14th Seed North Carolina A&T to face Florida State

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N.C. A&T celebrated its first bid to the tournament since 1994 and the highest seed ever for a MEAC team after winning the conference tournament Saturday. The Aggies (26-6) are seeded 14th in the Trenton Regional and will face third-seeded Florida State (25-7) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Duluth, Ga. The game will be televised on ESPN2 at 2 p.m.

"A fourteenth seed just shows the kind of respect these young ladies have earned over the last two seasons," A&T coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs said after watching the selection show with her team and fans Monday night at the student union. "We are excited, but we are not just happy to be there. We're going to come ready to play."

For the Seminoles (25-7, 12-2 ACC), it was exactly what they wanted: A neutral setting close to home. The No. 3 seed was just an added touch of sweetness. "We started getting a little restless," FSU forward Jacinta Monroe said. "I guess we thought they forgot to put our names up there. The seed and the region we're in, there are going to be tough teams, but it's definitely a region we can take."

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Morgan State Preview & Thoughts On The Tournament

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Tournament Brackets

What: First Round NCAA Tournament Game
Who: Oklahoma (27-5, Big 12) vs. Morgan State (23-11, MEAC)
Where: Kansas City, Missouri
When: Thursday, March 19th at 8:40PM CT

Morgan State Starters
G Jermaine Bolden (#3) 5'9" 175 Senior
G Rogers Barnes (#21) 6'2" 190 Senior
G Reggie Holmes (#11) 6'4" 180 Junior
G/F Marquise Kately (#32) 6'5" 220 Senior
F/C Kevin Thompson (#33) 6'8" 240 Sophomore

Their starters account for about 80% of the minutes on the team, which is about 11% above the Division I average. They have 3 seniors in their starting lineup, and one junior, so their starters will be well seasoned, but their bench players aren't used to playing big minutes, especially in big games. Getting them in foul trouble could help us build a lead quickly.

Keep an eye on Reggie Holmes. He has made more 3-pointers than the rest of the team combined this year. In fact, he has attempted 55 more 3's than 2's (234 to 179) and shoots the 3 at a 37% clip. He is the best free throw shooter on the team (73.5%) and turns the ball over the least. By far, he is the best offensive weapon that they have. Marquise Kately is probably the second best shooter, but he has almost no range. Kevin Thompson shoots an incredibly low percentage for being their post player (43.5%) and can't hit a free throw to save his life (misses about 1 out of every 2). Bolden and Barnes have 3-point shooting ability but don't take as many shots as the other three. Bolden is pretty much a true PG, and seems to be a facilitator.

More good stuff after the jump...

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Alabama State gains NCAA play-in game

MONTGOMERY — Alabama State will have to earn a chance to play No. 1 overall seed Louisville in the NCAA tournament. The Hornets will face Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion Morehead State in the play-in game. The winner faces Louisville in the Midwest Regional in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday. Alabama State beat Jackson State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game.

It’s their first NCAA tournament since losing to Duke in 2004 and their third overall. They are 22-9 and have won 13 of their last 14 games. Alabama State had an impressive turnaround after starting 1-6 against a tough early schedule. The Hornets will try to do something no SWAC team has done since Alcorn State in 1980: win an NCAA tournament game.

Along with Louisville, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Connecticut are the top seeds in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Cardinals are the top seed in the entire tournament, as well the Midwest, while Pittsburgh is No. 1 in the East, Carolina in the South and Connecticut in the West.

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Racial Taunting Results in Spring Break Gunfire

Carlton K. Phipps is a 6-0 junior sprint/middle distance runner from Lynchburg, VA majoring in computer science.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- A Norfolk State University student and a track coach are behind bars after police say they responded to racial taunts with gunfire. Daytona Beach Police arrested 21-year-old Carlton Kenneth Phipps and 23-year-old Raymond Eric Brown early Sunday. Phipps is a junior at Norfolk State and a member of the MEAC champion track team. Brown, a graduate of the university, is currently a track coach. Both were on spring break vacation.

Detectives say around 3:30 a.m. officers responded to a disturbance at Sea Oats Resort in the 2500 block of South Atlantic Avenue. Witnesses told police Phipps and Brown, who are both black, were sitting in a hot tub with three black girls when a group of about 15 white spring breakers approached them using racial slurs.

Witnesses say Brown and Phipps ignored the comments for some time, then left the pool area and came back with guns. Reports say Brown told the group if they didn't leave his friends alone he would shoot one of them. Witnesses tell police the group kept saying slurs as they walked away. Brown fired 2 shots into the air and Phipps followed with 3 more. Witnesses say the group continued to yell slurs as they ran off. No one was wounded by the gun shots. Two of the girls who were with Brown and Phipps were injured as they jumped over a wall when the shots were fired.

Police say Phipps and Brown ran off and buried their guns on the beach. Investigators recovered the weapons shortly after arriving.

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Alabama State rallies to punch ticket for NCAA tourney

The Alabama State University men's basketball team answered the second-half bell like a boxer who had been stung hard in the early rounds. The top-seeded Hornets counter-punched the Jackson State Tigers with a vengeance, though, and battled their way into the NCAA Tournament as Southwestern Athletic Conference champions. ASU came from a bucket down at the half to claim the title 65-58 in front of a raucous Fair Park Arena crowd and a national television audience Saturday night.

Alabama State became the sixth regular-season champ to also take the tournament crown since 1999. The Hornets have twice before advanced to the NCAA Tournament, losing in the opening round to Michigan State in 2001 and to Duke in 2004. ASU's first-round opponent will be announced this afternoon at 5 p.m. on CBS 42. Hornets coach Lewis Jackson said the play-in game in Dayton was a possibility for his 22-9 squad. "I have no control over that," said the fourth-year head coach who went to the NCAA Tournament as an assistant to Rob Spivery in'04. "We have accomplished a lot with our record. We hope that's enough to get us straight in, but we have to do whatever they say."

ASU 7-1/265 center, Chief Kickingstallionsims will be a load for the opponent that the Hornets will face in the "play in" game in Dayton, OH on Tuesday.

After being rocked on their heels as the Tigers dominated the boards in the first half and ran to a 23-13 lead with 2:30 left, the Hornets scrambled back. ASU outscored the Tigers 7-0 in the final 1:33 of the first half that ended with JSU up 25-23 and then claimed its first lead since 13:05 of the opening period with an 11-8 run.

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Morgan State wins MEAC men title

Point guard James "Itchy" Bolden helped scratched a 32-year itch for the Morgan State Bears. Bolden spearheaded the Bears first Mid-Eastern Athletic title on Saturday with an 83-69 victory over upstart Norfolk State at Joel Coliseum. It was the steady play of Bolden, who delivered 18 points, two assists and five rebounds, but more importantly helped break the full-court pressure of the Spartans at key moments.

MSU Coach Todd Bozeman completes the Bears rebuilding journey...three seasons...MEAC Championship... NCAA bid with possible 14 or 15 seed.

Backing Bolden was Reggie Holmes who had 20 points and six rebounds, and Rogers Barnes scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had two assists. Freshman Kevin Thompson came off the bench to score 15 points and grab 11 rebounds. The victory for the Bears gives them an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as they improved to 23-11 and can look forward to a possible 15th or even maybe a 14th seed in the tournament when the pairings are announced tonight.

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Prairie View wraps up second NCAA bid in three years

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Gaati Werema had 29 points and 16 rebounds to lead Prairie View A&M to a 74-49 victory over Southern in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship game Saturday. The Lady Panthers (23-10) will carry a 19-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament, earning an automatic berth with their second SWAC title game victory in three years.

Werema, the league player of the year and tournament MVP, scored 11 points in a 16-0 run that turned a close game into a rout. Southern (16-13) had cut a 14-point deficit down to two by halftime but managed only one field goal in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. The Jaguars scored just 14 points after the break, making 5-of-30 shots. Southern had been the last team to beat Prairie View, winning 65-59 on Jan. 5 for the Lady Panthers only conference loss. The Lady Panthers have won two of the past three tournament titles, losing in last year’s championship game.

Candice Thomas had 18 points for Prairie View on 8-of-12 shooting, while Dominique Smith added 15 points and eight assists.