University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Photo by: Adrian Etheridge
UNC Asheville to Battle Southern Cal in First Round of NIT
03.12.2018 | Men's Basketball
NIT Notes
NIT Bracket (PDF)
2017-18 UNC Asheville Men's Basketball Media Guide
THE MATCHUPTeams: UNC Asheville (21-12)
Southern Cal (23-11)
Location: Los Angeles, Calif./Galen Center
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 13/11 p.m. EST
TV: ESPN2
Twitter: @ashevilledogs #ThePursuit
LOS ANGELES - The eighth-seeded UNC Asheville men's basketball team will travel to the West Coast to face top-seeded Southern Cal in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
The Bulldogs will battle Southern Cal at 11 p.m. EST on Tuesday, March 13, in Los Angeles. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
BULLDOG BITES
Bulldog Breakdown
POSTSEASON PLAY: UNC Asheville will be making its second appearance in the NIT. The Bulldogs last appeared in the postseason event in 2008. Overall, this year's NIT appearance will be UNC Asheville's seventh in a postseason tournament. The Bulldogs have advanced to the NCAA Tournament four times before (2003, 2011, 2012 and 2016), the NIT (2008 and 2018) twice and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament once (2017).
BIG SOUTH TITLE NO. 7: UNC Asheville men's basketball picked up its seventh Big South Conference regular-season title (1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02, 2007-08, 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2017-18) this season. Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt has been a part of six of the seven Big South Conference regular-season crowns either as a player, assistant coach or head coach (1997-98, 2001-02, 2007-08, 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2017-18).
NEARING NO. 1: UNC Asheville senior guard Ahmad Thomas with 247 career steals is just one steal from tying and two steals away from becoming the all-time steals leader at UNC Asheville. J.P. Primm (2008-12) is the current all-time leader with 248 career steals.
BULLDOGS EXTEND SPECIAL LEAGUE STREAK: UNC Asheville with its road win over Longwood extended its own Big South Conference record by winning its 10th league game of the year. The Bulldogs, who had 13 league wins, have now won 10 or more league games in a season in a Big South Conference men's basketball record 11 straight seasons.
CONTINUING TO SET THE STANDARD: UNC Asheville men's basketball has now won at least 15 games in a season for a league-record 11 consecutive seasons. UNC Asheville's 11th straight 15 or more win season allowed the Bulldogs to pass the old mark of 10 it shared with Winthrop (1998-08). UNC Asheville has won 15 or more games every year since the 2007-08 season.
RAEKWON THE CHEF KEEPS DISHING: Raekwon Miller's career-high nine assists in the Big South Tournament quarterfinal win over Charleston Southern tied UNC Asheville's Big South Tournament program record last set in UNC Asheville's Big South Tournament championship-clinching 93-78 win by Maurice Caldwell on March 4, 1989.
FLIRTING WITH HISTORY ONCE AGAIN: Raekwon Miller became the second Bulldog this season to nearly capture a triple-double with his 12 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in the quarterfinal win over Charleston Southern. Ahmad Thomas nearly had one himself with 24 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists in UNC Asheville's win over Presbyterian College on Feb. 3.
NEARING 100: UNC Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt needs two more wins to reach 100 for his career.
HOME SWEET HOME: UNC Asheville is now 82-18 overall and 57-12 against Big South foes within the friendly confines of Kimmel Arena inside the Sherrill Center. The Bulldogs finished the 2017-18 regular season at Kimmel Arena 13-1. UNC Asheville is 26-2 over the last two seasons during the regular season at Kimmel Arena. The Bulldogs have won 23 of their last 25 at Kimmel Arena overall.
BULLDOGS HEAVILY FEATURED IN BIG SOUTH ALL-CONFERENCE AWARDS: Big South Conference regular-season champion UNC Asheville was heavily featured when the league office unveiled the 2017-18 Big South Conference Men's Basketball Awards on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. For the third time in the last four years, it was a UNC Asheville student-athlete that took home the prestigious Big South Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in Kevin Vannatta. Former teammate Giacomo Zilli also won the award in 2014-15 and 2016-17. UNC Asheville's Ahmad Thomas was chosen as the Big South Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. He is the second Bulldog to win the award with Kenny George earning the honor in 2007-08. Thomas is just the fourth in Big South history to win the award twice. In addition, for the second consecutive season UNC Asheville had two first-team selections with Thomas and MaCio Teague earning the honor.
A TRULY SPECIAL SENIOR CLASS: With 81 wins in their career, the UNC Asheville senior class of Alec Wnuk, Kevin Vannatta, Raekwon Miller and Ahmad Thomas have the most wins over a four-year stretch in program history. The Bulldog senior class has three championships with the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Big South regular-season titles and the 2016 Big South Tournament title. The Bulldogs also played in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
RECORD THIRD-STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASON: UNC Asheville men's basketball for the first time in program history has now won 20 or more games for three straight seasons. UNC Asheville won 22 games in the 2015-16 season, 23 in 2016-17 and entering the NIT have won 21 games this season.
1,000-POINT SCORER: The 2016-17 Big South Conference Freshman of the Year last year, MaCio Teague's 23 points in the home win over Winthrop on Feb. 22 allowed him to surpass 1,000 points in just his sophomore season. Teague ended his first year as a Bulldog with 509 and he now has 543 points this season to have 1,052 points in his career. Teague at the time became just the fourth in Big South history to surpass 1,000 points as a sophomore. Charleston Southern's Christian Keeling joined him and became the fifth on Feb. 24.
VANNATTA NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: For the second consecutive season, Kevin Vannatta of UNC Asheville men's basketball has been chosen to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District® Men's Basketball All-District 3 Team. "We are very proud of what Kevin has been able to accomplish, both on and off the court, during his time here at UNC Asheville," UNC Asheville men's basketball head coach Nick McDevitt said. "He puts a tremendous amount of effort into everything he does in his school work, athletics, community service and other civic activities. Kevin exemplifies the true meaning of the term student-athlete and he is an outstanding ambassador for our University and our basketball program."
THOMAS NAMED BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK (2/19): Ahmad Thomas of UNC Asheville men's basketball was selected as the Big South Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. The weekly award is the first of the 2017-18 season for Thomas. He won league Player of the Week honors three times last season on Dec. 12, 2016, and Feb. 13 and Feb. 26, 2017. Thomas finished UNC Asheville's twogames on the week averaging 26.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steal per game. Thomas shot 50 percent (17-of-34) from the field. He connected on 66.7 percent (4-of-6) of his shots from beyond the arc. Thomas finished UNC Asheville's overtime loss to Liberty on Feb. 15 with 30 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. In UNC Asheville's road overtime win at Charleston Southern on Feb. 18, Thomas ended his efforts with 23 points, seven rebounds, four assists and one block.
20 FOR 20: For the fifth time this season, UNC Asheville impressively had two players finish a game with over 20 points with MaCio Teague ending his efforts with 23 points and Ahmad Thomas posting 21 in the win over Winthrop. One game earlier, Teague collected 24 points and Thomas finished with 23 in the road win at Charleston Southern. It has now happened four times in league play with Thomas (23) and Teague (21) both having over 20 in the home win over High Point and Kevin Vannatta (23) and Thomas (23) both ending their efforts with over 20 in the road win at Liberty. Thomas (24) and Teague (22) both also had over 20 points in UNC Asheville's home win over USC Upstate earlier this season.
BAEHRE'S BLOCK PARTY: For the fifth time this season, UNC Asheville's Jonathan Baehre finished a Bulldog win with four or more blocks in the Feb. 22 victory over Winthrop. Baehre swatted five Winthrop shots to go along with his second double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
UNC ASHEVILLE FEATURED BY ESPN, NCAA: The thrilling UNC Asheville men's basketball come-from-behind win over Radford on Saturday, Feb. 10, was heavily featured by ESPN and the NCAA late Saturday and on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 11. MaCio Teague's heroics were featured on ESPN's "SportsCenter" and "College Basketball Live" as well as on ESPN.com. On "College Basketball Live," the tremendous radio broadcast call by play-by-play voice Brian Hall and analyst in UNC Asheville Hall of Famer Mike Gore coupled with the Big South Network feed directed and produced by Mark Godin was dubbed as the "Call of the Night." In addition, the NCAA March Madness Twitter handle, @marchmadness, also featured the final sequence of UNC Asheville's thrilling win, noting "give a listen to the @UNCAbasketball win heard round the world!"
Series/About Southern Cal
SERIES/AGAINST PAC-12: The matchup will mark the first all-time meeting between the two programs. UNC Asheville is 2-1 all-time against Pac-12 teams with wins over Cal in 1988 and Utah in 2011.
ABOUT SOUTHERN CAL: The Trojans reached the championship game this past weekend at the 2018 Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., falling to No. 15 Arizona, 75-61. The Trojans finished second in the Pac-12 during the regular season as well.
Follow it Live
The NIT first round game at Southern Cal will be televised nationally on ESPN2. You can catch all of the action HERE.
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