Tonight at 9:50 p.m. ET, No. 3 Iowa State (26-7, 11-7 Big 12) and No. 14 N.C. Central (28-5, 15-1 MEAC) take the court at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX as part of the NCAA March Madness tournament in the Eastern bracket. The game can be live streamed for free here or viewed on TNT. Iowa State fans can hear all of the action on 1430 KASI while N.C. Central supporters can do the same on WRAL 99.9.
Iowa State is coming off of winning the Big 12 tournament while North Carolina Central has made it to the tournament just three years after switching from Division II to Division I.
N.C. Central is excited to break into the bracket, but realizes it will be tall task to take out the third seed.
"We understand that this is big boy basketball," coach LeVelle Moton told ESPN. "We definitely have our hands full."
Guard Emanuel Chapman said that the fact that Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference teams have upset higher seeded teams in the past will be used as motivation.
"It's a lot easier to cope with us being on this level to know that [MEAC] teams have been successful before," Chapman said, according to ESPN.
Knowing that N.C. Central rattled off 20 straight wins, Iowa State will not be taking them lightly.
"When we go to prep for this team, it's like going to prep for a team like Kansas: a dominant team in their league," Cyclones sophomore forward Georges Niang said via ESPN. "We're not underestimating anyone in this tournament. We for sure have to respect them."
Leading scorer Melvin Ejim (18.1 points) said the team shouldn't have to worry about an emotional let-down after winning the Big 12 tournament.
"I think going in we have some momentum winning the tournament as well as experience from playing in a neutral site where it's win or go home," Ejim said per ESPN.
Jeremy Ingram (20.6) paces N.C. Central in scoring.
Two teams with title aspirations take the court tonight in Texas when N.C. Central and Iowa State go head-to-head as part of the 2014 NCAA March Madness tournament.
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