SPRINGFIELD — For the second straight season, the Wittenberg men’s basketball got the news it wanted on Selection Monday.

The No. 17 Tigers (21-6) received an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III tournament and will play No. 9 Birmingham Southern College (25-2) at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Lexington, Ky., on the campus of Transylvania University. The other game at that site features No. 16 Transylvania (23-4) against Carroll University (16-9) at 7:30 p.m.

“Things could always be better. They could always be worse,” Wittenberg coach Bill Brown said. “That’s my first reaction. Birmingham Southern obviously has a gaudy record. We just have to go make the most of the opportunity.”

The Tigers likely lost their chance to host the first two rounds by losing 66-58 to Denison at home Friday in the semifinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament.

Wooster, which beat Denison 53-51 in the championship game Saturday in Springfield, hosts Maryville, Tenn., in the first round. A third NCAC team, Ohio Wesleyan, also made the tournament and plays Hobart in the first round.

Last year, the Tigers lost in the NCAC championship game to Wooster and were somewhat surprised to make the NCAA field. They beat LaRoche and lost to Marietta in games played at Marietta, which is seven miles farther from Springfield than Lexington.

This year’s selection wasn’t a surprise because the Tigers had six wins against regionally ranked opponents were 4-0 against Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan.

“We have a new life here,” Brown said. “From a coaching perspective, we’re going to try to take full advantage of it. We’re going to put people out there not based on much of anything other than effort. We’ve a week to prepare and regroup, so we’ll just try to take advantage of it.”

Of the four teams playing at Transylvania, only Carroll won its conference tournament. Birmingham Southern lost 77-58 to Centre on Saturday in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinals.

Birmingham Southern’s only two losses all season were to Centre (18-9). The Panthers rank 17th in the nation in 3-pointers made per game (9.3) and fourth in 3-point percentage (41.5). They shot 6-of-33 from 3-point range in their last game against Centre.

Also on Monday, the NCAC announced its 2012 All-Conference teams.

Brown was named the NCAC coach of the year for the fifth time in his career after guiding the Tigers to their first league title since 2004.

Senior post Clayton Black was selected to the NCAC First Team for the second straight season. He averaged 14.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

South grad and senior guard Michael Cooper was selected to the second team, while senior post Alex Brandt was named honorable mention for the second straight season.

For the women’s team, senior post Sarah Watson was named second team for the second straight season, while Katelyn Haralamos was selected honorable mention.