men’s NCAA Tournament<\/a> appearance.<\/p>\n

The No. 15-seeded Royals are set to take on No. 2 Purdue in the first round of March Madness<\/a> on Friday, March 20, from Enterprise Center in St Louis. Queens won the ASUN Conference Tournament for the first time in program history to qualify for the tournament.<\/p>\n

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REQUIRED READING: One day in and March Madness already its usual marvelous self<\/a><\/p>\n

While just appearing in Friday’s game will be a historic moment for the school, which is just in its fourth-year competing at the Division I level, you can imagine that the Royals enter the game with a bigger goal: an upset of the Boilermakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For those tuning in to see Queens making history, here’s what to know about Queens before it takes on Purdue heading into the NCAA Tournament:<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

A Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleader practices before the game during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA<\/a> Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

A Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleader practices before the game during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA<\/a> Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

Nebraska Cornhuskers fans cheer after defeating the Troy Trojans during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The Ohio State Buckeyes cheerleaders perform in the second half during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

A view of Buddy the Street Dog as Queens University of Charlotte Royals guard Yoav Berman talks to the media during a practice session ahead of the first round of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The High Point Panthers band performs prior to a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

High Point Panthers fans cheer prior to a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 13<\/p>\n

See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Badgers cheerleaders preform during the first half of a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the High Point Panthers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The South Florida Bulls mascot performs during the second half against the Louisville Cardinals during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Keybank Center on March 19, 2026 in Buffalo, NY.<\/p>\n

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9 \/ 13<\/p>\n

See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The Texas Christian University Horned Frogs cheerleaders perform in the first half during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, SC.<\/p>\n

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10 \/ 13<\/p>\n

See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The Troy Trojans mascot dances on the floor during the second half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

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See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The UCF Knights band performs during a practice session ahead of the first round of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena on March 19, 2026 in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

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12 \/ 13<\/p>\n

See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

Nebraska Cornhuskers cheerleaders perform during the second half against the Troy Trojans during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center on March 19, 2026 in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

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13 \/ 13<\/p>\n

See best of March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

A Wisconsin Badgers cheerleader performs during the first half of a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament against the High Point Panthers at Moda Center on March 19, 2026 in Portland, Or.<\/p>\n

Where is Queens located?<\/p>\n

No, your first guess of “on the western end of Long Island in New York” is not correct.<\/p>\n

Queens is a private school located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The school has an approximate undergraduate figure of 1,900 and it was founded in 1857 as the Charlotte Female Institute.<\/p>\n

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In 2025, Queens and Elon University (located in Elon, North Carolina) announced the two universities would be merging, which is expected to be completed in August 2026.<\/p>\n

Queens NCAA Tournament history<\/p>\n

Friday’s matchup against Purdue will be the NCAA Tournament debut for the Royals. The program first fielded a men’s basketball team in the 1989-90 season.<\/p>\n

Queens has been a Division I team since July 1, 2022.<\/p>\n

What conference does Queens play in?<\/p>\n

Queens competes in the Atlantic Sun (ASUN) Conference, a member since July 1, 2022. The ASUN has members in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Georgia.<\/p>\n

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The Royals competed in the Conference Carolinas from 1995 to 2013, then joined the South Atlantic Conference in 2013, before moving up to Division I in 2022.<\/p>\n

Queens won its first ASUN Conference tournament championship this past season, qualifying them for the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a Division I school. The Royals also won the Conference Carolinas three times (1996, 1998, 1999) and the South Atlantic Conference twice (2017, 2022).<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where is Queens? Nickname, March Madness history for ASUN program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens is looking to make some noise in its first Men’s NCAA Tournament appearance. The No. 15-seeded Royals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[69408,63552,9,24,63,68049,122,124,123,4259,69409,23084],"class_list":["post-169364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-conference-carolinas","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-purdue","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-royals","tag-south-atlantic-conference","tag-the-royals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169364","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=169364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}