2025 MBB National Tournament Press Guide
Tournament Bracket | 2025 National Qualifiers
SEWARD, Neb. – The 14th all-time national tournament appearance in program history will take the Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Basketball team to Baldwin City, Kan. As part of the bracket reveal on Thursday (March 6), the Bulldogs learned they had been rewarded with a No. 6 seed and an NAIA National Championship first round matchup with Bethel College (Kan.). Though it did not receive one of the 16 host bids, 11th-ranked Concordia will travel less than four hours to its destination for action that will tip off on Friday, March 14. As the host of the four-team pod, No. 3 seed Baker University will take on No. 14 seed Texas Wesleyan University in the first round.
Baker Pod (Liston Bracket)
--Site: Collins Center (Baldwin City, Kan.)
Friday, March 14 (first round)
5 p.m. – (6) Concordia vs. (11) Bethel
7 p.m. – (3) Baker vs. (14) Texas Wesleyan
Saturday, March 15 (second round)
6 p.m. – Friday winners
Quick Hitters
Head Coach Ben Limback has led the program to the national tournament for the fourth-straight year and for the fifth time in six seasons. The Bulldogs will match up with a Bethel team it saw inside Friedrich Arena back on Nov. 9. Concordia won that contest by a score of 89-79 behind a 20-point outing from Noah Schutte. During the regular season, the Bulldogs faced six teams that have qualified for the national tournament. The Threshers of North Newton, Kan., received an at-large bid to the national tournament.
The Bulldogs also ventured to the state of Kansas a year ago for national tournament play. Concordia reached the round of 32 while playing in Salina, home to Kansas Wesleyan University. Under Limback, the program’s deepest national tournament run came in 2022 when it made its way to the quarterfinal round. Both Schutte and GPAC Player of the Year Tristan Smith were key members of that squad.
The 2024-25 journey, so far
Expectations were exceedingly high in the preseason for a squad that returned all five starters and each of its top nine scorers from the 2023-24 team that shared the GPAC regular season title. As a result, the Bulldogs were pegged No. 1 in the GPAC preseason coaches’ poll. That meant everything should be easy, right? Not exactly. This 2024-25 edition still had to redefine who it was even while led by established stars in Noah Schutte and Tristan Smith.
Just before Christmas, Head Coach Ben Limback’s crew sat at 7-4 overall. Concordia had fallen out of the NAIA coaches’ poll after rising to No. 9 very early in the campaign. Defensively, the Bulldogs knew they had to be better.
Explained junior Zac Kulus in the middle of January, “Looking back, I would say our defense has changed tremendously. At first, we didn’t know our exact rotations. We struggled to rotate to the hot man. Coach really put emphasis on shell in practice. We’ve really started to defend a lot better.”
Weeks later, as Concordia advanced to the GPAC tournament title game, Limback could point to rebounding and defense as a major factor for why his side shot back up the national rankings and positioned itself as a No. 6 seed in the national tournament. At 25-6 overall, the 2024-25 team is one of seven in the program’s history to hit the 25-win mark. To do so has taken more than just the superhuman Smith and the incredibly consistent production of Schutte. It’s taken a commitment to defense, which sets up the Bulldogs’ lethal transition game.
Over the season’s first 11 games, Concordia allowed its opponents to average 79.1 points and shoot 48.7 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range. The Bulldogs then won 18 of their next 20 outings while opponents slumped to a scoring average of 70.2 and to shooting percentages of 42.8 from the field and 33.1 from beyond the arc.
There was no better example of what this Concordia team is capable of than the Jan. 4 home meeting with Dordt, the eventual GPAC regular season champion. The Bulldogs ran the Defenders out of the gym, 99-72, and the game really wasn’t ‘that’ close. Concordia led by 35 in the middle of the second half while spurred by eight 3-point field goals from the sniper Brad Bennett. As Limback said afterwards, “This stuff shouldn’t surprise this team. There is a lot of greatness in them.”
Even without knowing what the national tournament has in store, the 2024-25 season will be remembered for its many thrilling moments and historical happenings. Shame on you if you haven’t taken time to appreciate just how rare legends like Smith and Schutte – they don’t come around often. There was also the perfect month of January, a championship at the Concordia Invitational Tournament and a passing of the torch when it comes to some of the most sacred program records on the books. The stories and the camaraderie that come with those moments will be recounted for many years to come.
Back on Jan. 8, Schutte became the program’s all-time scoring king while taking that title from the legendary Jon Ziegler, who was in attendance that evening at Doane. Schutte went for 24 that night and enters the national tournament with 2,291 points (and 928 rebounds) on his career ledger. A 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound player at the high school level, Schutte will forever remember that night at Doane in the context of how it was celebrated with his teammates. The definition of mild mannered off the court, Schutte felt a special kind of emotion.
As Schutte remarked afterwards, “I was more focused on getting the win. Doane’s a gritty team. There was a lot of game left when I reached that milestone. After the game, my teammates and coaches embraced me and congratulated me in the locker room. I got a little emotional celebrating with them.”
It wouldn’t be the only Ziegler record to fall this season. The fans who attended the GPAC quarterfinal matchup with Midland on Feb. 26 were treated to the awe-inspiring greatness of Smith. All he did that night was pour in a school record 48 points in one what will go down as perhaps the signature performance of his career. Incredibly, Smith has dunked and slashed his way to a field goal percentage north of 70 while putting on the greatest show anyone could find in the NAIA.
In the aftermath of the new standard that came on 19-for-26 shooting from the floor, Smith reveled in the joy that the achievement brought to his teammates – and family, of course. Said Smith, “My teammates are really unselfish guys. They knew I was getting close and knew I wanted it. They wanted it for me just as bad. They were finding me and letting me take some pretty bad shots. It shows the unselfishness of my teammates.”
There was no better player in the GPAC in the regular season or postseason than Smith, who ranked in the top 10 of the conference in virtually every major statistical category. As Limback said, “He’s incredible. He’s been that way all year.” Fittingly, Smith was named the GPAC Player of the Year and the GPAC Defensive Player of the Year in a rare sweep of the league’s highest end-of-season awards. Meanwhile, Schutte picked up his third career First Team All-GPAC award.
Smith and Schutte have thrived as Bulldogs within the parameters of the team concept. Over the past four seasons, Concordia has won at least 24 games in three of them. For the ’24-25 team, there is no shortage of talent and experience – but it has had to overcome a rash of injuries that have popped up here and there. Consider that the Bulldogs have been without Lukas Helms since mid-January and have persevered while others have missed multiple games, such as Schutte (two), Hayden Frank (five) and Elijah Gaeth (two). Eight different players have started a game this season.
One of several high-impact sophomores (joining the likes of Brooks Kissinger and Jaxon Stueve), Frank has come back strong from a knee injury. He scored 17 points in the GPAC semifinal win over No. 13 Northwestern. No excuses have been made. “I trusted the training staff and trusted all the coaches that I should be out on the floor,” Frank said. “You have to go out there and play 100 percent. It doesn’t matter if you’re scoring 25 points or zero points, we preach defense. We go out there and bust our butts on defense. I work as hard as I can, and I know that the four other guys on the floor are going to do that as well.”
A freshman with a bright future, Gaeth has started seven games. He is one of those new pieces that had to be assimilated into a veteran team. It was time to grow up quickly when the likes of Frank and Helms were sidelined. Said Gaeth, “We had some new guys – still trying to figure it out with rotations and stuff like that. We continued to work and put that effort in. It’s been working out. We’re all on the same page. I feel like we’re going to keep this roll going.”
About the only disappointment for Concordia since the calendar flipped to 2025 was the home loss suffered to thorn-in-the side Morningside in the GPAC tournament title game. That sting will fade away as the Bulldogs begin national tournament preparation with the opportunity to play in Baldwin City, Kan.
The goal now is to advance to Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, where the final 16 teams left standing will gather.
“We’re in the position we are this time of year because we’ve guarded a lot better over the course of these last few months,” Limback said. “When you can hang your hat on defense and rebounding, that will carry you in every game. It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting well or not shooting well.
“We saw some areas that we have to get better at. With Northwestern and Morningside, we had the luxury of playing two national tournament teams leading up to the national tournament. We lost this one (to Morningside). At least we get another shot. The message is – no more second chances. This is it. We’re ready. I think this team has been looking forward to this run.”
National Tournament Facts
· The 2025 trip to nationals will mark the 14th all-time appearance (15-13 record) on the national stage for the program. Head Coach Ben Limback has now led the Bulldogs to five national tournament appearances, including the national tourney trips in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. In the first nine appearances, all presided over by former head coach Grant Schmidt, the Bulldogs went a combined 11-9. Limback played for the national qualifying teams of 1996, 1997 and 1998.
· Concordia has won its first-round game at the national tournament seven times. Two teams in program history have reached at least the semifinals: the 1991-92 squad and the 2004-05 team (national runner up). The 1994-95, 2002-03 and 2021-22 squads advanced to the national quarterfinals. The 2021-22 team enjoyed a dream season while led by NAIA Second Team All-American Carter Kent. The Bulldogs dominated in the first two rounds held in Omaha, where they won by scores of 96-78 over Indiana University Northwest and 90-67 over Marian University (Ind.). Concordia then advanced to the round of 16 in Kansas City, Mo., where it knocked off Indiana University Kokomo, 75-65, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Talladega College (Ala.), 77-69.
· During the ’22 run at the national tournament, Noah Schutte burst onto the scene and was named to the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship All-Tournament Team. Over the four games, Schutte averaged 20.0 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 63.4 percent from the field. Of the 15 players on the postseason roster, 11 have appeared in at least one national tournament game: Schutte, Brad Bennett, Hayden Frank, Tyler Harre, Brooks Kissinger, Zac Kulus, Brayson Mueller, Tristan Smith, Jaxon Stueve, Tony Tubrick and Logan Wilson. The 2023-24 team reached the second round of nationals while playing in Salina, Kan. The 31 points scored by Schutte in the 83-81 first round win over Indiana University Northwest represented a program record for a national tournament game. In seven career national tournament games, Schutte has averaged 21.0 points and 8.1 rebounds.
· The 2004-05 team set a still-intact school record with 32 wins that season. On the way to reaching the national title game, the ’04-5 group defeated Trinity Christian (Ill.), Flagler (Fla.), Cornerstone (Mich.) and Cedarville (Ohio) in Point Lookout, Mo. The Bulldogs then fell at the hands of Walsh (Ohio) in the program’s lone national title game appearance. Concordia’s Marcus Wernke was the NAIA Division II national tournament record holder for most blocked shots in a game (nine) and most blocked shots in a single tournament (23). Both of those feats were accomplished in 2005. Jason Jisa was also honored with the Hustle Award at the ’05 tourney. NAIA Division II came to an end with a fusion of the two divisions following the 2019-20 season.
· Schmidt led the Bulldogs to their first-ever national tournament appearance in 1991. At that time, the NAIA was still just one division for basketball (there were two divisions during the 1991-92 through 2019-20 seasons). Four members of the 1990-91 squad have been inducted into the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame: Matt List, John Puelz, Devin Smith and Mike Works. The latter three were also members of the 1991-92 squad that broke through with the program’s first-ever national tournament win.
· On March 12, 2020, the Bulldogs played in the final NAIA Division II men’s basketball game ever. The remainder of the tournament following Concordia’s 87-84 loss to Ottawa (Kan.) was shut down due to COVID-19. The contest took place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. No current Bulldogs were part of that 2019-20 squad, which was welcomed back to Friedrich Arena this season for a fifth anniversary recognition.