John Brown's men got the confirmation they had been waiting for on Wednesday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles were one of the 32 teams selected for the 82nd annual NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in Kansas City next week as announced by the NAIA selection show on Facebook Live.
2019 NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship
March 20-26
Municipal Arena, Kansas City, Mo.
Wednesday’s opening round
Game 1: John Brown vs. Bethel (Tenn.), 9 a.m.
Game 2: Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) vs. Campbellsville (Ky.), 10:45 a.m.
Game 3: William Jessup (Calif.) vs. LSU-Shreveport (La.), 1:15 p.m.
Game 4: LSU-Alexandria (La.) vs. Central Baptist, 3 p.m.
Game 5: Georgetown (Ky.) vs. Rocky Mountain (Mont.), 4:45 p.m.
Game 6: Vanguard (Calif.) vs. William Penn (Iowa), 6:30 p.m.
Game 7: Missouri Baptist vs. Loyola (La.), 8:15 p.m.
Game 8: Wayland Baptist (Texas) vs. Arizona Christian, 10 p.m.
Thursday’s opening round
Game 9: Pikeville (Ky.) vs. Talladega (Ala.), 9 a.m.
Game 10: Wiley (Texas) vs. Cumberlands (Ky.), 10:45 a.m.
Game 11: Carroll (Mont.) vs. St. Thomas (Texas), 12:30 p.m.
Game 12: Stillman (Ala.) vs. Oklahoma City, 2:15 p.m.
Game 13: Tougaloo (Miss.) vs. Mid-America Chrisitan (Okla.), 4 p.m.
Game 14: William Carey (Miss.) vs. Peru State (Neb.), 5:45 p.m.
Game 15: Bendictine (Kan.) vs. Westmont (Calif.), 7:30 p.m.
Game 16: The Master’s (Calif.) vs. Science and Arts (Okla.), 9:15 p.m.
Friday’s second round
Game 17: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12, 9 a.m.
Game 18: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 4, 10:45 a.m.
Game 19: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 12:30 p.m.
Game 20: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 6, 2:15 p.m.
Game 21: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4 p.m.
Game 22: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14, 5:45 p.m.
Game 23: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 15, 7:30 p.m.
Game 24: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 16, 9:15 p.m.
Saturday’s quarterfinals
Game 25: Winner Game 22 vs. Winner Game 24, noon
Game 26: Winner Game 18 vs. Winner Game 20, 2 p.m.
Game 27: Winner Game 19 vs. Winner Game 21, 5:30 p.m.
Game 28: Winner Game 17 vs. Winner Game 23, 7:30 p.m.
Monday’s semifinals (March 25)
Game 29: Winner Game 25 vs. Winner Game 27, 6 p.m.
Game 30: Winner Game 26 vs. Winner Game 28, 8 p.m.
Tuesday’s championship (March 26)
Game 31: Winner Game 29 vs. Winner Game 30, 8 p.m.
JBU (23-10), which received an at-large bid and is the fifth seed in the Liston Bracket, will play the opening game of the tournament at 9 a.m. March 20 at Municipal Arena against fifth-seeded Bethel (Tenn.), which finished 24-8 and also received an at-large bid.
The team cheered as it got the news during a watch party held at the Walker Student Center on campus along with family and friends.
"We're excited," said senior guard Jake Caudle, a former Bentonville standout who is the Golden Eagles' leading scorer and first-team All-Sooner Athletic Conference selection. "It's the national tournament. We're excited to see our name pop up on the screen."
After finishing second in the Sooner Athletic Conference, the Golden Eagles were pretty much guaranteed to receive an at-large berth, but head coach Jason Beschta said it was good to finally reveal their opponent.
"We've been playing with that all day and discussing who you might play," Beschta said. "We didn't know what seed we were getting, probably in that four-five range. So it's fun to see who we got, go look at Bethel and see what we have to prepare for."
John Brown also will begin making preparations for playing the earliest game its played all season and what changes it will need to make to its game-day routine.
"College students getting up early in the morning and being at their best, isn't that what they do?" Beschta said with a laugh.
Luckily for JBU, Beschta has some experience at the early game. The year before he came to JBU, Beschta led Oklahoma Wesleyan in the 8:30 a.m. game in the NAIA Division II Men's Tournament in 2014.
"We'll talk with coaches on how they approach it," Beschta said. "Some coaches are eat normal, 3½ hours early. Other coaches say sleep as late as you can and eat light and get over and play. You've just got to decide with what you're going to go with. We'll probably practice earlier a couple of days building up to it. That's what we did last time.
It's JBU's first trip to the national tournament since 2013 and its first under Beschta. It's the program's eighth overall.
Caudle leads the team in scoring at 16.9 points per game, but senior Josh Bowling is averaging 16.0.
Bethel, meanwhile, went 17-5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference, finishing third in the league. The Wildcats are led by Isaac Edmondson, who averages 18 points per game.
"We look forward to the challenge," Bowling said. "The good thing is our defense got us here, so even if we have an off night (offensively), defense will pick us up. We're planning on scoring points and doing our best defensively."
On Thursday, after having an opportunity to review some film on Bethel, Beschta gave a little more insight into the Wildcats.
"We know off the bat that any team that has earned the right to play in Kansas City is going to be tough," Beschta said. "Looking a little bit at Bethel it's easy to see that a couple of their strengths involve their ability to offensive rebound at such a high level that they are leading the country, and I think that defines a lot of who they are because teams that crash the boards so hard are typically really tough physical teams. I believe that toughness is also seen in their defense as they have been able to turn other teams over regularly. Just for starters in order to compete with them I think you've got to really value the basketball and limit their second chance opportunities."
Sports on 03/17/2019