In Nashville, Tennessee, the Lipscomb Bisons have quietly built one of the South's most respected mid-major programs — purple and gold, disciplined, and dangerous every March. What began as an NAIA power became a Division I program that wins the right way, develops pros, and schedules like it fears no one. As Kevin Carroll enters his second season at the helm, the Bisons are coming off another 19-win campaign and aiming at the ASUN crown that has become the program's annual birthright.
Carroll's first year was a steady hand on a proud program. The 2025-26 Bisons went 19-13 overall and 12-6 in ASUN play, earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Grant Asman earned First Team All-ASUN honors, while guard Mateo Esmeraldo landed on the Third Team — a foundation Carroll is building on as he shapes the program in his image. This summer he promoted Scott Cherry to associate head coach and added Trey Johnson from Charleston Southern and Sagar Kapoor as assistant coaches, sharpening a staff built for the modern recruiting era.
The program's arrival on the national stage came in 2018. Under Casey Alexander, Lipscomb stormed through the ASUN tournament to capture the program's first Division I NCAA bid, earning a date with North Carolina in the Big Dance. The loss didn't matter much; the Bisons had announced themselves as the ASUN's new power, and the trajectory was unmistakable.
Then came the run that made Lipscomb a March legend. In 2019, the Bisons marched all the way to the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden, falling to Texas in the final — the first team in ASUN history to reach the NIT final. It was a statement that a Nashville mid-major could win four straight postseason games against high-major competition and nearly cut down nets in New York. That spring remains the program's proudest March beyond the NCAAs.
The Lennie Acuff era kept the standard high from 2019 through 2025, and it ended with the program back where it belongs. In 2025, Lipscomb swept the ASUN — regular-season champions and tournament champions, sealed by a win over North Alabama in the conference final — and returned to the NCAA Tournament, where the Bisons fell in the opening round. Jacob Ognacevic's ASUN Player of the Year campaign powered that title team, a throwback big man with a feathery touch who owned the league.
Lipscomb's player development pipeline is the program's quiet superpower. Garrison Mathews went from Bison to the NBA, carving out a career as a sharpshooting wing. John Konchar became a Memphis Grizzlies rotation player after a decorated Lipscomb career. Those success stories sell the program to every recruit who walks into Allen Arena: come here, get better, and the league will find you.
Carroll's 2026-27 roster blends veteran experience with an intriguing international flavor. Esmeraldo returns as a redshirt senior after his all-conference season, and senior forward Titas Sargiunas gives the frontcourt a seasoned presence. The 2026 signing class brought in 6-foot-9 forward Truman Byrne, a transfer from Central Arkansas via Australia's NBL1 competition, and 6-foot-6 Swedish guard Hugo Tidare, who arrives from Sweden's top professional league. It's a roster built to compete now while Carroll's system takes deeper root.
The 2026-27 schedule is a statement of intent. Lipscomb finalized an 18-game non-conference slate — eight inside Allen Arena — that features four teams that reached the postseason last year. Iowa and Purdue, both 2026 NCAA Elite Eight teams, visit the schedule in November, along with Ohio State and Auburn, the 2026 NIT champions. The Bisons open November 2 at Southeast Missouri State, then travel to Iowa City on November 3 for the first meeting in program history. The home opener lands November 7 against SIU Edwardsville as part of Bisons Weekend. As Carroll said, the lineup is crafted to challenge the Bisons and prepare them for ASUN play — twelve opponents that each won 18 or more games last season.
Allen Arena is the program's home court advantage: 5,028 seats in Nashville, a building that gets loud when the Bisons are rolling and the students fill the purple sections. It's a proper college basketball atmosphere — intimate enough to rattle visitors, big enough to feel like the program belongs on the national stage.
The trophy case tells the story of a program that learned to win at every level. Lipscomb won the NAIA national championship in 1986, a reminder of deep roots. The Bisons have collected ASUN tournament titles in 2018 and 2025 and regular-season crowns in 2006, 2010, 2019 and 2025. Sustained excellence, not lightning in a bottle.
That 2018 breakthrough ended a long climb. Alexander took over in 2013 and steadily turned the Bisons into the ASUN's class, a six-year build that peaked with the program's first NCAA bid and then the NIT final run the next spring. Acuff's six seasons kept Lipscomb in the league's top tier, producing the 2025 sweep. Now Carroll inherits a program with expectations — and a fan base that knows what March can look like.
The 2026-27 mission is simple and familiar: win the ASUN, cut the nets, dance. With an all-conference guard leading the way, a frontcourt anchored by seniors, and a non-conference gauntlet designed to forge a tournament-ready team, the Bisons have the ingredients. In Nashville, March is never an afterthought — it's the plan.