Bulldogs Enjoy Finding Out Who They Play in NCAA Tournament

By Natalie Pearson
For the past eight years Selection Sunday has been just another Sunday for UNC Asheville. Not this year.

In the packed Highsmith Grotto, the newly-crowned Big South Conference Champions waited patiently – teetering on the edge of their seats – to hear which opponent they are to face in the first round of the NCAA National Basketball Championships.

“I was very nervous,” senior forward John Williams said. “We all were. There was talk about us playing Duke in Charlotte, but I wasn’t surprised to play a play-in game. Either way we’re just excited to play against someone.”

The “someone” was the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, another mid-major school from the Sun Belt Conference, who they Tuesday in Dayton, OH.

Despite their athletic prowess not being the standard of Duke or North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Head Coach Eddie Biedenbach is not breathing easy.

“There’s no such thing as a bad team at this level,” he said. “They’ve made it this far and that says something. We’re going to go out there and be the best we can be.”

Something that may put the Bulldogs at ease is the knowledge of the aptly named “Bulldog Nation” – the faithful fans who followed the team through the season and who came out to support them on Sunday.

“I support the Bulldogs all the way,” senior management student and ex-Bulldog tennis player Tania Mateva said. “This is huge for the school and the boys have worked so hard to get there. I think there’s going to be more than a few upsets.”

Upsets are something the Bulldogs are dishing out this season, starting with their jaw-dropping victory over Auburn. As the year went on, the Bulldog’s picked up the pace, highlighted by junior guard Matt Dickey’s buzzer beating 3-pointer to defeat conference foe Coastal Carolina, and the team’s commanding victory over the same opponent a-week-and-a-half ago in the conference tournament final.

The 60-47 win over the Chanticleer’s made the team only the third to qualify in school history, and the first to make it to the Big Dance since 2003.

“This is the best year in all my four years at this school,” Williams said.
If (and when!) the Bulldogs win on Tuesday, they will play Pittsburgh Thursday in Washington D.C. Tune in, cross your fingers and put on your dancing shoes for another Bulldog victory.

Go Bulldogs!