KENNESAW, Ga. | Mar 16, 2026

Fresh off its first Conference USA tournament title, the Kennesaw State University men’s basketball team joined an exuberant Owl Nation at VyStar Arena to learn its March Madness opponent during a Selection Sunday watch party.

The Owls, who earned their second NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament berth in four years, were announced as the No. 14 seed in the West Region. They will face No. 3 seed Gonzaga at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on Thursday. 

The celebration was just the latest in a momentous year for Kennesaw State Athletics, which has seen three CUSA championships in the 2025-26 season. On Saturday, the Owls clinched the men's basketball championship with a 71-60 win over Louisiana Tech. In December, the football program captured the CUSA championship with a win over rival Jacksonville State, and the women’s track and field team followed suit by capturing the CUSA indoor title in February.

Since joining Conference USA in July 2024, Kennesaw State has won five conference championships, including the men’s track and field indoor and outdoor titles in the 2024-25 season. 

"This historic victory by our men’s basketball team is a powerful testament to the grit, determination, and indomitable will that define Kennesaw State," KSU President Kathy S. Schwaig said. "Winning our third CUSA championship this academic year underscores the incredible momentum surging across the University. Congratulations to Coach Pettway and his coaching staff, as well as our student-athletes for making Owl Nation proud as we return to the national stage for the second time in four years. We are thrilled to keep this momentum building and will be cheering them on.”

Kennesaw State is marking the occasion with a new campus tradition. Recently outfitted with exterior lights that shine the University’s signature gold, Kennesaw Hall is being illuminated each evening until the Owls win the national championship or are otherwise eliminated from the tournament. The lights will become a regular fixture to the campus landscape, celebrating significant milestones in the institution’s path toward national prominence.

Among the adoring fans in attendance for the Selection Sunday festivities was alumnus Jeff Chassner ’00, who served as a student trainer for KSU’s men’s and women’s basketball programs while on campus. He had just returned from Huntsville, Alabama, where he witnessed the Owls claim their second conference championship since becoming a Division I program.

"It's unbelievable,” Chassner said. “The best part about the experience was seeing how Owl Nation showed up to support. It was a home game in the finals, it truly was."

Chassner added that the athletic success KSU has enjoyed has generated continued interest for the academic side of the University. 

"Students want to get a degree from Kennesaw State,” he said. “The academics have always been amazing. Now, our athletics is driving eyeballs to the University, so it has been wonderful."

Fellow alumnus and longtime KSU supporter Patrick Vickers ’96 echoed Chassner’s sentiments. During Sunday’s watch party, he and his wife, Karen, sat in their season ticket holder seats while they anxiously awaited news of who the Owls would face.

"President Schwaig says it best in almost every meeting I'm in with her. She talks about prominence, and Kennesaw State is becoming prominent with all the national TV exposure that we're receiving,” Vickers said. “We're winning. How rare is it for a newly elevated team to win the conference title in football and basketball in the same athletic year? Unheard of, right?"

In fact, Kennesaw State became the first CUSA team to accomplish the feat since former member Louisville claimed football and men’s basketball titles during the 2004-05 athletic season. The Owls joined Duke as the only two Football Bowl Subdivision schools to win football and men’s basketball conference championships in 2025-26.

For senior marketing major Collin Shephard, seeing the Owls win a second basketball championship in his time as a student with an incredibly rewarding experience. A member of the KSU Bananas, a group of passionate fans who wear banana suits to athletic events, he attended both the women's and men’s basketball tournaments in Huntsville last week.

“Being in March Madness again as a senior means everything to me,” Shepherd said. “I thank Coach Pettway for keeping the same energy that Amir Abdur-Rahim brought and bringing so much more. I’m so ready to go dancing.”

– Story by Travis Highfield

Photos by Katherine Seghers

 

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees to its more than 51,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university's vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties, and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.