The 2021 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

for the

2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020, and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5. Season ...

. The tournament took place March 6 and 9, 2021 and all tournament games were played on home arenas of the higher-seeded school. The tournament winner received the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Seeds

Due to complications caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, only the top four teams in the Northeast Conference were eligible to compete in the conference tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. *Note:

Merrimack College Merrimack College is a Private university, private Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian university in North Andover, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine with an initial goal to educate World War II veterans. It en ...

joined the Northeast Conference from Division II

Northeast-10 Conference The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states o ...

in 2019. At the time, the NEC did not allow transitional D-I members to play in the conference tournament, meaning that Warriors would not have been eligible for the NEC Tournament until 2024. After the 2021–22 season, the NEC presidents voted to allow transitional members to compete in the conference tournament starting with their third transitional seasons, making Merrimack eligible for the tournament starting with the 2023 edition. *Note: On February 28, Bryant announced they had canceled their final two regular season games against Mount St. Mary's because of positive COVID-19 results within Bryant's Tier 1 personnel and subsequent contact tracing. Bryant's status for the postseason had initially been uncertain, but they established their intent to compete in the tournament after meeting Rhode Island Department of Health guidelines. Bryant competed in its semifinal game with just seven players, one of whom was a walk-on.

Schedule and results

Bracket and results

References

{{2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament

Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament The Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Northeast Conference (NEC). It has been held every year since the NEC was established in the 1981–82 season. The tournament is a ...

Seeds

Schedule and results

Bracket and results

See also

References