By Mark Siefert
What an exciting week again coming up for Cougar athletics, the spring sports are starting their conference seasons and more importantly the basketball teams are both heading to the national tournament. This week I am going to preview the first and possible second round games for each team.
First for the men: The men open against Oklahoma Baptist who comes in with a 28-3 record. They play in the Sooner Athletic conference where they went 20-2. They come in ranked number 3 nationally and have been in the top 10 all season. If the Saint Xavier Cougars upset the top ranked Bison they could either face the Central Methodist Eagles or the Texas Wesleyan Rams, both teams have been ranked for most of the year and would prove to be a tough test for the Cougars. I believe that the Cougars, when on top of their game, are capable of beating any team in the country as we saw at the beginning of this year and again at the end with the upsetting of ranked teams in order to make it to the tourney.
For the Women: The women open against the Evangel Crusaders to open the tourney who come in with a 23-9 record and were 7-3 in the Heart of America Conference. With a win, the Cougars could either play the Cumberland’s of Tennessee or Xavier of Louisiana. Personally I am expecting a lot from this year’s team. No team has made it past the sweet 16, but I believe this year’s team can. With 3 returning all Americans it would be hard to accept anything short of a final four.
Don’t forget to follow all of the game action on NAIA.org and also in the Daily Southtown, which will be running stories daily from both sites.
GO COUGARS!!!!
Mark Siefert is a senior social science major from Crest Hill. He is a member of the baseball team. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.
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