NCU, EOU,OIT, CI and Corban represent the CCC
2017 NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship Preview
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Press Book – PDF) (Bracket - PDF) The 26th annual NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship tips off this Wednesday, March 8 inside Keeter Gymnasium. The single-elimination championship begins at 8:30 a.m. CDT and runs through March 14.
The first 30 games of the national championship will be video-streamed live at www.NAIANetwork.com, the NAIA’s official video-streaming platform powered by Stretch Internet. The championship final will air on ESPN3 for the on Tuesday, March 14 at 6:00 p.m. CT.
The championship tips off with No. 2 seed IU East (Ind.) and No. 7 Reinhardt (Ga.) matching up at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Red Wolves, the Red States Conference Tournament champion, are appearing in their fifth overall event – third-straight appearance – and are searching for postseason win No. 4. Reinhardt, out of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC), qualified as the AAC Tournament Runner-Up. The Eagles are still searching for their first victory in the event.
No. 1 overall seed Union (Ky.) – ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season edition of the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll – checks in with a 30-3 season record. The Bulldogs own a 1-3 mark in the tournament. Champions of both regular-season and tournament titles in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, Union faces Aquinas (Mich.) Wednesday at 5:45 p.m.
Five of the top 10 individual leading scorers in the NAIA will be on display in Point Lookout, Mo. Warren Hall of Warner (Fla.) ranks No. 1 in Division II with 31.3 points per game. He is riding a streak of 11-straight games of at least 10 points. The last time he had a sub-10 point contest was Jan. 14, 2017 against Ave Maria (Fla.). Ranked No. 6 on the scoring list, Colton Kooima of Northwestern (Iowa) checks in with 24.1 points per game. Gerrard Newby of Union (No. 7 – 21.8 ppg) is third, followed closely by Kyle Steigenga of Cornerstone (Mich.) (No. 8 – 21.5 ppg) and No. 10 Jason Spicer of Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) with 21.5.
Union and Cornerstone finished the regular-season with the most victories entering the championship at 30, followed by Rochester (Mich.) and Bethel (Ind.) at 29.
Three programs are making their first-ever national championship appearance: Calumet (Ind.), Pacific Union (Calif.) and WVU Tech (W. Va.). Conversely, five teams are appearing in their 15th-or-more event: Bellevue (Neb.) (18), College of the Ozarks (Mo.) (21), Cornerstone (15), Northwestern (17) and Oregon Tech (15).
Bethel and Oregon Tech boast the most national championship rings in NAIA history with three. The Pilots last banner year came in 1998, while the Owls last title was in 2012. There are five other qualifiers with at least one previous national championship title: College of Idaho (1), College of the Ozarks (1), Indiana Wesleyan (2), Northwestern (2) and Saint Francis (Ind.) (1).
Ten programs will also have representation at the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship – College of the Ozarks, Dakota Wesleyan, Davenport, Eastern Oregon, IU East, Northwestern, Oregon Tech, Reinhardt, Saint Francis and Tabor (Kan.)
For more information on the National Championship, click here.