2008 | NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament|
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![]() 2008 Buffalo Funds NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
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Teams | 32 |
Finals Site |
Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri |
Champions |
Oklahoma City (6th title) |
Runner-Up | Mountain State |
Semifinalists |
Georgetown (Ky.) Campbellsville (Ky.) |
Coach of the Year | Ray Harper (Oklahoma City) |
Chuck Taylor MVP | Kameron Gray (Oklahoma City) |
Player of the Year | Ollie Bailey (Oklahoma City) |
Charles Stevenson
Hustle Award |
Eric Palm (McKendree (Ill.)) |
Attendance | 34,102 |
Top scorer | Othyus Jeffers (Robert Morris (Ill.)) (86 points) |
The 2008 Buffalo Funds - NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was held from March 19 to 25 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 71st annual NAIA basketball tournament features 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.
The official announcement of the 32-team field for the 71st Annual Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I National Championship occurred late on Tuesday, March 11, with the announcement of the official bracket on Wednesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. CST. Early opening round action between No. 5 Mountain State and Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) went into two long overtimes. This caused a back up in game schedules. The late game featuring Southern Nazarene University and Point Loma Nazarene University was moved back from 10:30pm CST to 11:30pm CST. The late start caused many of the 3,000 fans to leave after halftime. Near the end of the game SNU rallied to tie the SeaLions 67-67 with 14 secs left sending the game into overtime. The game finally ended around 1:30am CST with Point Loma pulling off the upset over SNU. It was the latest finishing NAIA tournament game. Games for the next day started in about 6 hours.
The championship game featured defending champions 7 seed Oklahoma City University and 5 seed Mountain State. Oklahoma City won the game, giving them back to back National Championships in win over Mountain State (75-72). Oklahoma City is the first team since Life University (Ga.) won the '99-'00 titles. Oklahoma City was making its third straight NAIA title game appearance, becoming the first team since Kentucky State University from 1970-72 to so. The Stars were defeated in the 2006 championship game by Texas Wesleyan University, 67-65.