The UNC Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks are the varsity athletic teams representing the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Wilmington, North Carolina in intercollegiate athletics. The university sponsors eight teams for the men (baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and outdoor track & field only) and eleven for the women (basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track & field (indoor and outdoor), volleyball, and beach volleyball). With the exception of beach volleyball ( Sun Belt Conference ), the Seahawks compete as a non-football member of NCAA Division I and are members of the Coastal Athletic Association .
26-602: UNC Wilmington won the Colonial Athletic Association's automatic bid to play in the NCAA regional playoffs in 2004, 2006, 2012, 2015, 2023 and 2024. In addition, the program received at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2003, 2008 and 2016. UNCW set a Colonial Athletic Association record with four consecutive 40-win seasons from 2003–06 and set a school record with 44 victories in 2008, including
52-539: A 13 seed in the West Regional. In 2017 , Virginia beat #12 seed UNCW (76-71) in the first round of the East Regional. The UNC Wilmington soccer team has appeared in four NCAA Tournaments , with their most recent appearance coming in 2018. They play their home matches at UNCW Soccer Stadium . The UNC Wilmington women's basketball program completed its 37th season of competition in 2010-11, including
78-525: A 21-game winning streak. The rich heritage of UNCW baseball began when the Seahawks captured the NCJAA 1961 and 1963 National Championships. The Seahawks have sent over 90 players to play professionally. UNCW has hosted the Colonial Athletic Association baseball tournament at Brooks Field eight consecutive years and 10 times overall. The UNC Wilmington basketball program moved to Division I in 1976-77. In 1984,
104-495: A 57-47 win over Richmond. UNCW won the title again in 2006 by beating Hofstra, 78-67. The Seahawks’ first votes in any Top 25 poll came early in the 1992-93 season. Other notable wins that captured the attention of pollsters included road wins at Miami (FL) and NC State (96-84). The first appearance in post-season play came in 1998 when they were selected for the NIT. They played again in the NIT in 2001. UNCW has made six appearances in
130-589: A long history of success including 11 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Team Championships, 168 Individual Champions, and 478 All-Colonial Athletic Association performances. The team has represented UNCW at the NCAA national level on 119 occasions, including nine times at the NCAA Finals. Anna Raynor was named an All-American in the javelin on three occasions. She also finished third at the USA National Championships in 2007 and competed at
156-520: A new C-USA beach volleyball league, with another Sun Belt member, Coastal Carolina, joining them. At the same time, Charleston and UNC Wilmington (UNCW) left CCSA beach volleyball for the ASUN. In August 2023, ASUN began sponsoring men's and women's swimming and diving fully absorbing the entirety of the CCSA swimming and diving members, and SMU from The American , leaving the four beach volleyball members as
182-450: A regional basis until the "Elite Eight", at which point all games were shown nationally. Greg Gumbel once again served as the studio host, joined by analyst Clark Kellogg . Westwood One had exclusive radio coverage. Tommy Tighe once again served as studio host. Coastal Collegiate Sports Association The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference . Established in 2008,
208-468: Is the most recent title won by the Big Ten Conference. The following are the sites that were selected to host each round of the 2000 tournament: First and Second Rounds Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship) There were 30 automatic bids awarded to the tournament - of these, 28 were given to
234-606: The Sun Belt Conference in 2022–23. "Sammy" is the official name of UNCW's costumed Seahawk mascot. The name "Sammy" was selected for its gender neutral connotation. Sammy is a Hebrew name meaning sun child. UNCW's Seahawk is a mythical creature, born from the sun, who lives in the Atlantic Ocean as a fish. During the sports season the Seahawk is able to shapeshift into the form of a bird of prey to feast on
260-622: The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. CCSA beach volleyball went through major changes in 2021. The CCSA entered into a beach volleyball partnership with Conference USA (C-USA) under which the 2021 CCSA championship in that sport was split into two groups, with the six full C-USA and Sun Belt Conference members playing in one group. Following the 2021 championship, those six schools—C-USA members Florida Atlantic, FIU, Southern Miss, and UAB, plus Sun Belt members Georgia State and Louisiana–Monroe (ULM)—formed
286-651: The Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) was originally developed by four regional Division I conferences — the ASUN Conference , Big South Conference , Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference , and the Southern Conference — to create a centralized home for their members with swimming and diving programs. In October 2015, the CCSA added the newly recognized NCAA sport of beach volleyball and rebranded itself
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#1732798241261312-909: The East Region's first round in what turned out to be Bob Knight 's last game coaching the Hoosiers before his firing that offseason. Also, two teams that qualified as 10 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall in the East and Gonzaga in the West both advanced. Because of the upsets, the Elite Eight consisted of one top seed (Michigan State), one second seed ( Iowa State ), one third seed ( Oklahoma State ), one fifth seed (Florida), one sixth seed ( Purdue ), one seventh seed ( Tulsa ), and two eighth seeds (Wisconsin and North Carolina). This
338-698: The NCAA Division I ranks as a member of the ECAC-South Conference in 1984 (the league changed its name to the Colonial Athletic Association in 1985). The Seahawks have made two appearances in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game, falling both times to Old Dominion (92-49 in 2000 and 76-48 in 2002). UNCW's best regular-season finish came in 2010-11, when the Seahawks finished in a tie for second place with Old Dominion University, one game behind regular season champion James Madison. The men's and women's track & field programs have
364-646: The NCAA Tournament (2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2016, 2017), two in the NIT (1998, 2001), one in the CIT (2015) and one in the CBI (2022) in which the Seahawks won the CBI Championship. In their first trip in 2000 they lost to the #2 seed Cincinnati, 64-47. In their second appearance in 2002 , the 13th seeded Seahawks shocked the 4th seeded University of Southern California Trojans with a 93-89 overtime win. They were defeated by that year's tournament runner-up Indiana in
390-595: The Seahawks joined the ECAC-South Conference (also known as the Colonial Athletic Association). In their first conference home game at Trask Coliseum the Seahawks defeated George Mason. The first appearance in a Colonial Athletic Association championship game came in 1987, just their third season of league play that saw them finish the regular season in 2nd place. UNCW appeared in three more Colonial Athletic Association title games (1989, 1996, 1998) before capturing their first championship in 2000 with
416-541: The US Olympic Trials in 2008. Seahawk track & field athletes have been named Colonial Athletic Association Most Valuable Athlete six times, and Colonial Athletic Association Athlete of the Year four times. Academically, they have earned U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individual (35x) and team (38x) recognition, as well as Colonial Athletic Association Scholar Athlete of
442-546: The Year on four occasions. The men's swimming and diving team has won the Colonial Athletic Association title for 12 consecutive years, from 2002 through 2013. The men's tennis team has won the Colonial Athletic Association title twice in the last three years (2009, 2011) by defeating Virginia Commonwealth University. The men's golf team has won seven conference championships: 2004, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, and 2019. The women's golf team has won four conference championships: 2007, 2008, 2011, and 2012. UNC Wilmington also captured
468-538: The conference was not granted an automatic bid to the tournament until the 2000–01 season. At RCA Dome , Indianapolis, Indiana # — Ohio State vacated 16 games including all NCAA Tournament wins from the 1999–00 season due to the Jim O’Brien scandal . Unlike forfeiture, a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win, only with Ohio State removing the wins from its own record. CBS Sports had exclusive TV coverage. They were carried on
494-429: The first weekend of play. Michigan State won their first national championship since 1979 by defeating Florida 89–76 in the final game. Mateen Cleaves of Michigan State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player , while Morris Peterson was its leading scorer. Despite the string of upsets, no seed lower than 11 won a game in the tournament. The only 11 seed to win was Pepperdine , which defeated Indiana in
520-531: The last 25 as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks. The Seahawks began as a member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1973-74 and spent 10 years as a member until the association's disbandment following the 1982-83 season. UNCW joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for one season, recording a program best mark of 22-6 that year before joining
546-504: The men's and women's Colonial Athletic Association soccer titles in 2009. UNC Wilmington introduced beach volleyball as a sponsored athletics offering in the spring of 2015 and participated in its first competitive season in the spring of 2016. UNCW joined the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association in 2016–17, and has since changed conferences twice—first to the ASUN Conference in 2021–22, and then to
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#1732798241261572-656: The nation and was given the top seed in the Midwest Region. The highest seeded of the other three Final Four teams was Florida , who won the East Region as the fifth seed. Two eight-seeds made the Final Four, with Wisconsin and North Carolina rounding the bracket out. Wisconsin won the West Region while North Carolina won the South Region, with both regions seeing their top three seeds eliminated during
598-518: The national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball . It began on March 16, 2000, and ended with the championship game on April 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana at the RCA Dome . A total of 63 games were played. Due to a string of upsets throughout the tournament, only one top-four seed advanced to the Final Four. That was Michigan State , who finished the season as the #2 team in
624-468: The opponents. In order to transmutate Sammy needs the mystical basketball that was left in Wilmington during the "Blizzard" that hit the city in the early part of the 21st century bringing with it 3 championships. 2000 NCAA Division I men%27s basketball tournament The 2000 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine
650-576: The second round, 76-66. In 2003 , they lost to Maryland on a last-second basket. Ironically, their close call losses in the tournaments for both seasons came at the hands of the two participants in the 2002 National Championship Game . In 2006 the Seahawks earned a ninth seed in the Atlanta Regional as CAA conference champions, losing to #8 seed George Washington in overtime, 88-85. The Seahawks lost to #4 seed Duke (93-85) in 2016 as
676-498: The winners of their conference's tournament, while two were awarded to the team with the best regular-season record in their conference ( Ivy League and Pac-10 ). Three conference champions made their first NCAA tournament appearances: UNC Wilmington ( CAA ), Central Connecticut State ( NEC ), and Southeast Missouri State ( Ohio Valley ). While the Mountain West Conference held a conference tournament ,
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