After a heartbreaking loss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, the Brandeis men's basketball team will hope to improve on that performance this season, as it was granted a Pool C berth into the tournament for the fourth straight season. The team will travel to St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, N.Y. to play St. Lawrence University Friday night. The winner of that game will then play the winner of the St. John Fisher-Brooklyn College game Saturday.Last season the Judges lost to host Franklin and Marshall College 65-63, nearly pulling off a miracle comeback in a game in which they once trailed 57-37.

Despite the loss, coach Brian Meehan reiterated that the team cannot think back to last year's loss.

"Last year was last year," Meehan said. "It was a whole different team. Every year in the tourment is like starting over. ... It's all about preparation for the Tournament."

Pool C berths are given to schools from conferences with automatic qualifiers who do not earn the automatic bid. Two-time defending national champion Washington University in St. Louis won the University Athletic Association automatic berth to the tournament by finishing the year with the best UAA record at 13-1. Brandeis finished second in the conference at 9-5, the only other team from the UAA with a conference record above .500.

Entry to the tournament is based primarily on statistics within a team's region, which in Brandeis' case is the Northeast. The Judges finished the year fifth in the region, ahead of three other tournament teams.

The primary criteria for selection include, among other factors, in-region strength of schedule, where the Judges ranked seventh in the Northeast. It also includes in-region results versus regionally ranked teams, and the Judges had a solid .500 record in this category. Secondary factors include overall strength of schedule, which for Brandeis was the 60th toughest in the nation out of over 400 Division III schools.

With this résumé, Meehan was confident his team would make the tournament, telling the Justice, "We're definitely in" after the team's victory Saturday over New York University, before the brackets were announced.

Although St. John Fisher is just over 375 miles from Brandeis, the Judges are used to traveling for the tournament, having played their two games last season at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn. about 360 miles from Waltham.

"We're pretty prepared," Meehan said. "We're ahead of most teams when it comes to travel because we do it all year."

St. Lawrence University won the Liberty League tournament to get to the tournament for the 12th time in school history, losing last year in the Sweet 16 to eventual national runner-up Richard Stockton College. St. Lawrence finished the season 16-11 despite starting the year 1-4, including losses to fellow NCAA tournament teams Middlebury College and Plattsburgh State University. But St. Lawrence finished the season on a five-game winning streak and scored 109 points in the Liberty League championship game against Hobart College.

Four of St. Lawrence's players average between 11.8 and 12.6 points per game, while the Judges have four players averaging double figures-guards Andre Roberson '10 and Kenny Small '10 and forwards Terrell Hollins '10 and Vytas Kriskus '12.

The Judges finished the year 2-1 against NCAA Tournament teams, splitting their games against Washington, giving the Bears their only conference loss, and defeating Clark University 51-47 early in the season.

The Saints were 0-2 against NCAA teams with their aforementioned losses to Middlebury and Plattsburgh. The only common opponent the teams played this year was Vassar College, whom both teams defeated easily.

St. John Fisher finished the year at 22-5 and made the tournament as a Pool C bid after losing in the Empire 8 Conference Championship game. Despite the loss, the team finished the year as the top ranked team in the East Region and is currently ranked No. 22 in the d3hoops.com top 25 poll.

Brooklyn College finished the year 22-6 and won the City University of New York Athletic Conference tournament to secure its NCAA berth.

Meehan and his team are ready for the NCAA Tournament, but know they have to focus on fundamentals to advance

"We need to play our kind of of game," he said. We have to defend. We have to rebound. We have to continue to move the ball on offense. The whole season is played in preparation for the tournament. Our style of play is really suited for tournament play and that's why we've done in the tournament.