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Tribe trending towards first ever bid to NCAA men’s basketball tournament

Posted at 12:09 AM, Jan 13, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-13 00:09:10-05

A detail of giant NCAA logo is seen outside the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Thursday, William and Mary’s men’s basketball team erased a nine point deficit with 50 seconds left in regulation to force overtime vs. James Madison – a game they won in OT.

The furious comeback victory came on January 11th – exactly two months from Selection Sunday for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. William and Mary, a school founded in 1693, has never played in the big dance.

William & Mary men’s basketball vs. JMU

The Tribe is one of only four original Division I programs to never receive a bid to the 68-team tournament. However, that could change this year.

William and Mary is 5-and-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) for the first time ever. Every other school has at least two losses.

In his latest tournament projection, CBSSports.com bracketologist Jerry Palm predicts the Tribe to win the CAA, earn the league’s automatic berth to the tournament and make history.

Palm prognosticates William and Mary to be a 13-seed and draw defending national champion North Carolina in the first round.