Hurricanes will face Michigan State in NCAA first round Friday

Kansas forward Landen Lucas talks with media members following the NCAA selection show on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It was nervous just waiting and waiting”, senior guard Carlbe Ervin said.

The victor of that play-in game will play the No. 6 seed Cincinnati in Sacramento, California on Friday.

The top seeds are Villanova, Kansas, North Carolina and Gonzaga.

“We expect the demand for tickets to be extraordinarily high and I think it will have the same if not larger economic impact as sort of your traditional basketball tournament”, Vaughn said.

UofL coach Rick Pitino has to be elated with the seeding, plus the fact that his team didn’t land in the same region as Kentucky, which is seeded No. 2 in the South, or Minnesota, which is coached by his son, Richard. “We’ll take it as seriously as you can, and I’ll make sure that we do”.

Never underestimate head coach Jim Larranaga, who has helped this team compete in the nation’s best conference year in and year out. He has a 53-18 record in it, including two national championships (Kentucky in 1996; Louisville in 2013). I was having a discussion on Twitter the other day about the Canes’ hoops future for this season, and the key will be finding a way to win a game in which they don’t play to their full potential. The best win on the resume is a 82-75 victory at West Virginia, but 7 of the last 8 losses have come at the hands of Big 12 powers Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas. Underwood also said that he has had conversations with Beilein on the recruiting trail. “So, when you put all those pieces together, we’ve become a pretty challenging team to guard, at times”. An unlikely story as Michigan’s plane slid off the runway and set them way behind in getting to Washington DC for the Big 10 Tournament. I’m just ready to get out there. “It’s well deserved. It’s been an up-and-down, all-around season and they’ve stayed the course”. Should the Cards advance to the Sweet 16 they will play in Kansas City the following week. 6-foot-9, 245 pound junior big man Mitchel Solomon is the third-best offensive rebounder in the country and a great shot blocker, but he is also whistled for 7.7 fouls per 40 minutes.

“This is the most competitive bracket I’ve seen in my five years”, he said. “Now we have to do it again on Tuesday night”.

Well, you get the drift.

Michigan State (19-14) is coming off an up-and-down year for its standards.

ClickOnDetroit.com will have pre-tournament coverage on the Spartans throughout the week leading up to the First Round. “It’s a chance to extend our season”.