North Dakota State Gets North Carolina
The brackets are in.
It's going to be an interesting first round with NDSU taking on number 1 seed North Carolina in the First Four game in Dayton Ohio. If by chance Cinderella makes an appearance, they got Duke next.
It is an honour to be involved with any type of March madness activity, a sign that the program is going in the right direction but man, they got a tough road.
Here's the official word from Inforum:
Richman said NDSU was expected to participate in a conference call later Sunday night to determine travel plans to Dayton. Like the Eagles, NDSU will take an 18-15 record into the tourney. That includes four straight victories and wins in nine of its last 12 games.
"To see North Dakota State on the screen and to see North Dakota State on my chest is an amazing feeling," said Bison guard Vinnie Shahid. "It happened so fast, we weren't expecting it to come up so fast. We're excited to play North Carolina Central and we'll go from there."
The other regional host cities are Hartford, Conn.; Des Moines, Iowa; Jacksonville, Fla.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Columbus, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; and San Jose, Calif. NDSU previously played at regional sites in Minneapolis in 2009, Spokane, Wash., in 2014 and Seattle in 2015.
The Bison are 1-3 in NCAA play defeating Oklahoma in 2014. The Bison were knocked out by San Diego State in their attempt to get into the Sweet 16.
"We've talked about the excitment, the carpet behind the scenes, the police escorts," Richman said, "but for them, when the lights come on, we're playing a basketball game."
The other "First Four" game in Dayton is Farleigh Dickinson (N.J.) against Prairie View (Texas) on Tuesday. That winner gets Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed in the West Regional. The University of Dayton has hosted the "First Four" games since the NCAA expanded the tournament field from 64 to 68 teams in 2011.
It's a mini four-team tourney of sorts that the community has embraced. The university was awarded another "First Four" contract to host it through 2022.
"We need to focus on us and that's what the focus will be about," Richman said. "We feel like we're playing our best brand of basketball and we need to ride that confidence that we built in Sioux Falls."
Let's see... because in March Madness, anything can happen