University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Men's Basketball Team Arrives in New York
03.16.2016 | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK – The UNC Asheville men's basketball team arrived in New York City this afternoon as the Bulldogs began preparations for their first-round NCAA Tournament game against second-seeded Villanova on Friday.
Nick McDevitt's club will battle the Wildcats for the first time in school history at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tip-off is at 12:40 p.m. and will be televised nationally by TruTV. The game can also be heard locally on WWNC Radio (570-AM) with the pre-game show starting at Noon.
Asheville practiced at Kimmel Arena this morning before getting a send-off from fans and friends. The Bulldogs departed the UNC Asheville campus at 1 p.m. and then headed to Asheville Regional Airport for the flight to New York City.
The Blue & White boarded a charter plane, provided by the NCAA, and headed to the “Big Apple” at 3 p.m. Asheville's flight lasted a little over an hour before touching down at LaGuardia Airport. A bus met the team at the tarmac and took the team to its hotel in Times Square.
The Bulldogs will rest tonight before heading to Brooklyn in the morning for a practice at the Barclays Center at Noon. Asheville will practice for 40 minutes in the arena that it will play in on Friday. The practice is open to the public. The Bulldogs will also meet with the media.
McDevitt's club faces a tough assignment against Villanova. The Wildcats won the Big East regular-season crown this past and were ranked #1 throughout the year. Villanova is 29-5 on the season.
Asheville (22-11) hopes to continue its winning streak against Big East teams on Friday. The Bulldogs have won their last two contests against Big East foes. They knocked off Georgetown back in December, 79-73 and then stunned St. John's in December of 2012, 72-65.
This will be the Bulldogs' fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Asheville has posted a 2-3 record with opening round wins over Texas Southern in 2003 and Arkansas-Little Rock in 2011. The Dogs have fallen in the first round to Texas in 2003, Pittsburgh in 2011 and Syracuse in 2012. Asheville's last appearance in the tournament came in 2012 when the 16th-seeded Bulldogs nearly upset the top-seeded Orange in Pittsburgh before falling in the final minutes, 72-65.
