![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TNH-L-BKC-Lake-Erie-0105-14.jpg\")
Lake Erie coach Kyle Conley has the men’s basketball program in the NCAA D-II tournament for the first time in school history. (Paul DiCicco – For The News-Herald)<\/p>\nKyle Conley considers himself a morning person but there\u2019s always an exception for the coach pushing his limits.<\/p>\n
There was none better than the one he made March 8 at 11 p.m. on the campus of Lake Erie College.<\/p>\n
There, Conley, his staff and the LEC men\u2019s basketball team gathered to watch the NCAA Division II men\u2019s tournament selection show. Because of West Coast results trickling the evening of March 8, the selection show was like the late evening news, and this one was definitely a feel-good story.<\/p>\n
Lake Erie coach Kyle Conley has the men’s basketball program in the NCAA D-II tournament for the first time in school history. (Paul DiCicco – For The News-Herald)<\/p>\n
For just the second time in program history and the first as a Division II program, the Storm are dancing in March.<\/p>\n
It was revealed late March 8, LEC \u2014 23-8, and the runner-up in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference \u2014 was an at-large selection to the field and is the No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely an early riser,\u201d said Conley about the late selection show. \u201cI was well-caffeinated and was up until about 2 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the moment \u201cLake Erie College\u201d appeared on screen, Conley said it was one to remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be together as a team was special,\u201d he said. \u201cThe program has come a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Storm\u2019s only other NCAA tournament appearance was in 2006-07 when they were 25-3 and lost to John Carroll in the first round. The NCAA appearance was as a D-III program.<\/p>\n
LEC\u2019s first-round NCAA opponent is Michigan Tech, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest, at noon March 14 at Walsh University, which will be the site of all the games played in the eight-team Midwest Regional. From there, the lone team remaining will advance to the round of eight.<\/p>\n
In D-II, the field consists of eight regionals consisting of the top eight teams in each of them.<\/p>\n
Walsh, the winners of the GMAC, is 27-3 and the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. Last week, it was No. 5 in the regional rankings before jumping to No. 1. There will be four quarterfinal games on March 14. Other matchups include 8 seed William Jewell vs. top seed Walsh, 7 seed Ashland vs. 2 seed Grand Valley State and 5 seed Northern Michigan vs. 4 seed Rockhurst.<\/p>\n
The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinal round on March 15. The Midwest Regional championship game is set for March 17 at Walsh.<\/p>\n
LEC was 3-0 against Ashland this season. The last of those results came in the GMAC tournament semifinal round, so Conley was confident in his team\u2019s tournament chances. But as an at-large team, coaches and players are never 100 percent certain until it is official.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just want to see your name,\u201d said Conley. \u201cWe were confident we did enough to be in. But until you see your name, you really don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point this season, LEC was 12-7, but an 11-game winning streak bolstered its NCAA hopes to the point where winning the GMAC tournament wasn\u2019t a do-or-die situation. Now it\u2019s a new season, which is exactly what Conley and Co. want.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our guys just want to continue getting opportunities,\u201d said Conley. \u201cThey want more games, more practices. We\u2019re not going to Canton just to get a participation trophy. We want to win the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michigan Tech (26-6) shared the regular-season title in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and lost in the semifinals of the GLIAC tournament. This will be the program\u2019s 13th NCAA appearance all-time. The Panthers are led by Marcus Tomashek, a 6-foot-6 guard who is averaging 20.8 points.<\/p>\n
Tomashek is a senior, while LEC\u2019s top five scorers are all underclassmen, led by junior Amari Williams, who is averaging 14.7 points, four rebounds and three assists. There is also sophomore Kai Bloom (11.5 points), junior Gavin Welsh (11.2 points), junior Gio Moore (11.2 points) and sophomore Caelum Ethridge (9.9 points).<\/p>\n
Michigan Tech vs. Lake Erie College<\/p>\n
What: NCAA Division II first-round tournament game<\/p>\n
When: Noon, March 14<\/p>\n
Where: Alumni Arena, Walsh University<\/p>\n
Records: Michigan Tech 26-6, LEC 23-8<\/p>\n
Up next: Winner advances to the semifinal round of the Midwest Regional on March 15 at Walsh University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Conley considers himself a morning person but there\u2019s always an exception for the coach pushing his limits.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2300,136,138,137,6608,241,726],"class_list":["post-133966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-college-sports","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-lake-erie-college","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}