#3 seed Texas Tech is set to play #14 seed UNC Wilmington in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night in Wichita, Kansas.

The Seahawks, who made the Tournament by winning the Coastal Athletic Association tournament, enter the game with a 27-7 record including 14-4 in conference play.

UNC Wilmington has played in the NCAA Tournament several times before, with an overall record of 1-6. The Seahawks' only NCAA Tournament win in program history was a 93-89 overtime defeat of USC in 2002.

To learn more about UNC Wilmington we caught up with Brant Wilkerson-New of The Seahawk Perch for the latest on all things Seahawks.

Check out The Seahawk Perch on Twitter at @TheSeahawkPerch.

"A lot of people heard about UNCW last season after we pulled the upset over Kentucky in Rupp Arena, and for the majority of the season, things appeared to be on course to make a run at the CAA title. Then, things came completely unraveled in the final three weeks of the season due to some internal issues, ultimately resulting in a one-and-done conference tournament.

That ending served as a bit of a reset for the program, with multiple departures and nine newcomers. More importantly, though, Coach Siddle and the staff made a big-picture evaluation of their culture and the characteristics of guys they wanted to recruit. If you look back to the offseason, you'll see them wearing shirts that say CULTURE across the front, and that's been the dominant theme of the past 12 months. Four returners have served as the foundation for the culture they want to build in Donovan Newby, Khamari McGriff, Noah Ross, and Nolan Hodge, who have really embodied the commitment to team and taking on whatever role is asked of them that night. A number of Seahawks could have gone elsewhere at the mid-major level and been "the guy," taking 20 shots a night, but they've bought into a deep rotation that might see their minutes get drastically cut for different matchups.

Through every little bit of adversity we've run into this season, they've leaned on that culture with guys like Newby and Ross speaking up to hold themselves accountable, and powering through to the next hurdle.

This team is exceptionally connected and these guys absolutely love playing together."

"As President Emeritus of the Donovan Newby Fan Club, you've come to the right place! He's kind of a throwback player whose size, athleticism, speed, etc. won't jump out on film, but after a while, you'll realize this dude is just a basketball player. His game is built on his ability as an elite shooter, where he's happy to work off screens or just fire it up off the dribble. At various points, you'll see him operate as the point guard, and others, he'll work off the ball with Greedy Williams running the show.

Newby is really savvy as a ballhandler, using his body and changing pace to get past defenders into the lane to create an opportunity to get to his floater in the lane, pulling up for an elbow jumper, or hitting McGriff or Harlan Obioha on a cut. At some point on Thursday, TTU fans will be screaming at Newby because he's drawn what looks like a ridiculous call. That body control and savvy that he uses to beat defenders? He also uses it to create contact (or the illusion of it, maybe) and has a special knack for persuading officials. Since his arrival three years ago, he's been close with Siddle and exists as his extension on the floor. He'll be the voice his teammates are hearing in timeouts, the guy hitting the floor for every loose ball, and hopefully, the guy going nuts to encourage the fans in a close game. Throughout the CAA Tournament, there were a couple of big spots where the opposing teams were chirping at him. Each time, he ripped their heart out and didn't mind giving it back to him. Absolutely an all-time UNCW fan-favorite.

As for defending him, it'll take physicality, crowding him off screens, and a bit of veteran experience. Luckily for us, Newby doesn't usually toss up a bunch of bad shots if he's not getting great looks. Instead, he uses the gravity he can pull with his shooting into a positive and creates more looks for his teammates."

"We're fortunate to be much more well-rounded than recent years thanks to landing a 7-footer in the transfer portal, because our matchups vs. high-majors used to be figuring out how to win while being outrebounded by 25. (There aren't a lot of good options.)

The expectation early in the season was that we would be able to apply a lot more fullcourt pressure, but the transition defense struggled so badly that we had to back way off that. Thankfully, it improved mightily throughout the season, but we're still not going to run a trap for 30+ minutes.

One running theme in our losses is having opponents go absolutely insane from 3-point range, which has been strange, because we often switch 1-5 and occasionally 1-4. Switches weren't exactly the issue in those games, though, as it was just a matter of drifting in to help off a shooter, allowing just a little too much room on the catch, or failing to close out strong. That was the story in our most recent loss, at Hampton, but since then, our energy hasn't been lacking on the defensive end."

"Toughest team wins" is a philosophy we've lived by this season, but it doesn't mean slowing the game down to an unbearably boring pace, a la Virginia. I think TTU fans will appreciate the grit and emotion we'll have out there.

- Harlan Obioha, the 7-footer from Kansas, really sets the tone for us with his emotion. If he gets going early for us, it could be a game-changer.

- Khamari McGriff picked up basketball later in life than most, and seems to get better every month. Really skilled offensive player with some ability to handle the ball.

- Sean Moore should have been CAA Defensive Player of the Year, and he'll guard a couple of different guys as the game dictates.

- Bo Montgomery is capable of being the best player on any floor when he plays with confidence. A fantastic two-way guy that finds a way to impact the game.

- Noah Ross would probably cut off a toe to win. You'll see his body go flying through the lane a few times, offensively and defensively.

- Nolan Hodge is a long, versatile defender who has been finding his offensive game in the past month.

- Greedy Williams, as one CAA assistant coach said, "Is just crazy enough to go make a play and not care." Solid on-ball defender, floor general, and recently looking for his shot a little more.

- Siddle inherited a mess and quickly turned it around for us. If you watch him on the sideline, you'll see exactly why in his passion and competitiveness. We're hoping to hang onto him for another year, but he's earned every opportunity that comes up.

For a fairly small mid-major program located in the heart of ACC country, we've got a solid, committed group of fans. It really took off in the early 2000s, with Coaches Jerry Wainwright and Brad Brownell and came back to life under Kevin Keatts and Siddle. You might have heard of Brett Blizzard, John Goldsberry, Devontae Cacok or Trazarien White. In our past three NCAA trips, we've had double-digit leads in two (George Washington, 2006 + Virginia, 2017) and put a scare into Duke (2016) before they played us 8-on-5 in the second half."

"I remember that game vividly, as it's the best pure victory of the Siddle era. Absolute brawl of a game; incredibly physical in the paint with possessions that required maximum effort for all 30 seconds. We lost the rebounding battle 41-25 and didn't have a great defensive game, yet somehow managed to find a way thanks to forcing 17 turnovers. Just a great win for a team that was still building its identity at that point, and I think they learned what was possible if they're 100 percent locked in for 40 minutes, focused on execution, and then have some heart in crunch time. Winning at Kentucky was great last year, but that UNT team was as well-coached as any team we've seen over the past few years.

As far as advantage, I don't think there's a big one, but it doesn't hurt that our staff is familiar with McCasland's system and a few of our players have seen up-close just how intense and physical that game -- in a ballroom in November -- was. Now, just multiply that times 10 for the NCAA Tournament."

"Joshua Corbin was the only guy battling injury, but he won't be returning this season. At one point, he was a starter, but suffered the injury back in January and only made two brief cameos down the stretch. After that, he decided he wouldn't be healthy enough to help the team this season and shut it down."

"It'll take a lot going right for the Seahawks to get the win, but there is a path. Of all the No. 3 seeds out there, this is probably the only matchup where we can't out-tough the opponent as we've done with our bigger wins over the past few seasons. So, with the toughness thing off the board, we're going to need a little shooting luck to swing our way, which means the Red Raiders missing a few open looks and us hitting a few contested attempts. Then, we're going to need to get a few bounces to go our way on the boards. This season, our recipe for success has been getting 4+ players in double-figure scoring. I'd say for this one, we'll need five OR maybe a 25-point effort from someone in that group.

Texas Tech has a few routes to victory, obviously, but the easy one is spreading it out with a barrage of threes and creating a ton of space for JT Toppin to go to work inside. Interestingly, we've faced a similar thing in recent season with our rival, Charleston, who surrounds a fantastic big man (Ante Brzovic) with dangerous shooters. We've generally chosen to try to play straight-up defense in that situation or limited double-teaming, rather than just throwing the kitchen sink at him on the catch. Toppin is obviously an even higher-level kind of dude, so we'll see which poison the UNCW coaches choose."

"I'm a big fan of Grant McCasland since his days at North Texas! Toughness and defense rarely have off days, and it won't be long before the Red Raiders are back in the Final Four.

My head says: Texas Tech 84, UNCW 72

My heart says: UNCW 79, Texas Tech 78"

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