Ramblings of Dannelly: NAIA Basketball Tournament Preview

The NAIA Basketball National Tournaments tipoff this week in Kansas City, Mo. and Sioux City, Iowa. Nostalgic me is thinking back to when I used to cover the NAIA DII Women’s Basketball tournament and the NAIA DI Men’s Basketball tournament in back-to-back weeks. 64 games over two weeks. That’s a lot of basketball to consume.

Because of that, I decided to come out with my completely uninformed, purely fan-based preview of the tournaments. I’ve read a lot of articles this year, watched the polls and all that. I’d consider myself moderately informed. Like a guy that looks at a truck online and suddenly becomes an expert. “Pffft, it’s gotta have a Cummins'”

These tournaments have a lot of significance for me and my career covering the NAIA. When I was in college, the first national media credential I received to do play by play at was the NAIA DII Women’s Basketball tournament. This was when the games were still played in the Sioux City Auditorium and not the Tyson Event’s Center. The NAIA DI Men’s basketball tournament in Kansas City is where I met a lot of people who worked for the NAIA and of course started my friendship with Rob Brandt. This of course led to Rob eventually owning VSN and myself owning it again after I owned it before the time I sold it and owned it before. Confused? We’ll skip that.

Before I get into the preview, I want to be an old man yelling at clouds for a second.

Why the hell did we stop putting 32 teams at the tournament site and playing the Toughest College Basketball Tournament in America? I’m all for expanding the tournament. I’m all for changing to just a single division. But the one thing that could still separate the NAIA postseason from the NCAA postseason tournament was the fact we had a 32 team tournament that started on a Wednesday and ended on a Tuesday. It was game after game after game and it was AWESOME. Now we have a 16-team tournament at a single site. . .yawn.

NAIA MEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

There haven’t been many surprises in NAIA Men’s Basketball this season when it comes to the top seeds. Grace, Langston and College of Idaho were all highly ranked at the start of the season and performed as many expected. Freed-Hardeman started the season at No. 10 in the NAIA Basketball Coaches’ poll, so it’s not much of a surprise to see them as a top seed either.

The biggest surprise from the start of the season to now falls into two categories. The first being the teams that were highly ranked that received lower seeds and the second being teams rated in the Top 25 that flat out didn’t make the postseason. LSU-Shreveport started the season at No. 8 and made the tournament as a 12 seed. Not exactly what they had in mind, but at least they are dancing.

Three teams were rated in the NAIA Men’s Basketball Top 25 and did not make the postseason. No. 19 William Penn, No. 22 Mobile and No. 24 Indiana Tech all failed to make the postseason list of 64.

In the Naismith Quad, I see Grace advancing to the Semifinals. If I had to pick a team outside of them to make some noise, I’d go with Montana Tech. Florida Memorial has the ability to make it to the semis but they have to play more consistently. Their losses to Warner, Webber International (twice) and Saint Thomas had me scratching my head.

The Cramer Quad is wide open. Freed-Hardeman is the No. 1 seed, but No. 2 Oklahoma Wesleyan and No. 3 MidAmerica Nazarene could also win out. My Darkhorse (literally and figuratively) are the No. 7 seed Broncos of Hastings College.

In the Duer Quad it’s tough to think Langston is going to give any ground to the rest of the bracket. Southwestern could challenge them in round No. 2 if the Moundbuilders get back to form. No. 3 Arizona Christian is my pick to potentially knock off Langston later in the round of 8. The Cinderella story of the tournament easily goes to the No. 6 seed Antelope Valley. Given the fact they had to crowdsource money just to be able to get to the postseason has you rooting for this team to succeed.

The Liston Quad has a lot of solid NAIA basketball squads, but I still think it’s No. 1 seed College of Idaho’s bracket to lose. Round two could pit them against Carroll College who has been a sneaky good team all season. No. 2 Cumberlands and No. 6 Georgetown could meet up in KC for an interesting matchup given their history this season. My Darkhorse is Roosevelt at the No. 4 seed to wreak havoc in this bracket.

When it’s time to crown a champion, I think it will be Grace and Langston duking it out at Municipal Auditorium for the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship. Grace wins out in an absolute battle.

NAIA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

On the NAIA Women’s Basketball side, I think we are on course to see a Dordt vs. Marian finale. These two squads have been at the top of their game all season and I think are built for the long haul of the tournament.

No. 1 seed Marian will come out of the Naismith Quad. No. 3 seed Concordia could give them issues in the round of eight if the two teams meet. My dark horse is Lewis-Clark State to shock the NAIA if they meet up with Marian, but even that sounds like a stretch to me. The Knights will be in the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championship game.

Indiana Wesleyan is the No. 1 seed in the Cramer Quad and will have to fight with the likes of No. 9 Northwestern, No. 3 Georgetown and No. 2 Carroll College. All these teams have played very good basketball at times this season and could pull off the upset of the Wildcats. If there’s a Darkhorse, I look at Oregon Tech who has been sneaky in big games this year.

In the Duer Quad, I think No. 1 seed Campbellsville is going to walk into the round of 8 where they will meet either Cumberlands or Clarke. Then it will get interesting. Those three teams are good enough to make it into the semifinals but am not overly confident in which it could be. Campbellsville is my pick today. Give me Southern Oregon as the longshot to upset the bracket.

Dordt is the No. 1 seed in the Liston Quad. They hold their destiny in their own hands. They’re the best team in their Quad and if they play as expected, they’ll end up in the title game. Mayville State is my longshot to knock off Dordt if they make it out of the opening rounds. No. 2 Vanguard had a solid season and will test the Defenders.

In the end, I think it’s Marian over Dordt to win the NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Sure, I’m seen as the NAIA football guy. What the hell do I know about NAIA Basketball? I guess we’ll find out once the tournament starts up this week.

I do know even though the format isn’t 100% perfect and to my liking, I still enjoy the tournament and the fact we get to see teams from all over the country play against one another. It’s cool to Oregon Tech and Keiser playing in the NAIA Men’s Tournament against each other in Orange City, Iowa. There are countless other examples.

That’s the one thing all NAIA schools in all sports need to look at. Get out of your conference, get out of your region, and play some other NAIA teams in the regular season if you are able. I get juiced up to see teams from the south coming north or west coast NAIA’ers coming to the Midwest.

In less than two week’s we will have a new NAIA Basketball Champion for both the men and the women. Enjoy the tournaments everyone!