HAMILTON — Colgate’s third consecutive trip to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship pits the Raiders with Texas in the Midwest Region at 7:25 p.m. on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. 

“We knew we’d draw one of the best teams in the country,” said head coach Matt Langel. “Texas is playing really well having gotten through what’s generally considered the most competitive conference in the country and they just won their conference tournament. They will be the best team that we’ve seen all season and we know going in that we have to play really well.”

No. 15 seed Colgate (26-8, 17-1 Patriot) is making its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and fourth in five years under four-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Langel. The Raiders set the program’s single-season wins record (26) with their 79-61 championship win over Lafayette and carry a nine-game winning streak into the tournament. 

Second-seeded Texas (26-8, 12-6 Big 12), currently ranked fifth in the country, finished the regular season second in the Big 12 Conference under interim head coach Rodney Terry, who replaced Chris Beard earlier this season.

The Longhorns upset top-seeded and defending national champion Kansas in the Big 12 championship by a score of 76-56 for their fourth straight win. 

Colgate enters tournament action boasting one of the most potent offenses in the nation, ranking first nationally in three-point field goal percentage (40.8), second in field goal percentage (51.4) and effective field goal percentage (58.3), and third in assists per game (18.6). The Raiders are making their sixth overall appearance in the tournament and fourth under Langel. Colgate last played as a 15 seed against Tennessee in the 2019 tournament.

“The excitement never goes away,” Langel said. “We do have a lot of guys who have experienced the fanfare, pageantry, attention, and magnitude, but we also have the experience of playing well and being competitive in this setting. Hopefully, that settles us not just in the game but on the course of this trip.”