DAYTON, Ohio -- To see the wide range and diversity of teams in the NCAA Tournament, look no further than the pair of First Four play-in games tonight.
The first game featured two wide-eyed, "just-happy-to-be-here" schools -- UC Davis and North Carolina Central -- looking for what would be one of the biggest victories ever for either program.
The other two teams, Providence and Southern California, have 48 tournament appearances between them and played a thrilling 1-point game in the opening round of 64 last year.
Heads were still spinning Tuesday.
"It still hasn't sunk in what we're doing," said Chima Moneke, a junior-college transfer who averaged 14.4 points for the Big West champion UC Davis, a school of 35,000 students west of Sacramento, California. The Aggies are playing in the tournament for the first time as a Division I school.
Moneke's team faces North Carolina Central (25-8), a historically black school of 8,000 students in Durham. Emerging as Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions, they're playing in the tournament for second time in the six seasons since moving to Division I.
"For this being my first time and a lot of my teammates' first time, the experience from leaving school to getting on the plane to getting off the plane was just tremendous," said Patrick Cole, a senior guard who led NC Central (25-8) with 19.5 points per game.
"It just had me thinking about how there's a lot of student-athletes out there that didn't get this opportunity through four years of their college experience," he said.
At the other end of the range, players from Providence and USC were a little calmer, even with a revenge narrative swirling around their matchup. Ninth-seeded Providence took down the No. 8-seeded Trojans in the opening round of 64 last year when Rodney Bullock got free and turned an inbound pass into an easy layup.
"The experience helps a lot," said USC junior guard Jordan McLaughlin, who was on the court for the deflating loss last year. "This is my third year, second time in the tournament. And I'm just trying to be leader and lead our younger guys, especially our freshmen."
USC's leading scorers Bennie Boatwright and Chimezie Metu were freshmen last year. Boatwright said another year makes a difference when it comes to playing in the postseason.
"Being freshmen, last year we didn't know what to expect coming into the game. Now we know what to expect," he said.
"Tough loss, tough way to end the year, but we're excited to be back in the same position, and we're ready to play," he said.
"Sometimes there's a lot of jitters around this game," Providence junior guard Kyron Cartwright said. "Some people are young. Sometimes they get nervous. The NCAA Tournament, it's not like any other. It's not even like a conference game, it's something different. You just gotta play in one to experience it."
TODAY’S FIRST FOUR GAMES
N.C. Central vs.
UC Davis
WHAT NCAA Tournament fi rst four WHEN 5:40 p.m. Central WHERE Dayton, Ohio RECORDS North Carolina Central 25-8; UC Davis 22-12 TELEVISION TruTV
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
N.C. CENTRAL NAME, (HT., YR.) PPG RPG F Kyle Benton, 6-7, Sr. 9.1 8.2 F Del’vin Dickerson, 6-5, Sr. 8.3 4.8 G Dajuan Graf, 6-0, Sr. 14.3 3.5 G Patrick Cole, 6-5, Sr. 19.5 7.0 G Rashaun Madison, 6-0, Sr. 9.8 2.2 COACH LeVelle Moton (151-102 in eighth season at N.C. Central and overall)
UC-DAVIS NAME, (HT., YR.) PPG RPG F J.T. Adenrele, 6-7, Sr. 5.8 5.1 F Chima Moneke, 6-6, Jr. 14.4 9.4 G Lawrence White, 6-4, Sr. 7.6 3.6 G Darius Graham, 5-10, Sr. 7.5 1.8 G Brynton Lemar, 6-4, Sr. 16.1 3.3 COACH Jim Les (86-103 in sixth season at UC Davis, 240-243 in 15th season overall)
TEAM COMPARISON
N.C. Central UC Davis 75.1 Points for 70.5 63.4 Points against 68.9 +2.9 Rebound margin +1.4 +1.8 Turnover margin +0.0 45.7 FG pct. 43.7 34.0 3-pt pct. 35.4 68.1 FT pct. 66.5 CHALK TALK The winner of tonight’s game will play top-seeded Kansas on Friday in the Midwest Region. … North Carolina Central is in the NCAA Tournament for the second time since moving to Division I. The Eagles lost to Iowa State 93-75 in the first round in 2014. … Senior guard Patrick Cole was named the MEAC Player of the Year. … UC Davis is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. … UC Davis Coach Jim Les is the first coach in NCAA history to win games in four different postseason tournaments. His last NCAA Tournament victory came in 2006 when he took Bradley to the Sweet 16.
— Erick Taylor
Providence vs.
Southern California
WHAT NCAA Tournament fi rst four WHEN 8:10 p.m. Central WHERE Dayton, Ohio RECORDS Providence 20-12; USC 24-9 TELEVISION TruTV
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
PROVIDENCE NAME, (HT., YR.) PPG RPG F Rodney Bullock, 6-8, Jr. 15.7 6.4 F Emmitt Holt, 6-7, Jr. 12.4 5.2 G Alpha Diallo, 6-7, Fr. 5.7 3.2 G Jalen Lindsey, 6-7, Jr. 10.5 4.4 G Kyron Cartwright, 5-11, Jr. 11.4 6.7 COACH Ed Cooley (123-79 in sixth season at Providence and 215-147 in 11th season overall)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NAME, (HT., YR.) PPG RPG F Chimezie Metu, 6-11, So. 14.5 7.8 F Bennie Boatwright, 6-10, So. 14.6 4.3 G Shaqquan Aaron, 6-7, So. 8.3 3.4 G Jordan McLaughlin, 6-4, Fr. 13.1 3.4 G De’Anthony Melton, 6-4, Sr. 8.7 4.9 COACH Andy Enfield (68-63 in fourth season at USC and 109-88 in sixth season overall)
TEAM COMPARISON
Providence USC 70.2 Points for 78.7 63.4 Points against 73.2 -1.0 Rebound margin +0.4 +1.4 Turnover margin +1.7 44.7 FG pct. 45.4 36.8 3-pt pct. 36.3 69.1 FT pct. 73.9 CHALK TALK Tonight’s winner will play sixth-seeded SMU on Friday in the East Region. … Providence beat USC 70-69 last season on forward Rodney Bullock’s lay-up with 1.5 seconds left in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. … The Friars are making their fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. … Providence went 8-8 against teams in this year’s tournament. USC went 4-6 against teams it faced in this year’s tournament. … The Trojans’ 24 victories were the most since 2007 when they won a school-record 25 games. … USC forward Chimezie Metu was named the Pac-12’s Most Improved Player.
— Erick Taylor
Sports on 03/15/2017