KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After a weekend where the Sprint Center was host to record crowds for the Big 12 Championship, it must now prepare for a second weekend of college basketball mania, with the NCAA set to host 2nd and 3rd round games on Friday and Sunday of this week.
The marquee teams coming to Kansas City are area favorites Kansas and Kansas State, the two teams that met in the Big 12 title game. But the field for this week’s NCAA Tournament also includes North Carolina (coached by former KU head coach Roy Williams), Mississippi (winners this past weekend of the SEC Tournament), Villanova (an annual power from the Big East), Wisconsin (which just lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament title game & twice beat Indiana this year) and Western Kentucky, a team that won 4 games in 4 days to win the Sunbelt Conference Tournament.
The Big 12 champion Kansas Jayhawks were named a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region, and will take on Western Kentucky in a game that will tip-off at approx. 8:50 pm Friday night at the Sprint Center.
Kansas State is the 4-seed in the West Region, and will meet the winner of the ‘play-in’ game between Lasalle and Boise State. Those two teams will meet in Dayton, Ohio Wednesday night for the right to move on to Kansas City and play at the Sprint Center. Kansas State’s second round game on Friday will tipoff at approximately 2:10 Friday afternoon. North Carolina lost to Miami, Fla. in the title game of the ACC Tournament, and will meet Villanova in the second round of the NCAA’s South region. The winner of that game will meet the winner of the KU/Western Kentucky matchup.
The games at the Sprint Center will be played on Missouri soil, but the University of Missouri Tigers will be playing in the bluegrass state of Kentucky to begin it’s 2013 NCAA tournament run, at Rupp Arena in Lexington. Missouri was named a 9-seed in the Midwest region, and will meet Colorado State, a member of the Mountain West, that like Missouri, received an at-large bid. The winner of the Missouri/Colorado State contest will more than likely meet Louisville, the top seed in the Midwest Region, and named the overall number one seed in the entire NCAA Tournament.
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