Men's Basketball | 03/04/21 | 8:44 PM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NAIA announced the 48-team field and pairings for the Men's NAIA Basketball Championship Opening Rounds on Thursday Night. The Carroll Men's Basketball team, who finished second in the Frontier Conference, were selected as an at-large bid and now they will travel to Lewiston, Idaho next weekend looking to start their run at a national title.
 
The NAIA Tournament looks a little bit different this year with the addition of the opening round sites. The opening rounds will take place on March 12-13 at eight different sites across the country. Each location will feature two, three-team brackets. The winners of each of the 16, three-team brackets will head to Kansas City, MO., to play for the National Championship.
 
Now let's take a look at the bracket for the Saints.

The Saints will be the number two seed of Lewiston Bracket B, hosted by Lewis-Clark State University. 
 
"We're very excited we got the bid," said Head Coach Kurt Paulson. "Kudos to our players, they've played a great season. They did a great job coming on strong at the end and I know the selection committee saw that."
 
It will not be an easy road for the Saints, as they will have to win two games to make it out of their bracket and on to Kansas City. They will be taking on College of the Ozarks, who is the three seed, on Friday, March 12. The winner of that game will go toe-to-toe with Arizona Christian, who is the top seed in the bracket. 
 
"We don't know a lot about them yet," said Coach Paulson regarding College of the Ozarks. "We'll be moving onto them shortly." 
 
The full opening round schedule can be found here: https://www.naia.org/sports/mbkb/2020-21/releases/2021_OR_Schedule