For the 24th time in school history, the Xavier men’s basketball team is going to the NAIA national tournament.
The NAIA on Thursday announced its field of 65 national qualifiers, and the 21-10 Gold Rush were among the 29 teams awarded an at-large bid.
Xavier will participate in the Williamsburg, Kentucky, regional as a 12-seed. Their first-round opponent should be highly familiar to most Gold Rush fans.
XULA will face the 5-seeded William Carey Crusaders on March 13 at 5 p.m. Central. Carey enters the game with a record of 27-4 and is the No. 17-ranked team in the nation.
The other two teams in the region are hosting 4-seed Cumberlands (Ky.), which is ranked No. 18 in the nation, and 13-seeded Indiana Tech.
Appropriately for a team so steeped in success in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Gold Rush this year will play in the Duer Region, which is named after Alva Duer, a former coach and administrator known as “Mr. NAIA.”
Duer pioneered the integration of basketball with the inclusion of Tennessee A&I, now known as Tennessee State, in the 1954 NAIA Tournament. Tennessee A&I was the first all-Black team to participate in the NAIA national tournament.
This marks the second consecutive year and the sixth out of the last seven that XULA has earned a berth in the NAIA national tournament.
Last year, the Gold Rush fell in the opening round to nationally ranked Ave Maria.
READ MORE:Xavier men’s basketball heading back to NAIA tournament
