NAIA tournament basketball returns to KC’s Municipal Auditorium Thursday: schedule

Kansas City Star
·2 min read

The 86th NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship tournament returns to Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium on Thursday.

It’s the 78th time the annual tourney is taking place in KC. Round of 16 games begin in single-elimination style at 1 p.m. Thursday and continue through Friday.

The quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday, the semifinals (after an off-day Sunday) Monday and the championship game Tuesday, March 26, at 7 p.m.

By the time the smoke clears, the eventual NAIA national champion will have won four games in a six-day span.

Here’s the schedule for Thursday’s games:

  • The Master’s (Calif.) vs. Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), 1 p.m.

  • Central Baptist (Ark.) vs. Oklahoma Wesleyan, 3 p.m.

  • Northwestern (Iowa) vs. Grace (Ind.), 5 p.m.

  • Evangel vs. Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), 7 p.m.

And Friday’s schedule looks like this:

  • LSU Shreveport vs. Langston (Okla.), 1 p.m.

  • Arizona Christian vs. Indiana Wesleyan, 3 p.m.

  • Madonnna (Mich.) vs. College of Idaho, 5 p.m.

  • Morningside (Iowa) vs. Cumberlands (Ky.), 7 p.m.

Per the NAIA, the first 14 games of the national championship will be streamed live at www.NAIANetwork.com. The championship final will air on ESPN3 for the seventh straight year.

Pricing for general admission tickets starts at $25, and an all-tourney pass starts at $90.

Making its ninth national tournament appearance, Freed-Hardeman of Tennessee is the No. 1 seed in the Cramer Quadrant. The Lions will take on The Master’s, a California school seeded No. 5, in the first game of the Round of 16 at 1 p.m. Thursday. The Master’s has played in this tourney 14 times.

No. 2-seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan, making its 12th national tournament appearance, plays No. 14-seeded Central Baptist of Arkansas in the game that follows. Central Baptist’s road to KC included an upset of No. 3-seeded MidAmerica Nazarene last week.

Grace College (32-1), the overall top seed for this year’s NAIA tournament, opens with Naismith Quadrant 5-seed Northwestern (Iowa), while Thursday’s nightcap, tipping at 7 p.m., features 15th-seeded Evangel against No. 11 seed Lewis-Clark State (Idaho).

Six of this year’s final 16 teams have won a national title previously. Indiana Wesleyan has three championships on its resume, while Northwestern and College of Idaho, located in Twin Falls, Idaho, have each won two.

The Golden Eagles of the College of Idaho are the defending tournament champions. They beat Indiana Tech 73-71 for the 2023 NAIA title.

Rounding out the other past champs in this year’s 16-team field, Evangel, Grace, and Oklahoma Wesleyan have won one apiece.