KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Christian men's basketball team found out Wednesday night that it earned its first ever No. 1 seed in the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament during the NAIA's bracket reveal show on Wednesday night.
The NAIA National Championship Tournament consists of the 32 best teams in the NAIA and will be played at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. from Mar. 18-24. Mid-America Christian (30-2) will enter the tourney as the second-rated overall team and will face No. 8 seed Hope International (Calif.) during the opening round in the Liston Bracket at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 18.
The Evangels earned an automatic bid after they finished the 2019-20 regular season as the Sooner Athletic Conference Champions for the second time in program history. MACU went 19-1 in conference play, the first time a team suffered only one loss in SAC play since Oklahoma Baptist during the 2009-10 season.
Impressively, not only did MACU win 30 games for the first time since the 2003-2004 NCCAA Division II National Championship team, but the Evangels did so against elite competition. MACU went 7-2 against teams ranked in the NAIA Top 25, which includes getting a 103-89 win over another No. 1 seed in the tournament in LSU-Shreveport at the Gaulke Activity Center on Nov. 7, 2019.
Since moving up to the NAIA level prior to the 2007-08 season, MACU will be competing in its fourth NAIA National Championship Tournament, the third under current Evangels Head Coach Josh Gamblin.
The Evangels have a ton of success in the national tournament under Gamblin, winning the 2016 NAIA National Championship under the then first year head coach. In the championship game, the Evangels toppled Georgetown (Ky.) 100-99 on Malcolm Mann's buzzer-beating floater in overtime. Last season, MACU made it in as an eight-seed and shocked No. 1 seed Tougaloo 73-64 in the opening round.
The Evangels were one of five teams from the Sooner Athletic Conference selected to the championship field, joining No. 3 seeds John Brown and Southwestern Assemblies of God, No. 6 seed Texas Wesleyan and eighth-seed Wayland Baptist.
For more information about the NAIA National Championships, you can visit the NAIA website at naia.org/naiahoops.
