SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The No. 7-seed Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team will take on MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) in the opening round of the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship in Kansas City.

The Schedule
NAIA Division I National Championship – First Round
Thursday, March 14 – 4:30 p.m. PST
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) (24-9) vs. Cal State San Marcos (23-6)
Kansas City, Mo. – Municipal Auditorium
Live Stats
Watch
Bracket
Tournament Info

Pizza, Soda, Fans… Oh My!
The Cal State San Marcos Department of Athletics will host a viewing party for the CSUSM-MidAmerica Nazarene game Thursday, March 14, at 4:15 p.m. in room 110 of The Clarke Fieldhouse. Free pizza and drinks will be provided for CSUSM students and faculty that come to The Clarke to watch the Cougars' first-ever NAIA tournament game. Space may be limited, so be sure to arrive early to get your spot. Admission is free.

	CSUSM	MNU
Seed (Selection)	No. 7 (At-Large No. 4)	None (At-Large No. 17)
National Rank	7	27
Overall Record	23-6	24-9
Conference	Independent	Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC)
National Tournament Record (Appearances)	0-0 (0)	3-2 (2)
Scoring Average	82.7	81.9
Field Goal Percentage	49%	52%
3FG Percentage	39%	37%
Leading Scorer	Danny Redmon (13.0)	Rustin Dowd (16.0)

Can't Make It Out to Kansas City? It's Cool, We Got You Covered
The game will be streamed live on NAIA.org. Fans interested in watching from home will need to purchase a paid subscription in order to watch on their computer.

How'd We Get Here?
The Cougars qualified for their first-ever trip to the NAIA postseason tournament by being awarded the No. 4-At-Large bid for the competition. CSUSM went 23-5 overall during the regular season before being eliminated in the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Conference Tournament semifinals by eventual champion Voorhees (S.C.).

Meet the Pioneers
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) will be making its third trip to the NAIA Division I National Championship after going 24-9 overall and finishing runner-up in the Heart of America Athletic Conference to Evangel. The Pioneers received the No. 17-At-Large berth into the tournament. MNU is 3-2 overall in the postseason competition and has gone deep in the tournament in the past; the Pioneers went all the way to the Fab 4 in 2009, their first season competing in NAIA Division I.

MNU – Statistically Speaking
The Pioneers lead the nation in field-goal percentage (.522), total assists (649) and assists per game (19.67). Point guard Rustin Dowd leads the team with 16.0 points per game while Luke Thomas averages 14.4. Thomas also is second in the nation with 6.5 defensive rebounds per game. MNU went 3-3 this season against NAIA tournament teams. The Cougars and Pioneers have not played any common opponents this season.

Quadrant Four
The Cougars and Pioneers were placed in quadrant four. The winner of CSUSM-MNU will face the winner of Arizona Christian (20-9) and No. 10-seed Oklahoma Baptist (24-7) on Friday at 6:00 p.m. PST in the quarterfinals. The Cougars topped then-No. 2 OBU earlier this season, 75-65, on Nov. 30, 2012 in Las Vegas. On the opposite side of quadrant four, No. 15-seed Xavier (La.) (24-7) plays Faulkner (Ala.) (28-5), while Rocky Mountain (Mont.) (21-12) faces No. 2 –seed Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (29-4).

State of the Cougars
Since winning 14 contests in a row between Dec. 18 and Feb. 16, the Cougars have lost two of their last three heading into the NAIA National Championship. Still, CSUSM won 15 of its final 17 games of the year.

Top 10 Central
The Cougars rank in the top 10 in NAIA Division I in a number of different categories: 3-point field goal percentage (3^rd,.393), assists per game (4^th, 17.97), assist/turnover ratio (5^th, 1.36), turnover margin (5^th, 5.83), field goal percentage (6^th, .493), scoring margin (7^th, 15.48), total assists (9^th, 521) and steals per game (10^th, 10.72). 

Probable Starters – Quick Facts
G 10 Danny Redmon: Leads team in assists (4.82) and steals (2.59) while averaging 12.9 points per game.
G 15 Jose Rivera: Ranks seventh in NAIA DI with 91 3-pointers and 3.13 3-pointers per game.
G 32 AJ Gasporra: Cougars' leading scorer at 16.8 points per game. Has posted double digits in all 13 games played this year.
F 5 Quincy Lawson: Shooting 60.4 percent from the field while averaging 5.3 rebounds per game.
F 35 Adam Eakles: 18-of-25 from the field over his last three games.

Probable Reserves – Quick Facts
G 1 Bryan Emanuel: Averaging 6.8 PPG and 2.6 RPG for the Cougars.
G 3 Hakeem Washington: Made first start since Nov. 23 against Voorhees on Mar. 2, scoring nine points while adding two assists.
G 4 Adam Alfaro:  Has made 50 percent of his 3-point attempts this year (27-of-54).
F 21 Jeremy Ford: Averaging 2.3 PPG and 1.9 RPG in 7.6 minutes this year.
F 24 Ali Langford: Leading scorer and rebounder was lost for the season with an ACL injury on Dec. 8, 2012 against Concordia (Calif.).
C 25 Kelly Lord: Averaging 2.4 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 9.9 minutes this year.
G 33 Jacob Ranger: Registered double digits in four of last six contests.

Notes
MidAmerica Nazarene, which is in Olathe, Kan., will essentially be playing a home game on Thursday … Olathe is approximately 21.6 miles from Municipal Auditorium … CSUSM is 4-3 this season against squads in the NAIA National Championship … Defending national champion Concordia (Calif.) is on the opposite side of the bracket … CUI is the only team to beat the Cougars in the final three months of the regular season … The Cougars went 5-1 against the NAIA Top 25 and 4-0 against teams in the top 10 … CSUSM was ranked in every week of the regular season, its highest mark coming at No. 6 on Feb. 19 … Oklahoma Baptists holds the most wins in championship action with 58 … The Cougars are 4-2 at neutral sites this season.

NAIA Tournament History – via Chad Waller, NAIA Director of Communications
From an historical perspective, March 10, 1937 is a date to remember. On that day, an eight-team tournament at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium was the beginning of what is the NAIA today. The field of teams was limited to champions of eight Midwestern conferences. Central Missouri State won the first championship by a score of 35-24 over Morningside (Iowa). The Mules received the Naismith Trophy, the only trophy that to this day, was officially authorized by the inventor of basketball. Three years later on March 10, 1940, NAIA leaders decided to expand the basketball tournament and form the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB). In 1948, the NAIB became the first national organization to offer intercollegiate postseason opportunities to black student-athletes. This year's championship will mark the 76th annual event, which distinguishes itself as the oldest national championship basketball tournament in the country, preceding any NIT or NCAA Tournament. Founded in 1937, the tournament has hailed national champions from 22 states from Maryland to Hawaii. The state of Oklahoma claims the most titles with 10 followed by Missouri with eight.