UNC basketball will see an NCAA-tested San Diego State team in the First Four in Dayton

The past two basketball seasons have ended with San Diego State, like many other teams, taking a beating from Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament.

Two years ago, the Aztecs reached the NCAA championship game in Houston before falling 76-59 to the Huskies. Last year, UConn rolled to an 82-52 win over San Diego State in a Sweet 16 game in Boston’s TD Garden as the Aztecs closed out a 26-11 season and finished No. 17 in the final AP poll.

It’s now a different year and a different challenge for the Aztecs: Win a play-in game against North Carolina in the NCAA’s First Four in Dayton, Ohio.

The Tar Heels (22-13) were the last team to squeeze into the NCAA field, according to the selection committee — that after UAB’s loss to Memphis in the AAC Tournament, freeing up a spot that went to UNC as the last at-large.

The winner of Tuesday’s late game (scheduled 9:10 p.m. start) will be the No. 11 seed in the South Region and move on to Milwaukee to face No. 6 seed Mississippi (22-11) on Friday at the Fiserv Forum.

One major storyline: the possible availability of Aztecs center Magoon Gwath. Named the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year and the league’s defensive player of the year, the 7-footer has been sidelined since late February with a knee injury, but could return Tuesday for the NCAAs.

For UNC, the region has Auburn at the No. 1 seed and Michigan State seeded second. The Heels played both in the Maui Classic in Hawaii, losing both games, and also have Louisville in the South bracket as the No. 8 seed.

The Tar Heels’ inclusion in the NCAAs was panned by some in the national media — see Jay Williams of ESPN — and created a hailstorm of criticism on social media. The Heels can live with that. They just wanted another chance to play, and especially forward Jae’Lyn Withers.

It was Withers who stepped into the lane just before Ven-Allen Lubin’s free throw with four seconds left against No. 1 Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The lane violation negated Lubin’s made free throw, which would have tied the score and likely led to overtime, and allowed the Blue Devils to pull out a 74-71 win.

Now, Withers has more basketball to play. So do the Heels, who have built some late-season momentum after winning eight of their last 10 games and with the two losses to Duke.

“I feel like we deserve a chance and I feel like we can do a lot of damage in the tournament,” UNC guard Elliot Cadeau said after the Duke game.

San Diego State is 21-9 and has not been in the polls since before Christmas, but its NCAA resume included an overtime win over Houston plus victories over Creighton and UC San Diego. The Aztecs finished fourth in the Mountain West with a 14-6 record, and were beaten by Boise State 62-52 in the conference tournament quarterfinals in Las Vegas.

In terms of matchups with UNC, Aztecs guards Nick Boyd and Miles Byrd both were second-team All-Mountain West selections and Gwath, if available, gives SDSU an imposing rim protector. Gwath has not played since suffering the knee injury Feb. 22 against Utah State.

Boyd is San Diego State’s top scorer at 13.4 points a game. The 6-3 senior, who transferred to SDSU after three seasons at Florida Atlantic, is coming off a 20-point game against Boise State in the tournament.

Byrd is a versatile 6-7 wing who is getting 12.6 points a game and is the Aztecs’ top 3-point threat with 52 made 3’s this season. The sophomore also is an 82.4% free-throw shooter, best on the team.

“We’re going to be playing a historical program but on the West Coast we’re a pretty historical program, as well,” Byrd said in an interview posted on the SDSU athletics site. “It’s going to be a fun matchup. It’s going to be super fun to play against a team like that.

“A lot of kids probably dream of playing for a school like that. It should be one to remember.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 12:13 PM with the headline "UNC basketball will see an NCAA-tested San Diego State team in the First Four in Dayton."

Chip Alexander

The News & Observer

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In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.