MISSOULA — Montana will be traveling to Denver for its first-round game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
The Grizzlies (25-9) earned a No. 14 seed and will play third-seeded Wisconsin (26-9) in the East Region, it was announced Sunday during the March Madness Selection Show on CBS.
Montana and Wisconsin will play on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Mountain time with the game scheduled to be broadcast on TNT. The winner will play either BYU or VCU in the second round.
Montana shared the Big Sky Conference regular-season title with Northern Colorado and then beat the Bears 91-83 in an entertaining Big Sky championship game to clinch the league's bid to the NCAA tournament. The Griz have won 14 of their past 15 games.
Montana coach Travis DeCuire this season became the program's all-time winningest coach and now has 226 career wins with the Grizzlies. This is third time DeCuire is leading Montana to the NCAA tournament.
The 11th-year coach also guided the Griz to the Big Dance in 2018 and 2019, where they lost to Michigan in the first round both seasons.
This will be Montana's second tournament matchup with Wisconsin, as the Grizzlies and Badgers previously met in 2012. Wisconsin was a No. 4 seed that year and defeated the 13th-seeded Grizzlies 73-49 in Albuquerque, N.M.
Wisconsin, which finished the regular season ranked 18th in the Associated Press top 25, went 13-7 in the Big 10 Conference and reached the championship game of the conference tournament. The Badgers lost to Michigan 59-53 in the conference title game on Sunday.
