Wildcats Go Dancing- 2026 NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament Field Announced
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - [Bracket | First and Second Round Schedule | Watch Live] The 2026 NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament Field has been announced. 64 teams will open play in the NAIA Men's Basketball First Round presented by Ballogy on March 13 at 16 host sites around the country. The first 32 winners will then play on March 14 in the Second Round, with a trip to the historic Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, Mo., at stake, where the Round of 16 will tip off on March 19.
With a high RPI and a strong strength of schedule resume the Bethel Wildcats are going dancing.
The Cats are a 13 seed in the Liston Quadrant in Langston (Okla.) The Cats will meet # 4 seed Langston at 5 p.m. Friday, March 13th. Fifth seed LSU Alexandria will meet # 12 Eastern Oregon at 7 p.m. The two winners will meet Saturday March 14th at 7 p.m.
Catch a complete preview of the games later at: www.bethelathletics.com
The Wildcats finished their season strong with upsets of No. 2 Seed Georgetown and No. 3 seed Cumberlands in the recent Mid-South Conference Championships in Bowling Green.
The Cats battled No.1 ranked and No 1 seed Freed-Harderman to the wire in the championship game.
The Cats are 19-12 on the season.
The Wildcats are in the big dance for the first time since 2019.
After being the 2002 NAIA East Region Champions the Cats made it to the Round of 16 in the national spotlight. It was the 1st Ever NAIA National Tournament appearance for any team in Bethel University Athletics history.
Bethel returned to the national stage again in 2015 and 2019 when they returned to the Round of 16 both years. The Cats are 2-3 all-time in national tournament appearances.
Chaucey Hughes III leads Bethel in scoring averaging 16.5 points per game. The 2nd Team MSC All-Conference performer leads the Wildcats in assists, steals, free throw attempts, and free throws made. The senior from Cairo, Illinois also leads the Cats in made and attempted three-pointers. He has 754 career points as a Wildcat.
D J Starr is second in scoring at 13.1 points per outing. Ethan Turner averages 10.2 and leads the Wildcats in rebounding at 6.2 per game. Turner is closing in on 500 career rebounds with 465 entering the tournament. He has 810 career points.
Isiah Darden leads the team in blocks with 33 on the year.
The Wildcats average 78.8 points per game and yield 77.8 per contest.
The Cats shoot 43 percent from the floor while opponents are at a 43 percent clip.
The Cats average 31 percent from behind the arc. Opponents are slightly better at 33 percent. The Wildcats outrebound their opponents 40-35 per game.
Eight Wildcats were named to the MSC All-Academic team. Brayden Nunnally was named to the MSC Champions of Character squad.
The Wildcats have four 2026 NAIA Scholar Athlete named All-American Scholars.
Congratulations to Ethan Turner, Hayden Benson, Brayden Nunnally, and Jackson Hayes.
The 16 First and Second Round host sites were announced earlier this week on NAIA.org. Among those host sites, 10 received an auto bid through their conference; the remaining six earned an at-large bid into the tournament.
The field contains 35 automatic qualifiers that were determined by each conference; the remaining 29 spots in the field were decided by the Men's Basketball National Selection Committee, comprised of NAIA men's basketball head coaches and administrators from around the nation representing each of the five different areas, West, Midwest, South, East, and North.
The 64-team field features several teams that have gone the distance in the past and been crowned national champions, led by Oklahoma City, which has won six Red Banners across its 26 championship appearances. 16 other teams have claimed at least one national championship in their program's history; of those, six have claimed three titles, while two have claimed two.
Three programs are making their first national tournament appearance: Simpson (Calif.), Arkansas Baptist, and first-year program Georgia Gwinnett. McPherson (Kan.) and SUNO (La.) are returning to the field for the first time in 12 and 13 years, respectively. Georgetown (Ky.) leads the field, having played in 45 national tournaments over the 88 years the NAIA men's basketball national championship has been played. Cumberlands (Ky.) is second with 33 national tournaments played, followed by the College of Idaho and Northwestern (Iowa) at 28 each.
The Southern States, Sooner, Mid-South, KCAC, Crossroads, and Cascade all have five teams in this year's field, while the Frontier, Great Plains, Great Southwest, and Red River each have four representatives in the field of 64.
Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) has the best overall record heading into national tournament action at 29-1. The Lions are riding a 26-game winning streak and went undefeated for the first time in conference action in FHU's history. The field is just as tough as last season, with a total of 1,918 games played by all 64 teams. The combined record for the field is 1,433 wins to 485 losses, or a 74.7 winning percentage.