Purple Aces Men’s Basketball Team Accepts Postseason Invitation

For the fifth time in seven years, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will be playing in the postseason as the Purple Aces have accepted a bid into a tournament.

The tournament and opponent will be announced as soon as it becomes official. Evansville’s opening game of the tournament is set to take place on Wednesday, March 18th at 7 p.m. inside the Ford Center.

Tickets are $15 for all seats while children under the age of 17 are just $5. Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday at the Carson Center. Season ticket holders have until Saturday at 3 p.m. to guarantee their usual seats. After that, all seats will be available for public purchase. Ticket orders will be taken Wednesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 10-3. No tickets will be available for pickup until Monday at 9 a.m.

The Carson Center Ticket Office will be the only outlet that ticket orders will be taken until Monday morning. Beginning at 10 a.m. that day, fans can purchase them at the Ford Center or at TicketMaster.com. Downtown parking garages will be open for the event and will cost $5 for everyone.

UE has made five postseason appearances in seven years, Aces are just one of four teams in the Valley to have that kind of streak (Wichita State, UNI, Indiana State). The Aces won 19 regular season games for the first time since the 1998-99 season and for the second time overall since 1993-94.

Two players made the All-Conference First Team as D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius earned the honor. It marked the first time UE has done so in the MVC and the third time overall in the Division I era. Evansville has had the leading scorer (Balentine) and rebounder (Mockevicius) in the MVC in back-to-back years. The only other time in recorded conference history that one team has had the leading scorer and rebounder in consecutive seasons came in 1978 and 79 and it was one player to do both – Larry Bird.

Blake Simmons became the 12th honoree for UE on the Scholar-Athlete First Team with his award in 2015 while Mislav Brzoja was named to the All-Bench Team despite missing four games.

As a team, the Purple Aces have recorded nine or more MVC wins for the fourth time in five years. It was an impressive feat as UE did not have a one 9-win Valley schedule between 2001 and 2010. Evansville also won six true road games for the first time since the 1998-99 season; this season also marked the first time since then that Evansville won two road conference games in a row and 3-straight road games overall.