The John Brown men's basketball team is heading back to Kansas City for the second year in a row.
The No. 9 Golden Eagles were announced as one of the 32 teams to advance to the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Tournament on Wednesday during an online selection show.
JBU, which earned a No. 3 seed in the Naismith Bracket, will play No. 6 seed Harris-Stowe (Mo.) at 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, from Municipal Arena in downtown Kansas City.
"It means a lot," said junior point guard Rokas Grabliauskas. "It means that our hard work has paid off. We've been working for this since August. So it definitely means a lot to us."
And this year JBU will hope to stay a while longer than last year's visit to the national tournament. The Golden Eagles were eliminated in the tournament's opening game, losing to Bethel (Tenn.) 77-57.
"I think last year was a little more of the relief side than this year," said JBU head coach Jason Beschta. "This year it was more of the excitement of who are we going to play? I've even heard our guys talking about, last year we got caught up in it a little bit. We're going to be excited this year too. This is a big thing to get out there. But that's not enough. That's not enough for what the guys want to do this year. We want to go out there and make something happen."
The Golden Eagles (28-5) finished second in the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and advanced to the tournament championship game, where it lost to Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas).
Harris-Stowe earned an automatic bid to the tournament after winning the American Midwest Conference Tournament. The Hornets (23-9) feature junior Deshawn Munson, who leads the country in scoring at 28.5 points per game.
"They went and won their conference tournament, so they're a hot team," Beschta said. "Those kind of teams are always dangerous."
Sports on 03/11/2020