A season played through a global pandemic is coming closer to its end date as the men's basketball team heads to Dallas, Tx for the 2021 NCCAA DII SW Region Tournament on the campus of Dallas Christian College. Coming off of both a regular season and conference tournament championship the Thunder have earned the #3 seed in the North division and will open up quarterfinal play on Thursday, February 25th, at 4:00 pm against the #2 seed in the South division, Arlington Baptist University. Should the Thunder win on Thursday they would advance to the semifinals where they would play the winner of the #1 seed in the North, Barclay College, and the #5 seed in the South, SW Adventist University at 6:30 pm on Friday. The championship is scheduled for a 3:00 pm tip on Saturday. 

MCC enters the tournament with a 17-8 overall record that includes a record of 15-3 against NCCAA competition. The only three losses the Thunder have eaten this season have come vs teams in the NCCAA top ten. The Thunder also boast victories over several teams that are either currently in or have been in the top 10 this year. MCC is currently ranked #5 in the final NCCAA Coaches Poll where they are joined by four other members of the SW Region, Randall (#1), Kansas Christian (#3), Barclay College (#8) and Arlington Baptist (#9). MCC currently sits at #4 in the NCCAA Power Ratings. 

"The Southwest Region is as deep as its ever been and we know that this game with Arlington is going to be tough. They are as tough to stop as any team we've seen all season and are very well coached. They might have the two best players in the region with Mallard and Stafford and heading to Texas to play them will certainly be a challenge, but we are looking forward to it," commented Head Coach, Jordan Strom. 

Dallas Christian College is the host of the tournament and will be updating tournament results and stats on the official tournament page here. There will also be a live stream of each contest available here. Due to COVID-19 restrictions there will be limits to fans in attendance and those reservations have already been made through the coaching staff. 

2021 NCCAA DII SW Region Seeds:

1N. Barclay College
2N. Kansas Christian College
3N. Manhattan Christian College
4N. Ozark Christian College
5N. Spurgeon College (Not participating)

1S. Randall University 
2S. Arlington Baptist University
3S. Champion Christian College
4S. Dallas Christian College (Eliminated in play-in game)
5S. Southwestern Adventist University (Advanced in play-in game)