MBU Spartan Basketball heads to nationals
On Wednesday, March 20, the MBU Spartans will meet Loyola (La.) in the first round of the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The tournament will be played in Kansas City, Mo. at the Municipal Auditorium. This is the first time the team has been to Nationals since 2006.
MBU (28-4) earned the No. 9 ranking in the final Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, which was also released on Wednesday. The Spartans have now been ranked inside the Top 10 in seven consecutive polls. Loyola received the No. 24 ranking.
The Wolfpack are 21-11 overall heading into the National Tournament and earned an automatic bid after winning the Southern States Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament.
If the Spartans win on Wednesday, they will play the winner of Wayland Baptist and Arizona Christian. The second round game is scheduled for Friday, March 22 at 4 pm. The full bracket can be found at NAIA.org (PDF).
Wednesday’s 8:15 p.m. contest will be broadcasted live on NAIANetwork.com for a fee. Per-game and full tournament packages are available. There will also be a free audio-only broadcast available from SpartanDigitalNetwork.com. Harry Schroeder will be on the play by play. Live stats will be available at the following link: http://bit.ly/SpartanBasketball.