Will play No. 3 seed N.C. State today

ORLANDO, FLA. -- They're a big part of the lore of the NCAA Tournament -- the double-digit seed from the obscure school that pulls off the big upset in the opening round.

It happens every year, and, in fact, did Thursday when 12th-seeded Manhattan knocked off No. 5 seed Florida.

Louisiana will try to join that select company today when the 14th-seeded Ragin' Cajuns meet No. 3 seed North Carolina State at the T.D. Waterhouse Centre.

"Why not us?" asked ULL sophomore guard Dwayne Mitchell, who prepped at Kennedy. "We've been playing with an underdog mentality all season. This is just another chance to come out and prove ourselves."

It won't be easy.

North Carolina State (20-9) has one of the country's top players in All-America forward Julius Hodge and finished second in the ACC, the nation's best conference this season.

"I thought they should have been a 2 seed instead of a 3," said ULL coach Jesse Evans, whose Sun Belt Conference champions are 20-8. "They're certainly one of the premier teams in the country and I voted Julius Hodge a first-team All-America. We've got our work cut out for us."

Plus, the Wolfpack is playing with a sense of urgency after early-round exits the past two years and the prospect of Hodge, a junior, declaring for the draft.

"We want to move this program as far along as we can," Wolfpack senior forward Marcus Melvin said. "That way all of the recruits for next year will have something to build on. But when you're a senior, you realize this is it. If you can't win it all you want to go as far as you can."

The Wolfpack also is well aware of the potential for upsets, especially when playing what the late N.C. State coach Jim Valvano liked to call "those directional and hyphenated schools."

The Cajuns' got rid of the directional aspect in 1999 when the school changed its name from Southwestern Louisiana, but still, to those in the Tar Heel State, the best-known ULL athlete is Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme.

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Times Picayune
Ted Lewis

tlewis@timespicayune.com
504-826-3405.