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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- After making plenty of noise as a low seed in the NCAA tournament each of the last two years, VCU is a No. 5 seed in the South Regional this time and opens Thursday against No. 12 seed Akron.
VCU (26-8) went from the First Four to the Final Four in 2011 and beat Wichita State as a No. 12 seed last year. The Rams earned an at-large bid this season after falling 62-56 to Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 tournament championship game.
Akron (26-6) beat Ohio 62-46 in the Mid-American Conference tournament championship game Saturday to earn an NCAA bid for the second time in three years. The MAC made an impact in last year's tournament; Ohio won the league's automatic bid and reached the round of 16.
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(University of Akron)The University of Akron men's basketball team, which defeated Ohio University 65-46 in Saturday's FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament championship game, received the No. 12 seed in the South Region and will face No. 5 seed VCU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Zips (26-6) and Rams (26-8) will face off on Thursday, March 21, at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Mich. Game times will be announced on Monday. The winner of Thursday's game will take on the winner of the No. 4 Michigan/No. 13 South Dakota State pairing on Saturday, March 23.
VCU head coach Shaka Smart was an assistant coach for the Zips from 2003-06, including two seasons under head coach Keith Dambrot. Akron is 0-6 all-time against the Rams, with Dambrot and Smart having faced off twice. VCU defeated UA 70-53 in Richmond on Feb. 20, 2010, as part of the ESPNU BracketBusters event, and the Rams caught the Zips 76-75 in overtime on Dec. 29, 2011, in Akron.
UA, appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in five seasons and fourth time in program history (1986, 2009, 2011), is the MAC regular-season champion for the second-straight year. As the top seed, the Zips earned a triple bye to the league tournament's semifinal round and defeated Kent State 62-59 on Friday before downing the Bobcats in last night's title matchup.
