By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Natasha Adair figures it must be fate.

How else do you explain both the Delaware’s men’s and women’s basketball teams making the NCAA Tournament in the same season?

“It was meant to be, clearly,” said Adair, the Blue Hen women’s coach. “I talk to God all the time and I know this was not by accident. It couldn’t have happened to a better group of women on my team and men on Martin’s team. We are one family. We’re so close as a group.”

Whatever the reason, Delaware’s dual Big Dance tickets made for a special evening Sunday as first the Blue Hen men and then the UD women saw their names go up in an NCAA Tournament bracket.

A few hundred fans watched the bracket reveal with the teams at the Carpenter Center. It was the first time both of the school’s basketball teams made the tourney in the same year.

Unfortunately for Delaware hoop fans who hoped to attend both games, the NCAA has both squads playing on Friday.

The CAA champion Blue Hen men are seeded No. 15 in the South Region and will take on No. 2 Villanova in Pittsburgh at 2:45 p.m. The contest will be shown on CBS.

The Delaware women, who won their CAA title at Drexel Sunday afternoon, are seeded No. 13 and will play at No. 4 Maryland Friday at a time to be determined.

“I’m just excited for our guys to be able to experience this,” said Delaware men’s coach Martin Ingelsby. “You’re kind of waiting and waiting to see your name pop up. You kind of have a sense that, OK, we’re going to be a 14 or 15. When I saw Villanova at ‘two,’ I think everybody kind of started cheering.

“It was like, ‘Here we go. It’s going to be the Blue Hens.’”

The Hens last played Villanova Dec. 14, 2019, falling to the then-20th-ranked Wildcats, 78-70, in Newark, New Jersey. Delaware is 0-14 all-time against

Villanova but three of the last four meetings have been decided by 10 points or less.

Senior center Dylan Painter knows the Wildcats pretty well. He started his career at Villanova, and was a member of one of their national championship squads before transferring to Delaware.

Some of Painter’s former teammates are still there.

“It’s just crazy how things go full circle,” said Painter, a Hershey, Pennsylvania native. “Pittsburgh, playing on my birthday, it’s just everything. It’s unreal.

“Our goal is to pull the upset. We won the CAA. We’re going to the Dance but we are not ready to stop this season.”

“I’m just overwhelmed with joy,” said senior guard Kevin Anderson. “I’m super excited to finally be able to play in the tournament. I remember freshman year, sitting in the dorm with Ryan (Allen). It was just like, ‘You know we’re going to win one. Eventually, we’re going to bring one back.’

“And we finally did it.”

It will be the men’s program’s sixth NCAA tourney appearance, all since 1992, and first since 2014.

Delaware is 0-5 in NCAA tournament games but, of course, the big thing for a mid-major program is just having its name on the NCAA bracket and the national attention that comes with it.

Delaware’s women will be in the Big Dance for the fifth time. The last time, in 2013, they reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in Elena Delle Donne’s senior season.

Like the men, the Blue Hen women have some history with their opponent, Maryland. Delaware is also 0-14 against the Terps, last falling to then-No. 5-ranked Maryland, 99-59, in 2018.

But the Hens would like to think they’re a better team since that setback.

“They were a tough team to beat and we had a different squad obviously,” said Delaware standout Jasmine Dickey. “We’re working hard and I think we’re together as a team. We feed off each other’s energy.”

It doesn’t hurt that Delaware beat some programs like Villanova and Florida on its way to the WNIT Final Four a year ago.

“It’s just a matter of a mindset going in,” said Adair. “We’ve been on that stage. We’ve played high-level, Power 5 teams in the pos-season. So we’re not intimidated by anyone.”

Follow Andy Walter on @DSNSports on Twitter.