By: Mark Wasik
Thursday, March 19
NCAA First Round – West Region
10 p.m. (ET) – #14 seed Kennesaw St (21-13) vs #3 seed Gonzaga (30-3)
Location: Portland, Ore. | Moda Center (19,411)
TV: TBS (Brad Nessler, Wally Szczerbiak, Jared Greenburg)
Radio: KSU Owl Network on the Varsity Network (Nolan Alexander/Brandon Johnson)
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Kennesaw State men's basketball opens play in the 2026 NCAA Tournament as the 14th seed on Thursday night, taking on third-seed Gonzaga in the West Region First Round. The game tips off at 10 p.m. (ET) on TBS in the Moda Center, with Brad Nessler, Wally Szczerbiak, and Jared Greenburg on the call.
A FEW NOTES
♦ It will be a battle of conference champions for the Owls, as the Conference USA champions are making their second-ever appearance in the March Madness, while Gonzaga claimed the West Coast Conference title in its last year in the league.
♦ This marks just the second-ever trip for KSU to the Pacific Northwest, and the first since playing road games at Washington and Seattle in November of 2017.
♦ KSU earned their spot in this year's tournament thanks to a historic run through the CUSA tournament, as the Owls became the first school to win conference championships in both football and men's basketball since Louisville (2004-05), and the first-ever to win championship games in both sports.
♦ The current Kennesaw State starting lineup is an oddity in today's college basketball world, as there is not a single senior or transfer player in the starting five, the only team in this year's NCAA Tournament with such a lineup. KSU will start a pair of first-year players, two sophomores, and a junior, all recruited to the Black and Gold as freshmen, which also leaves them as just one of three teams in this year's field with each player in the starting five having played their entire career at their current school (Michigan State, Santa Clara). The Owls are also just one of two schools in this year's field to start four underclassmen, along with Duke.
