The 1996

NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is a tournament to determine the NCAA Division III national champion. It has been held annually from 1975 to 2019 & since 2022, but no ...

was the 22nd annual

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

to determine the national champions of

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) men's

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

collegiate basketball in the

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. The field contained sixty-four teams, each allocated to one of four sectionals played on campus sites. The national semifinals, third-place final, and championship final, meanwhile, were contested at the

Salem Civic Center The Salem Civic Center is a 6,820-seat multi-purpose arena in Salem, Virginia. It was built in 1967 and is part of the James E. Taliaferro Sports and Entertainment Complex (named after a former mayor of Salem), which also includes Salem Football ...

Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combine ...

. Salem would remain the home of the Division III final four through the 2017–18 season.

Rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

defeated

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

, 100–93, in the final, clinching their first national title. The Profs (28–4) were coached by

John Giannini John Manfredo Giannini (born October 31, 1962) is an American college basketball coach, Director of Athletics at Rowan University, and college basketball analyst for NBC Sports and other networks. He served as the head men's basketball coach at ...

. Giannini would go on to coach at

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

and La Salle at the Division I level.

Bracket

Top left sectional

Bottom left sectional

Top right sectional

Bottom right sectional

National finals

*Site:

All-tournament team

* Terrence Stewart, Rowan * Antwan Dasher, Rowan * Joel Holstege, Hope * Duane Bosma, Hope * Chris Simich, Illinois Wesleyan

References

{{NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament navbox NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Ncaa Tournament Sports competitions in Salem, Virginia