Men's Basketball receives at-large bid to national tournament

SPRING ARBOR, Mich. – The field is set for the 87th annual NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship and Spring Arbor University was announced as one of the 64 competitors.

Spring Arbor received an at-large berth will be the No. 9 seed in the Duer quadrant.

It is the third time head coach Ryan Cottingham and the Cougars have made the national tournament in the last seven years, including the 2018-19 campaign where SAU brought home its first red banner in program history.

The tournament format features 16, four-team pods to be played at campus sites – announced last week – around the nation. The First Round games will be played on Friday, Mar. 14 with the Second Round taking place on Saturday, Mar. 15 at those campus sites.

The winners of the 16 pods advance to the final site in Kansas City, Missouri, where the remainder of the tournament will be played over the span of a week at Municipal Auditorium from Mar. 20-25.

Spring Arbor will travel to Henderson, Tennessee to face No. 8 seed Cornerstone University (Mich.) in the first round, hosted by Freed-Hardeman University. The Cougars and Golden Eagles have already met once this season with SAU earning a 74-64 win.

Cornerstone (22-9, 15-5 WHAC) is making its 19th appearance in the national tournament after winning the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament.

Joining Spring Arbor and Cornerstone in the pod are Freed-Hardeman, the No. 1 seed and last year's national champion, and 8th-seeded Indiana University Southeast. The Lions of FHU boast a 26-5 record and were the Mid-South Conference Tournament champions. Indiana Southeast finished 13-17 overall and clinched their spot in the field as the River States Conference Tournament runner-up.

The winners of the two Friday games meet on Saturday with a trip to Kansas City on the line.

This is the sixth tournament appearance in the history of Spring Arbor men's basketball, and the first since the NAIA Division I and Division II merger following the 2019-20 season. The Cougars hold an all-time national tournament record of 8-4 with one national title.