Mount St Mary's vs. New Orleans - 6:40pm et on TSN GO

The dream of each 16th-seeded team dispatched to the NCAA Tournament's First Four in Dayton, Ohio, is to win a contest and then take on one of the Goliaths of college basketball.

This year's reward for either Mount St. Mary's or New Orleans is the opportunity to play No. 1 overall seed Villanova in a first-round East Regional contest in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday.

The Wildcats also answer to defending national champions.

The two upstart schools will worry about that monumental task later. Both the Mountaineers and Privateers are chasing the second NCAA Tournament win in school history when they meet Tuesday.

Mount St. Mary's (19-15) qualified by winning the Northeast Conference tournament, while New Orleans (20-11) won the Southland Conference tourney.

The Privateers are part of the field for the first time since 1996. The program fell on hard times after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city and campus in 2005, and New Orleans finished 10-20 last season before the stunning turnaround.

"It's a great accomplishment," sixth-year coach Mark Slessinger said. "We're excited for the chance to put our university and our city back on the national stage in the biggest basketball tournament in the world. Our team goal has always been, from Day One, to win the Southland Conference, to go to the NCAA Tournament and to win games.

"Our goal was never just to get in this tournament. Our goal is to win games in this tournament. The guys are all very clear on the expectation level and what we have to do to meet it."

New Orleans is led by senior forward Erik Thomas, whose averages of 19.5 points and 7.8 rebounds prompted his selection as Southland Conference Player of the Year.

Senior guards Christavious Gill (11.6 points) and Nate Frye (10.3) also score in double digits for a squad that notched a road win over Pac-12 member Washington State during the regular season.

Mount St. Mary's had to dig itself out of an early-season hole as it started 1-11 against an arduous schedule that included NCAA Tournament teams West Virginia, Iowa State, Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas and Bucknell.

The Mountaineers were toughened up by the lumps they took and began thriving once the slate was filled with fellow Northeast Conference schools.

"How it started out was discouraging at times because we started out not so great," junior guard Greg Alexander told the Carroll County (Md.) Times. "But for me personally, playing all these top-tier teams made me feel good once we got to conference play, and I knew we would be ready because I don't think these teams have seen the type of competition we've seen to start the season.

"I think the way we responded and went into conference play, I think everybody felt the same way I did, just ready for anybody."

Sophomore guard Elijah Long (15.4 points, 5.4 rebounds) and junior guard Junior Robinson (14.1 points) pace the Mountaineers. Freshman guard Miles Wilson (11.3) also averages in double digits.

Mount St. Mary's has played in the First Four at Dayton twice before, recording a 69-60 victory over Coppin State in 2008 and dropping a 71-64 decision to Albany in 2014.

Jamion Christian, the Mountaineers' coach since 2012-13, is looking forward to another chance to win in Dayton.

"I looked at the profiles of all those possible (First Four) teams, and I thought our resume was pretty good," Christian told the Carroll County Times. "We have a chance to go prove that now."
 

Kansas State vs. Wake Forest - 9:10pm et on TSN GO

Danny Manning was well aware he and his Wake Forest squad were going to sweat out Selection Sunday.

He wasn't worried about the opponent or destination. All he cared about was landing a spot in the 68-team NCAA field.

So being sent to Dayton, Ohio, to meet fellow No. 11 seed Kansas State on Tuesday in the First Four is just fine with Manning.

"If we had to hop on a plane right now, we're ready to go," Manning said after the Demon Deacons made the field for the first time since 2010. "You really can't worry about it because you can't control it."

The worrying commences now as the Demon Deacons (19-13) and Wildcats (20-13) clash to see who advances to Friday's first-round game against sixth-seeded Cincinnati in South Regional play at Sacramento, Calif.

Manning certainly is highly familiar with the opponent. The star player who led Kansas to the 1988 national title was the target of barbs and taunts whenever the Jayhawks visited the Wildcats.

"One of my first games at K-State, that's a very heated rivalry, they were throwing live chickens at us," Manning said. "I remember going in there and ducking some live chickens, also some not-so-live ones out of a KFC bucket or whatever."

The Wildcats can relate to why Manning was anxious about landing a bid because they were in the same situation.

Kansas State placed sixth in the Big 12 and reached the 20-win mark, but the possibility of being passed over remained a real concern.

"I was probably the happiest in the room," senior swingman Wesley Iwundu said. "It is a big-time accomplishment for me, my teammates, and for the seniors to go out on this note. We are not done yet, but we are happy we are in the NCAA Tournament. We are ready to do some things."

Iwundu averages a team-best 12.5 points and 6.4 rebounds and is one of four double-digit scorers.

Sophomore guard Barry Brown averages 11.7 points, sophomore guard Kamau Stokes is at 11.6 with a team-best 58 3-pointers, and senior forward D.J. Johnson averages 11.2 points while recording a team-best 49 blocked shots.

The NCAA tourney appearance is Kansas State's third in five seasons under coach Bruce Weber.

It is also the most rewarding during Weber's tenure as expectations were low for this season's Wildcats.

"This is simply staying the course and staying positive and staying after it and believing," Weber said. "It is your goal every year to be in the NCAA Tournament. We were picked ninth in the league beforehand, but we finished ahead of that prediction.

"I think we went into the Big 12 tournament and showed very well. Now can we make it a special season and do something here in the NCAA Tournament."

Manning snapped Wake Forest's tourney drought in his third season at the school.

The Demon Deacons have a budding star in first-team All-ACC selection John Collins, a sophomore forward who led the team in scoring (18.9 points per game), rebounding (9.8 boards per game) and blocked shots (52).

Sophomore point guard Bryant Crawford averages 16.1 points and 5.4 assists, while sophomore guard Keyshawn Woods contributes 12.8 and 3.5 assists.

Even with that trio, Wake Forest finished in 10th place in the ACC, and that prompted concern.

"We didn't fare as well as we would have liked," Manning said. "We came up short in some games that we played, but I think that that adversity helped us down the stretch of our conference without question.

"We would have liked to have gotten a few more wins in the ACC tournament, but obviously we did enough to extend our season game by one game."

Tuesday's contest is the first between the programs.