Complete Bracket

BETHANY, Okla. — The smiles can't get much bigger inside the Sawyer Center as Southern Nazarene went from No. 15 to No. 10 in the latest NAIA rankings and the Crimson Storm drew the 10th seed at the 2011 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship. SNU will take on No. 23 McKendree (Ill.), Thursday, 12:30 p.m. inside the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.

Southern Nazarene (26-7) earned an automatic bid to the national tournament by way of winning the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament; the program's third in school history. The Crimson Storm finished second in the regular season in the SAC before running the table at the SAC tournament last week. The Crimson Storm might be one of the deepest teams in the tournament field. Eight different players have led the team in scoring on any given night throughout the year and the top five scorers on the team are only separated by five points.

Xavier Alexander, a 2009-10 NAIA All-American and two-time All-SAC first team selection, is at the heart of the Crimson Storm. The senior guard averages 12.9 points and 6.8 rebounds a game and is hitting nearly 50 percent from the field. C.J. Henry, the SAC Tournament MVP, leads the team in scoring at 13.4 points a game and is shooting 45.2 percent from the field and is second on the team in 3-pointers with 68. All-SAC third team selection A.J. Thomas is the team leader in 3-pointers hit with 71 and is a 38.8 percent shooter from beyond the arc. He also averages 11.4 points. Jon West also averages double figures at 10.1 points per game.

The Opponent
McKendree (20-12) is no stranger to the national tournament, making its 15th appearance. The Bearcats received the seventh at-large bid after they finished ranked in the top 25. McKendree tied Columbia (Mo.) for the American Midwest Conference regular season title. The Bearcats the lost the AMC Tournament Championship game to Park (Mo.).

MU is led by 2009-10 NAIA All-American first team selection Eric Hobbie who averages 18.5 points a game. He is a 40.8 percent shooter from the field and 33.3 percent shooter from outside. Sean Rakers is second in scoring at 14.7 points a game. Andy Wolf is one of the best distributers in the NAIA with 157 assists, the 10th most in the NAIA this season.

The Bearcats are coached by the winningest coach in college basketball history. Harry Statham enters is in his 45th season at the head coach and has amassed 1,042 wins in his career.

Against the Field
SNU is 58-46 all-time against the 2011 national tournament field not-counting conference opponents. This will be the first meeting between McKendree and Southern Nazarene.

Who's in the Mix
The winner of the SNU/McKendree game will play the winner of No. 7 Georgetown (Ky.) and Olivet Nazarene (Ill.). No. 2 Concordia (Calif.) is the top seed in the Storm's grouping of eight. The Eagles are 30-3 on the year and will play Southern Poly (Ga.). The winner of that game will play the winner of No. 15 Evangel (Mo.) and Xavier (La.).??

Record in the Tournament
The Crimson Storm are making their 11th appearance in the national tournament and are 12-9 all-time and have one title winning it all in 1981. The Crimson Storm reached the championship game in 1998 and got to the elite eight last year before falling to Robert Morris (Ill.).

Where to catch the game
Southern Nazarene will have a live, audio only, webcast on snuathletics.com. The NAIA is offering a pay-per-view video webcast at naia.org.