2023 NAIA Men’s Basketball NAIA Championship Preview – Final Site

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – [Bracket | Schedule | Tickets] The 85^th Annual NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship is scheduled to tip-off for the 77^th time in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday, March 13 at 1:00 p.m. CT. The single-elimination championship runs through March 18. Coined college basketball’s toughest tournament, the national champion must win four games in a six-day span.

The top seed overall will head into action in the 3:00 p.m. CT tilt as the College of Idaho, the last Cascade Collegiate Conference team standing, will square-off against LSU Shreveport (La.). The Coyotes enter final site play with the best overall record in the nation at 32-1. The only blemish came back on November 4 in an 82-78 loss to fellow No. 1 tournament seed, Arizona Christian. Since that point, the team out of Caldwell, Idaho has rattled-off 32 consecutive wins, including a 76-61 win over Xavier (La.) in the second round. The Pilots, on the other hand, are searching for their first national title in their 18^th national championship field appearance. Coach Kyle Blankenship led the team to a 78-73 win over No. 13-seeded Pikeville (Ky.) in the title game in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Of the teams in the 2023 field, three have won a national title in their history. College of Idaho, Grace (Ind.) and Georgetown. Among those, Georgetown leads all teams with three red banners in its history.

The first 14 games of the national championship will have live stats and video-stream on the NAIA Network, the NAIA’s official video-streaming platform powered by Stretch Internet. The championship final will air on ESPN3 for the eighth-straight season on Saturday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m.

For more information on the National Championship, go to NAIAHoops.com

Championship Nuggets

• The 85^th NAIA National Championship this year continues the event’s distinction as the oldest national championship basketball tournament in the country. Founded in 1937, the tournament preceded both the National Invitation Tournament (founded in 1938), as well as the NCAA Tournament (founded in 1939), and has produced national champions from 23 states, spanning the nation from Maryland to Hawaii. This year marks the 77^th time the tournament has been contested in Kansas City, including 57 years at historic Municipal Auditorium, extending the city’s long tradition of hosting outstanding championship basketball on all collegiate levels.
• Since the national championship came back to Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium in 2002 (from Tulsa), the national champion teams have been diverse. In that time frame, five unseeded teams won the title while the No. 1 seed only took home the red banner twice – Mountain State (W.Va.) in 2004 and Loyola (La.) in 2022. Pikeville (Ky.) was the last unseeded program in 2011 to win the national championship. Overall since 1967, there have been eight No. 1 seeds to win the national championship.
• 2023 is the second year of the true 64-team bracket with teams seeded 1-16 in four quadrants (Naismith, Cramer, Duer and Liston).
• The last team to enter the championship with an undefeated season record was Columbia (Mo.) in 2013. The 33-0 Cougars ended up losing in the Quarterfinal round to LSU Shreveport (La.). Overall, two previous programs have won the championship title with a perfect record, with Oklahoma City in 1992 and Central State (Ohio) in 1965.
• Recent NAIA Men’s Basketball Hall of Fame honorees have included legends such as Scottie Pippen (player), Terry Porter (player), Travis Grant (player), Clarence “Bevo” Francis (player), Bob Burchard (coach), Steve Jenkins (coach) and Rocky Lamar (coach).
• The state of Oklahoma claims the most championship titles with 11 followed by Missouri with eight. Oklahoma City University has won six national championships, the most of any institution. The Stars won consecutive titles on two occasions (1991-92 and 2007-08).
• There have been 48 states represented in the national championship -- Alaska and Wyoming are two states not represented.
• Seed Records by the numbers in 2023

 
o   No. 1: 8-0
o   No. 2: 5-3
o   No. 3: 5-2
o   No. 4: 5-2
o   No. 5: 6-2
o   No. 6: 4-3
o   No. 7: 3-3
o   No. 8: 3-4
o   No. 9: 1-4
o   No. 10: 3-3
o   No. 11: 2-3
o   No. 12: 0-4
o   No. 13: 1-4
o   No. 14: 1-4
o   No. 15: 0-4