STARKVILLE — Both Mississippi State University and the University of North Carolina will be bringing a majority of brand new faces to the Aloha state for the 2012 Maui Invitational.
For the two schools representing a first round matchup in the annual men’s college basketball holiday tournament, the comparisons end there. Maui Invitational in conjunction with ESPN announced MSU learned on Thursday afternoon it would meet national powerhouse program UNC in the opening round on Nov. 19.
Tip at the Lahaina Civic Center, hosted by Division II program Chaminade University is slated for 5 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2. The following day, MSU will battle Butler University or Marquette University at 1:30 or 7 p.m., also on ESPN2.
North Carolina, who had five first round picks in the 2012 National Basketball Association, will still have talented returnees (Dexter Strickland, Leslie McDonald, Reggie Bullock) that simply didn’t get a lot of playing time last season when the Tar Heels went 32-6 advancing to the regional final of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
MSU will only return one of the their top seven scorers from last season and are in complete rebuilding mode.
“This is a great opportunity for our guys to play against a storied college basketball program,” first-year MSU coach Rick Ray said. “Obviously, having spent three years as an assistant at Clemson, I became quite familiar with North Carolina. Coach (Roy) Williams always has a talented group that is always well prepared. I know our players are excited about this challenge.”
The two schools have met just five times, with UNC winning on every occasion and not one member of the last meeting between the two came in the second round of the 2010 NIT at Humphrey Coliseum, with North Carolina rallying from down 12 points to claim a 76-74 win on a layup with three seconds to play. The only two members of both rosters that participated in that contest is UNC point guard Dexter Strickland and MSU forward Wendell Lewis.
In the bottom half of the bracket includes the University of Southern Cal, University of Illinois, University of Texas and Chaminade.
Southeastern Conference fans should be incredibly familiar with the best player on Butler’s 2012-13 roster in University of Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke. Clarke averaged 15.2 points and made 43.8 percent of his shot from beyond the three-point arc during his junior season with the Razorbacks before leaving after John Pelphrey was fired and Arkansas hired Mike Anderson.
Clarke is expected to help Butler’s outside shooting immediately after the Bulldogs missed the NCAA Tournament following back-to-back national championship appearances due to mostly because they connected on fewer than 30 percent of its three-point shots last season.
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