University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Will Face Murray State In NCAA First Round
March 12, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 12, 2006
CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina men's basketball team will be the No. 3 seed in the Washington, D.C. regional and will face No. 14 seed Murray State on Friday at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The time of the game will be announced on Monday.
The winner of Friday's game will advance to play the winner of the game between No. 6 seed Michigan State and No. 11 seed George Mason on Sunday in Dayton.
Head coach Roy Williams had the following comments after being selected to 2006 NCAA Tournament field:
"We are ecstatic to be playing. It was a goal of ours to make the NCAA Tournament at the start of the season. We were so inexperienced, but you set dreams and goals high and you never know what is going to happen. We are very pleased to be in the field and pleased the committee thought enough of us to give us a No. 3 seed. It is a testament to how hard our kids have worked."
In response to a media inquiry about not being assigned to Greensboro:
"I was mildly surprised that we are not in Greensboro and the reason I say
mildly is because everybody kept saying we were going to be there. I think
we are the only three seed that was not put in its home area."
In response to a media inquiry about Murray State:
"I know Mick Cronin worked for Bob Huggins at Cincinnati and Rick Pitino at
Louisville. He is a longtime assistant who worked unbelievably hard so I
have always had a lot of respect for him. I feel even without seeing his
team play that they will play exceptionally hard on the defensive end of the
floor. Anybody that's 24-6, they are doing something right."
