KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Saint Xavier University men's basketball team (24-7, 16-4 CCAC) secured an at-large bid into the 64-team NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship Tournament. The Cougars are the No. 16 seed in the Cramer Quadrant and will face No. 1 and host William Penn University (Iowa) on Tuesday March 7 in Oskaloosa, Iowa in the four-team First and Second Round portion of the tournament. On the other side of the bracket will be No. 8 University of Rio Grande (Ohio) against No. 9 Marian University (Ind.), also on March 7.

• The winners of the games on Tuesday will play one another on Wednesday, March 8, with the winner advancing to the 16-team final site in Kansas City, Mo. at the Municipal Auditorium from March 13-18.
• It will be the first-ever meeting between SXU and the Statesmen. They were scheduled to play each other on December 12, 2020, in Oskaloosa, Iowa; however, the game was cancelled because of COVID-19.
• Saint Xavier enters the tournament for the 14^th time in program history, making its first appearance after winning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) title in 1995-96. They qualified 10 times for the NAIA Division I Tournament (1995-96, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2007-08 & 2009-10) when it was a 32-team format, all held at the final site. The Cougars made three appearances in the NAIA Division II Tournament (2012-13, 2013-14 & 2015-16) and this will be the first time that SXU has played in the 64-team tournament that started in 2020-21.