![]() Posted by
Matt Fancett
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Wed, Mar 5, 2008
- [
Men's Basketball
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released the field of 32 teams for the 17th Annual Division II Men's Basketball National Championship, which will be held March 12-18 in Point Lookout, Mo. Aquinas College, the WHAC regular season champion who was upset in the WHAC semi-finals by Cornerstone earned an at-large bid and will join tournament champ Indiana Tech to represent the league.
Aquinas is making their third ever trip to the dance, and are looking for their first win on the national stage after a 0-2 showing thus far. The Warriors are making their fifth ever trip to the champioships and look to improve on their 3-4 record in NAIA tournament play. There are four teams who are making their first trip to the Division II Championships: Eastern Oregon, Edward Waters (Fla.), Judson (Ill.) and Oklahoma Wesleyan. Of the 32-teams, defending national champion MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) and Northwestern (Iowa) are tied for the most active appearances with 13. The Red Raiders of Northwestern own the most Championship wins all-time with 22.
The 32-team field is comprised of 23 automatic qualifiers from NAIA affiliated conferences, plus the host and eight at-large selections, which are determined using the final regular-season rating released Feb. 27. The official Championship bracket will be released by 6 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 5. The first 30 games of the Championships will be video-streamed live on the Internet, while the National Championship Game on March 18 will air live nationwide on College Sports Television (CSTV), with Jason Knapp calling the action and Steve Wolf providing color analysis. For more information on the Championships, click here. For complete conference tournament breakdown, click here. |
