The Panthers entered the SWAC tournament as an eighth seed, won four straight to claim the title, and now face Lehigh in Dayton on Tonight for the right to meet top-seeded Florida.
Prairie View A&M is one of the more surprising teams to appear in this year’s NCAA tournament field, and its path to Dayton reflects exactly that. The Panthers finished ninth in the SWAC standings during the regular season with a 9-9 conference record, entered the SWAC Championship Tournament as an eighth seed, and proceeded to win four consecutive games to claim the title. Their final win was a 72-66 decision over Southern on Saturday, capping a seven-game winning streak that brought their season record to 18-17.
At one point during the year, Prairie View sat at 11-17, a record that pointed toward a quiet end to the season rather than a trip to March Madness. Instead the Panthers built momentum in the final stretch, and the SWAC tournament run rewarded their persistence with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
They now face Lehigh in the First Four at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday night at 6:40 p.m. ET on truTV. The winner advances to the Round of 64 as the 16th seed and will meet top-seeded Florida on Friday.
Lehigh comes in as a slight favorite
Lehigh enters Wednesday as a 3.5-point favorite and its own momentum story. The Mountain Hawks were 4-11 through their first 15 games before turning their season around, finishing 14-7 down the stretch and second in the Patriot League with an 11-7 conference record. They captured the Patriot League Championship Tournament with a 74-60 win over Boston University on Wednesday, winning eight of their last 10 games overall.
Junior guard Nasir Whitlock leads Lehigh and ranks 18th nationally in scoring at 21.0 points per game. Projection models have him finishing Wednesday’s game with close to 24 points.
For Prairie View, guards Lance Williams, Cory Wells, and Dontae Horne led the championship win over Southern with 18, 16, and 15 points respectively, all three playing the full 40 minutes. Horne is projected to lead the Panthers on Wednesday as well, with scoring models placing him around 21 points.
Prairie View has gone 10-0 against the spread in its last 10 games and 6-0 against the spread when playing as an underdog, a tendency that may draw attention from bettors despite the line favoring Lehigh.
What Prairie View A&M is
Prairie View A&M is a historically Black college and university located approximately 50 miles outside of Houston, Texas. The campus sits on a hill, which is how the school earned its nickname as ‘The Hill,’ an unusual geographic feature in a region of Texas that is otherwise mostly flat. The university enrolls more than 7,600 undergraduates and nearly 900 graduate students, with 88% coming from within Texas and a student body that is roughly two to one female.
The school’s colors are purple and gold, and its mascot is the panther. The men’s team is represented by Pete, while the women’s team is represented by Sasha.
Prairie View A&M has produced notable alumni across professional sports. Pro Football Hall of Famer Ken Houston graduated with the class of 1966. Five-time MLB All-Star Cecil Cooper and Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Otis Taylor also attended the school. Zelmo Beaty, a Pro and College Basketball Hall of Famer, graduated in 1962.
The school’s band is one of its most prominent programs, with 300 active members who have performed at a presidential inauguration, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Super Bowl XLV halftime show.
Prairie View’s football program endured one of college athletics’ most difficult stretches on record, losing 80 consecutive games from the end of the 1989 season until September 1998. Today’s tournament appearance is a reminder of how far the athletic program has traveled since then.