DANVILLE, Ill. – The Johnson County Community College men's basketball team, the No. 12 seed in the 2024 NJCAA Division II National Tournament, will take No. 5-seed National Park College Monday night 6 PM CST at Mary Miller Center at Danville (Ill.) Area Community College in a first-round matchup. 

The Cavaliers enter the tournament with a season mark of 28-5 and earned their spot in the tournament by defeating Fort Scott 83-70 to claim the Region 6/Plains District Championship. 

National Park stands 27-1 but they earned the spot with an at-large bid after falling South Arkansas 62-60 in the Region 2/Central Plains Championship.

This is the Cavaliers ninth national tournament appearance, and the third in the four-year tenure of head coach Rand Chappell. Johnson County is 16-8 all-time in tournament play, winning national titles in 2001 and 2009 and finishing runner-up in 2019. 

This marks the first ever trip to the D-II National Tournament for National Park. 

For the second straight year the Davidson-Davie Storm are the No. 1 sed with a 32-1 record followed by South Suburban, Ellsworth as third seed and Macomb getting the fourth. 

Johnson County in one of five teams in this year's field that have claimed a national championship. The Cavaliers won titles in 2001 and 2009. They were runner-up in 2019. 

Other past champions include last year's champion Milwaukee Area Technical, South Suburban, the 2022 champion, Des Moines Area, the 2021 champion and Parkland, the 1998 champion.

The 2024 NJCAA Division 2 National Tournament will be streamed live by the NJCAA Network.