 2008 Buffalo Funds NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament | |||||
| Teams | 32 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, Missouri | ||||
| Champions | Oklahoma City (6th title) | ||||
| Runner-up | Mountain State | ||||
| Semifinalists | |||||
| Coach of the year | Ray Harper (Oklahoma City) | ||||
| Player of the year | Ollie Bailey (Oklahoma City) | ||||
Charles Stevenson Hustle Award | Eric Palm (McKendree) | ||||
| Chuck Taylor MVP | Kameron Gray (Oklahoma City) | ||||
| Attendance | 34,102 | ||||
| Top scorer | Othyus Jeffers (Robert Morris (IL)) (86 points) | ||||
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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.[1]
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 went into two long overtimes. This caused a backup 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.