By Mason Nesbitt, Sports Information Director

Coach Dan Waldeck didn’t have the exact stat in front of him. He didn’t need it. Not in order to provide perspective on the challenge his Mustangs will face Wednesday when they play No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman (Tennessee) in the first round of the NAIA Division 1 Women’s Basketball National Championship tournament.

“They’re tough defensively,” Waldeck said before flying to Billings, Montana, for TMU’s sixth straight NAIA national tournament appearance. “I think they’re the best defensive team in the country.”

The Lions (29-4) are, in fact, the nation’s best defense, allowing just 48.6 points per game. But Waldeck – hardly ready to concede the game as a long-shot victory for his eighth-seeded Mustangs (19-10) – offered a few caveats.

One, the Mustangs have faced the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense, Westmont College, three times this season, so they won’t be caught off guard by a team that gets after it on that end of the floor.

Master’s lost all three meetings with Westmont, but looked much improved in the team’s Golden State Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game earlier this month.

As for Waldeck’s second caveat, this is the NAIA tournament, and numbers and records only go so far.

“Right now everyone is 0-0,” Waldeck said. “What you’ve done up to this point or in past seasons, it doesn’t matter. It’s not a series. It’s one game. You have to go compete in one game.”

And in this case, compete against a familiar foe.

Freed-Hardeman knocked Master’s out in the second round of last year’s national tournament, 79-58, behind 28 points and 19 rebounds from 5-foot-10 forward Kim Mallory (who is averaging 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game this year as a senior).

Last season’s meeting marked the end of the decorated careers of TMU All-Americans Bianca Cubello and Megan Lindsley, but it opened the next chapter of Mustang basketball, one Waldeck believes will be special in its own right. The group, which features no seniors and three juniors, just needs time.

“We’re so young,” Waldeck said. “Arguably the youngest team in the country. For them to get back here for the sixth straight year and carry on the legacy that’s been set for them, it’s a pretty big deal.”

Waldeck also believes the Mustangs are playing their best basketball to this point, and he’s hopeful they can ratchet up their execution another notch in Billings.

“It’s going to be a challenge all the way around,” Waldeck said. “But it should be fun.”

The first 30 games of the national championship will be video-streamed live at www.NAIANetwork.com, the NAIA’s official video-streaming platform powered by Stretch Internet. There is a fee.

The championship final will air on ESPN3 for the fifth-straight season on Tuesday, March 20 at 7 p.m.