NCAA Week 1 Regional Rankings

The TCNJ men's basketball team is ranked among the top seven schools in Region IV as the NCAA unveiled its initial set of regional rankings on Tuesday.

The NCAA Regional Rankings are done by the same regional and national committees which will make the at-large selections for the NCAA tournament and the rankings are done by applying the same criteria that is used for making the at-large selections. The rankings are released following the fourth-last, third-last, and second-to-last weeks prior to the tournament selections being made.

Therefore, by design, these rankings are a direct foreshadowing of the at-large selections providing a certain level of transparency to the at-large selection process. The initial rankings list the teams alphabetically, with succeeding versions to rank them numerically.

DeSales, NYU, Penn State-Harrisburg, Rowan, Stevens, and Stockton joined TCNJ in the rankings for Region IV, which consists of the CUNYAC, MAC, NJAC, UEC, and UAA.
 
TCNJ is 16-6 overall and 10-5 in the NJAC, tied for second in the crowded league standings with Montclair State and Stockton. The Lions are 2-3 against other regionally ranked teams, having split the season series with Rowan to go with a win at Stockton and a loss at DeSales.
 
The regional ranking is TCNJ's first since the 2019-20 campaign that ended in an NJAC championship and an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.