San Diego State University will face North Carolina in a First Four game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio, in a matchup of the two lowest-seeded at-large teams in the 68-team field.
The Aztecs (21-9) are the 43rd overall seed in the field of 68, three spots ahead of the Tar Heels (22-13). Both teams are considered 11th seeds in the South Region, with Tuesday's winner facing sixth-seeded Ole Miss at 1:05 p.m. PDT Friday in a first-round game in Milwaukee.
"I'm really proud of our group," SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said Sunday after his team reached the tournament for fifth consecutive season. "To make it to the NCAA Tournament again is a tremendous accomplishment, especially due to the fact that we lost 90% of our scoring and minutes from a year ago.
"To have this young team come in play with such heart and energy and play their way into the NCAA tournament it's a tremendous credit to them and the coaching staff I have here with me."
SDSU reached the Sweet 16 in last season's NCAA Tournament but has lost each of its top seven scorers from a season ago. Six are no longer with the team while Reese Waters has not played this season due to injury.
The Aztecs scored 2,742 points last season, but just 232 of those points have suited up for the team this season.
The four teams playing in Tuesday's First Four games have little time to prepare. Dutcher said at a news conference Monday that the team didn't have its flight confirmed until "like 9:30" p.m. Sunday, and flew out at 9 a.m. Monday.
"They watched a little tape on the plane," said Dutcher, who will be coaching in the First Four for the first time. "We sat down after a quick meal at the hotel and watched individuals."
The team was to receive its game plan Tuesday morning, Dutcher said.
SDSU's 7-foot redshirt freshman forward Magoon Gwath is expected to play for the first time since suffering a knee injury about two minutes into a Feb. 22 game against Utah State. Gwath, the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player and Freshman of the Year, missed the next five games, with the Aztecs posting a 3-2 record
"I became a worse coach without Magoon, so hopefully I'll be a good coach again," Dutcher joked. "Our intention is to have him on the court (Tuesday) and see what kind of difference he'll make."
SDSU had two second-team All-Mountain West Conference selections, senior guard Nick Boyd and sophomore guard Miles Byrd.
Boyd leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.4 points per game, with Byrd second at 12.6 points per game.
Boyd was a starter of the Florida Atlantic team that reached the 2023 Final Four. He was one of two Owls to reach double figures in their 72-71 loss to the Aztecs in a national semifinal, with 12 points.
Boyd transferred to SDSU following the 2023-24 season.
North Carolina was the last at-large team selected, a decision that has drawn criticism, especially from people with ties to West Virginia University, with athletic director Wren Baker writing on social media Sunday, "I can't comprehend this team being left out. Our resume was better than several teams in the field and it's a terrible travesty that we weren't included."
Two factors in particular drew his ire — the Tar Heels' 1-12 record in Quadrant 1 games, which are against the nation's best teams, and the fact that North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham is the chairman of the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee.
Keith Gill, the committee's vice chair and Sun Belt Conference commissioner, explained on CBS' selection show, "Our policies require the AD of any school to recuse themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions. And they're not allowed to participate in any vote as well. ... We voted in four teams in the field on Saturday night, and we had a contingency vote.
"The contingency vote, that was the last team in the field. And it was based on Memphis-UAB. If Memphis won that game, then that was going to free up a spot in the tournament and that was going to be North Carolina."
Memphis defeated UAB, 84-72 on Sunday to win the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship game
Oddsmakers have made SDSU a 4 1/2-point underdog.
TruTV will televise the 6:10 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time game.
