Men’s Hoops: Aztecs face UAB in NCAA first round

The San Diego State University men's basketball team is the fifth seed in the East Region and will face the 12-seed University of Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA announced Sunday afternoon.

The Aztecs will meet the Blazers, who won the American Athletic Conference Tournament title on Friday, March 22, Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash. Game time and broadcast channel will be confirmed later this evening.
 
This is SDSU's 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance, 16th at the Division I level, 11th in the last 15 years, and fifth in the seven seasons since head coach Brian Dutcher took over the reins of the program (the Aztecs were 30-2 in 2019-20 but the NCAA Tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic).
 
The Aztecs are the 5-seed for the second time in program history after reaching the National Championship game last year on that seed line and will play in the East Region for the first time in program history.

“The other thing I noticed about the bracket is three of the teams from last year's Final Four are all in there — UConn, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State — all in the same bracket. So that's a little ironic but it's fun to look at,” Dutcher told reporters during a Selection Sunday watch party.
 
UAB (23-11) earned the American Athletic Conference's automatic bid for the NCAA tournament by beating Temple, 85-69, on Sunday. The Blazers have won their last five games on the way to the conference tournament title.

"I watched them one time this year just on an evening where I turned games on and just was amazed at how athletic they were how well coached they were, and so it'll be a real challenge for us to play a very good UAB team," said Dutcher.
 
The winner of No. 5 San Diego State and No. 12 UAB will square off in the second round against the winner of No. 4 Auburn (27-7) and No. 13 Yale (22-9) on Sunday, March 24.
 
The Aztecs and Blazers have met once before with UAB winning, 91-46, on Dec. 23, 1989 in the championship game of the UAB Classic.