Texas Southern and North Carolina Central, the only two Division I HBCU basketball programs with tickets to the NCAA tournament, learned of their seedings and opponents Sunday when the NCAA announced its tournament brackets.
Texas Southern (19-14), a No. 16 seed, will face No. 16 seed Cal Poly (13-19) out of the Big West Conference in a first round (play-in) game. The first-round NCAA Tournament matchup inside UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. PT with action televised on truTV.
The winner of Wednesday’s game will play top seeded Wichita State (34-0) on Friday in St. Louis. The Houston-based Tigers reached the First Four by knocking off Prairie View A&M in Saturday's Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament title game, 78-73.
North Carolina Central (28-5), seeded 14th in the tournament, will play against third-seeded Iowa State (26-7) out of the Big 12 Conference. Iowa State comes in as one of the hottest teams in the nation. The scoring triumvirate of Melvin Ejim, Georges Niang and DeAndre Kane pace a deadly Cyclone attack. But Fred Hoiberg’s team can get after it defensively, as well. North Carolina Central has played a tough schedule, and leading scorer Jeremy Ingram might be able to keep things close early. The Eagles have won 20 straight but haven’t played a team like Iowa State in that run.
The Tigers are the SWAC’s lone representative in the tournament and will be making their fifth NCAA tournament appearance. The Eagles, from the MEAC, will be making their first.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Tuesday, March 18th 2014 at 6:13PM
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