The 64th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format.
[1] 2001 would bring four new teams to the NAIA national semifinals.
It surpasses the 15 year gap between a fresh set of semi-finalist that was between 1947-1969.
The others rookies in the semifinals were Pikeville College and Christian Heritage (Calif.).
USAO would eventually come back and win in 2002 national tournament.