Oregon Tech basketball made 17 trips to NAIA national tournaments under legendary coach Danny Miles. Three of those teams would bring home the big red banner, symbolic of the national championship.

The 2004 version of the Hustlin’ Owls was hardly a sure thing. Tech was the 16^th seed at the tournament after losing the Cascade Conference final to Albertson.

OIT had a balanced attack, 5 players scoring in double figures led by the three-point shooting of Kevin Baker. He had plenty of help from Levell Hesia who won All-America honors three times during his career and Todd Matthews who played the final 14 games of the season with a broken hand. Winning the NAIA tournament meant winning 5 games in 6 days. The Owls survived, defeating Bellevue of Nebraska in the final. Baker hit six 3-pt baskets and Tech brought home the banner with a 30-9 record.

Four years later, another OIT team that finished second in the Cascade tournament arrived at Cape Lookout, Missouri, the host city of the national tournament, as a low seed. Like many Tech teams, this one was anchored by small town athletes and Southern Oregon natives. Ryan Fiegi and Myles Dayley came from the powerful South Medford program. Fiegi led the team in scoring at 20 points per game. Australian center Josh Wetzler would nearly average a double-double and set a school-record shooting 72% from the field.

This Owls team finished with a 31-6 mark, once again, Bellevue was the victim in the national championship game.

After another four years, it was time for another Owls championship. The 2012 team title was not a surprise. OIT lost only four games and won the Cascade Conference regular season and tournament championship.

This was another balanced Tech team, five players scoring in double figures led by iron man Bobby Hunter who averaged 32 minutes and 20 points per game. This team had its share of multisport athletes. Bryant Sentman was also a decathlete and Kyle Gomez, an All-America in javelin.

The Owls averaged 82 points per game, outshooting and outrebounding their opponents. They finished their 5-game march through the tournament with a 63-46 win over Northwood University of Florida, coached by another legend, Rollie Massimino.

All these championship teams had GPAs of 3.0 or better. All had at least four Southern Oregon natives on the roster.