The Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team received the No. 5 seed and will face Culver-Stockton College (Mo.) in the opening round of the 76th Annual Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship, held in Kansas City, Mo., on March 13-19.
The Warriors, 26-5 and ranked No. 5 in the latest national poll, will play the un-seeded Wildcats at 12:15, PST, on Thursday, March 14. This will be LCSC’s ninth appearance at nationals in program history and first since the 2007-08 season.
“It’s just exciting to see our name in the bracket and know 100 percent sure that we’re in the national tournament,” said LCSC head coach Brandon Rinta, now in his second year at the helm.
The 32-team field is comprised of 17 automatic berths and 15 at-large selections, which were determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll released earlier today.
LCSC, which received the third at-large bid, is one of four Frontier Conference teams to make the tournament.
Rocky Mountain, which upset Montana Western 68-52 to win the league tournament title on Tuesday, will play second-seeded Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Montana Western, seeded 14th, received the eighth at-large berth and will face Philander Smith (Ark.) at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. MSU-Northern claimed the fourth to last at-large bid and will open play against ninth-seeded Evangel (Mo.) at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
To view the complete bracket, click here.
Westminster, which started the season 12-1 and was ranked in the top 25 most of the way, fell just shy of becoming the Frontier’s fifth team to qualify. The Griffins were 30th in the final poll and 27th-ranked MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) received the final at-large bid.
“It’s exciting for our conference to be able to get that many teams in,” said Rinta. “Hopefully we can go to Kansas City and represent the Frontier Conference well.”
No. 1-ranked and undefeated Columbia (Mo.) (33-0) was tabbed as the tournament’s top seed. The Cougars are the only team in NAIA and NCAA levels of men's basketball to have a perfect record.
Amongst this year's qualifiers, defending national champion Concordia (Calif.) joins a list of nine other teams with at least one national championship title. Oklahoma City, which will face Columbia in the first round, is the owner of six championship rings, the most of any team in the tournament’s 76-year history.
The Warriors hold an all-time record of 2-8 at nationals with their last win coming in 2004 under coach George Pfeifer.
“It’s everybody in the program’s first time going back there and there is going to be a lot of new things that we’re just going to have to be flexible and adjust too,” Rinta said “Hopefully we’re going to be able to just focus on playing basketball and not get caught up in some of the distractions that come with playing on a stage like the national tournament.”
Culver-Stockton (24-8), which was the regular-season runner-up in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, has not appeared in the national tournament since 1959. Overall, the program has made six appearances and has gone 3-5.
A preview with an in-depth look at the Warriors’ matchup with the Wildcats will be available on Tuesday at www.LCWarriors.com.
“I think that our guys have confidence in their ability against the best teams in the nation, and hopefully that’s reflected in their play when we get out on the court on Thursday.”
Warrior fans can listen to all of LCSC’s tournament games for free via KOZE Radio’s online broadcasts with Brian Danner at www.koze-sports.com.
The first 28 games from Kansas City, Mo., will also be available via live video stream for $29.95 and any single day can be purchased for $9.95. For more information and to pre-register, click here.
The semifinals will be broadcast live on ESPN3 on March 18 and the championship final will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on March 19.
|
School |
Qualification |
Record^ |
Appearances |
Last Time |
Champs. Record |
|
Arizona Christian |
At-Large No. 12 |
20-9 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
Cal State San Marcos |
At-Large No. 4 |
23-6 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
Columbia (Mo.) |
American Midwest Conference Tournament Champion |
33-0 |
17th |
2012 |
8-16 |
|
Concordia (Calif.) |
Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
22-10 |
11th |
2012 |
23-9 |
|
Culver-Stockton (Mo.) |
Heart of America Athletic Conference Regular-Season Runner-Up |
24-8 |
6th |
1959 |
3-5 |
|
Emmanuel (Ga.) |
At-Large No. 9 |
28-4 |
3rd |
2011 |
0-2 |
|
Evangel (Mo.) |
Heart of America Athletic Conference Regular-Season Champion |
25-6 |
4th |
2012 |
2-3 |
|
Faulkner (Ala.) |
Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
28-5 |
8th |
2007 |
10-7 |
|
Georgetown (Ky.) |
At-Large No. 7 |
23-8 |
32nd |
2012 |
54-30 |
|
Hope International (Calif.) |
At-Large No. 11 |
25-7 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
John Brown (Ark.) |
At-Large No. 2 |
27-6 |
7th |
2012 |
9-5 |
|
Lee (Tenn.) |
At-Large No. 1 |
29-3 |
10th |
2012 |
8-9 |
|
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
At-Large No. 3 |
26-5 |
9th |
2008 |
2-8 |
|
Life (Ga.) |
TranSouth Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
19-12 |
14th |
2012 |
22-10 |
|
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
Mid-South Conference Tournament Champion |
29-4 |
11th |
2012 |
6-10 |
|
LSU Shreveport (La.) |
At-Large No. 15 |
24-6 |
9th |
2012 |
5-8 |
|
Martin Methodist (Tenn.) |
At-Large No. 13 |
20-10 |
8th |
2012 |
6-7 |
|
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) |
At-Large No. 17 |
24-9 |
3rd |
2012 |
3-2 |
|
Montana State-Northern |
At-Large No. 14 |
23-9 |
7th |
2012 |
3-6 |
|
Montana Western |
At-Large No. 8 |
22-9 |
11th |
2012 |
4-10 |
|
Oklahoma Baptist |
At-Large No. 5 |
24-7 |
26th |
2012 |
58-22 |
|
Oklahoma City |
Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
17-10 |
20th |
2010 |
47-13 |
|
Philander Smith (Ark.) |
Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
24-8 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
Pikeville (Ky.) |
Mid-South Conference Tournament Runner-Up |
26-6 |
7th |
2011 |
8-5 |
|
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
Frontier Conference Tournament Champion |
21-12 |
7th |
2009 |
5-5 |
|
Science & Arts (Okla.) |
At-Large 16 |
17-9 |
6th |
2009 |
10-4 |
|
SAGU (Texas) |
Red River Athletic Conference Regular-Season Champion |
29-4 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
St. Thomas (Texas) |
Red River Athletic Conference Tournament Champion |
28-5 |
1st |
-- |
0-0 |
|
Voorhees (S.C.) |
Unaffiliated Group (A.I.I. / Chicagoland) Tournament Champion |
22-11 |
6th |
2006 |
1-5 |
|
Westmont (Calif.) |
At-Large No. 6 |
25-7 |
15th |
2007 |
16-16 |
|
William Carey (Miss.) |
Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament Runner-Up |
25-5 |
8th |
1989 |
1-7 |
|
Xavier (La.) |
At-Large No. 10 |
24-7 |
14th |
2012 |
4-13 |
