CU hoop teams bound for nationals

Campbellsville University men’s and women’s basketball teams will play in NAIA Division 1 National Tournaments next week.
The CU men will play Biola (Calif.) on Wednesday, March 14 at 5:30 in Kansas City while the Lady Tigers will battle St. Xavier (Ill.) on Thursday, March 15 at 9 a.m.
Four other teams from the Mid-South Conference (Lindsey Wilson, Cumberlands, Shawnee State and Georgetown) got women’s bids to the 32-team tourney as did three other men’s squads (Lindsey Wilson, Cumberlands and Georgetown.
The Tigers’ and Lady Tigers’ games will be broadcast on WLCU 88.7 FM (wlcufm.com).

It’s CU men vs. Biola
A strong non-conference schedule helped Campbellsville University move to No. 23 in the final regular season NAIA Coaches’ Top 25 Poll and earned the Tigers a date with Biola (Calif.) on Wednesday, March 14 (5:30 ET) at the 75th annual Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. The tournament will be played March 14-20 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
“We are extatic,” CU coach Keith Adkins said. “We finished a little short of where we wanted to in the Mid-South Tournament and we knew we might be the last one in or the first one out (of the national tournament).”
The Tigers (21-11) will be making their ninth appearance in the NAIA National Tournament. CU received the 12th of 14 at-large bids, squeezing into the tournament ahead of Tougaloo (Miss.) and Southern Nazarene (Okla.).
Biola (25-8) is seeded 10th in the Wednesday lower bracket. The winner of CU-Biola will play the winner of the Baker (Kan.) vs. Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) game at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
“We don’t know much about them, except that they’re really good,” Adkins continued. “They won the Golden State Conference Tournament. That tells me all I need to know about how good they are.
“We’ll take our chances. When you slip in (the tournament) like we did, you expect to draw a good team.”
CU is 5-6 against teams in this year’s tournament, sweeping Life University and Mountain State University in a home-and-away non-conference action. CU was 1-2 against Georgetown College and was swept by Lindsey Wilson and University of the Cumberlands in home-and-away conference action.

Lady Tigers draw St. Xavier in first round
 Lady Tiger basketball is bound for its 20th appearance in the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament, and they will open against St. Xavier (Ill.) at 9 a.m. Thursday, March 15.
It is Campbellsville University’s fourth straight appearance and sixth in 10 years. Only this time, instead of playing in Jackson, Tenn., the Lady Tigers will play in their own backyard at the Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort March 14-20.
“St Xavier is traditionally a strong team which is very well coached.” coach Ginger Colvin said. “We are happy to be in the tourney  — just to get the experience on that stage.”
The Lady Tigers (20-12) received the eighth of 15 at-large bids in the 32-team tournament. St. Xavier (23-8) received the fourth seed in the Thursday morning bracket. Campbellsville is a five seed.
“We will get to work finding out all we can (about St. Xavier) and go from there,” Colvin continued.
The winner of Campbellsville-Xavier will play the winner of the Lyon (Ark.) vs. Westmont (Calif.) at 12:30 Friday.
CU is 4-10 against teams in this year’s tournament with a sweep of Lindsey Wilson College and a win each over Columbia College and the 2011 NAIA champion Azusa Pacific University. The Lady Tigers lost two each to Cumberlands, Shawnee State and Georgetown during the regular season and dropped a game to William Woods, Columbia and Union (Tenn.) University.