Sacred Heart Pioneers

The Sacred Heart Pioneers bring energetic, up-tempo basketball to the William H. Pitt Center in Fairfield, Connecticut. As members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the Pioneers represent a young university that has grown quickly from a regional commuter school into a full-fledged Division I athletic program. Sacred Heart has carved out an identity as a program willing to compete against anyone, having taken on high-major opponents on the road year after year. It's a program still writing its story, with a loyal fanbase that has watched it climb the college basketball ladder in real time.

Sacred Heart's basketball program began in 1965, not long after the university itself was founded, and built its early reputation at the NCAA Division II level, capped by a national championship in 1986. The Pioneers jumped to Division I for the 1999-2000 season and have competed at that level ever since, though a Division I NCAA Tournament berth has so far eluded them. The program has instead built its legacy through conference play and steady growth as one of the newer faces in Northeast college basketball.