NEWS RELEASE – North Carolina (26-7) is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament East Regional and will open play on Friday in Charlotte against No. 15 seed Long Island University (27-5).

The winner of that contest will advance to face the winner of Friday’s game between No. 7 seed Washington and No. 10 seed Georgia on Sunday in Charlotte. The East also includes No. 1 seed Ohio State, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Kentucky.

Roy Williams on 2011 NCAA Tournament selection:
“I am ecstatic about the making the NCAA Tournament field once again. It was kind of hard to enjoy the Tournament last year as it was the only time in 23 years that one of our teams had been eligible to make the field and did not. Tonight our guys were very excited when they saw `North Carolina’ show up early on the selection show. Of course, it was a little reserved because of the fact we had just lost to Duke about three hours before the show came on, but we have to congratulate the Blue Devils for playing so well.

“After we were selected, I looked around and realized that there were only two players in the room that had ever played in an NCAA Tournament game (juniors Tyler Zeller and Justin Watts in 2009). It shows how the culture of college basketball has changed. Two years ago we were the national champions and now after missing just one season we will go into the Tournament with such a young and inexperienced team.

“But I am extremely proud of my team and I congratulate them on the great run they’ve had since mid-January. Not many people would have thought that when we left Atlanta after the loss to Georgia Tech that we would have won the ACC regular-season championship, played in the ACC Tournament final and earned a number two seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now we have to get back to work and play better than we did this weekend in Greensboro.”