FHU to host men’s national basketball tournament
HENDERSON, Tenn. — A local university was selected to be one of the hosts for the first few rounds of the men’s national basketball tournament.
It was announced toward the end of February that Freed-Hardeman University would be one of the host sites for the first and second rounds of the NAIA’s men’s national basketball tournament. Three other teams will come to Henderson to play in the first and second rounds. Athletic director for FHU, Jonathan Estes, tells us a little bit more about what goes into hosting these teams.
“It all starts with your team, it has to be a really good team.*butted* so that’s a great testament to a great season we’ve had, to be able to be considered. But also just having great facilities to be able to put on a really good tournament. We want the national tournament experience to be good for all of the teams involved,” said Estes.
After an impressive 26-4 record and their second conference championship in a row, they will find out later tonight who their opponent is in the first round. Head Coach Drew Stutts tells us what the game plan is once they find out.
“We’ll start, obviously, with a scout, and we’ll practice tomorrow and start putting in some concepts of some of the teams that we play. We’ll have the guys over to the house tonight and watch the reveal show. We are excited to see who we play and we’ll start prepping. Hopefully we get a good draw, but whoever it is, if we’re here at home I like our chances and it should be a great environment and a fun time,” said Stutts.
When they hosted the first and second rounds last year it was a packed house here in the Brewers Sports Center. It was super loud with all of the cheering fans and the students. Redshirt sophomore Jaquan Lax, who is from Bolivar here in West Tennessee, tells us how exciting that was and why they are pumped to have that again.
“Oh it makes a big difference. It gives us the advantage over everybody. We don’t really lose at home, so having a crowd here and playing in front of the great fans. It was great,” said Lax.
There will be three games played here at the Brewers Sports Center next week. The first two are on Friday, March 15th. The first one starting at 5 p.m., the second one starting at 7 p.m. The winners of those two games will play the following day on Saturday, March 16th at 4 p.m.
FHU’s men’s basketball team has only lost one game at home this year.
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