Zion headlines Columbia’s NCAA Tournament draw. But he’s not only storyline in town

The last time the NCAA Tournament came to Columbia, the University of South Carolina played in the Atlantic Coast Conference. As March Madness returns to the state’s capital, the Gamecocks are nowhere to be found in the field but the ACC aura has returned.

Duke, the league’s tournament champion and home to Palmetto State native Zion Williamson, is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region. Virginia, the league’s regular season champion, is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA South Region.

Both will play in the Columbia Regional, which starts Friday in Colonial Life Arena. It will be the first time Columbia has hosted an NCAA Tournament game since 1970.

“Coming up and playing at the University of South Carolina, I have heard so much about the ACC days, Duke in particular and now to have those two teams come back to Columbia to be a part of the biggest basketball weekend in the year, that’s a wonderful thing to enjoy,” said Carey Rich, a two-time captain for the Gamecocks in the 1990s.

Duke will play at 7:10 p.m. Friday against the winner of Tuesday night’s First Four game between No. 16 seeds North Carolina-Central and North Dakota State. Virginia will play No. 16 seed Gardner-Webb at approximately 3:45 p.m.

No. 8 seed Ole Miss will face No. 9 seed Oklahoma at 12:40 p.m. on Friday in Columbia’s first game. No. 8 seed VCU will face No. 9 seed UCF in the nightcap, tipping off after the Duke game.

Two games will follow on Sunday at Colonial Life Arena, with the winners advancing to the Sweet 16 round.

All eight teams who are playing in Columbia will hold practices at Colonial Life Arena on Thursday that are open to the public with no admission charge. Times for the practices have not been announced.

“Very excited,” said Scott Powers, the executive director of Experience Columbia SC Sports, which has organized the community preparation for the tournament. “I don’t think it could have gone much better. I think everybody figured we would get two of Duke, North Carolina and Virginia.”

Williamson’s return to South Carolina will be the highlight of the weekend. The 6-foot-7, 285-pound Spartanburg Day School product was the country’s No. 2 rated high school player last year when he picked the Blue Devils over South Carolina, Clemson and a host of others. He returns as the ACC Player of the Year and the presumptive No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft later this year.

“He’s become synonymous with sports, not just college basketball. He’s on a one-name basis right now: Zion. And everybody knows who you’re talking about,” Rich said. “To have all that generate in the state of South Carolina, I think it’s only fitting that he comes back to Columbia and allows the South Carolina natives to be able to see him.”

Williamson is not the only storyline coming to Columbia.

Big South champion Gardner-Webb, a 5,000-student Baptist university in Boiling Springs, N.C., is making its first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and will be trying to become just the second No. 16 in history to knock off a No. 1 seed. The only other team to do it was Maryland-Baltimore County, which did it last year against the same Virginia team the Runnin’ Bulldogs will be playing Friday. Gardner-Webb was 2-1 this season against ACC teams.

Ole Miss will bring Devontae Shuler, a starting guard who attended Irmo High School before graduating from Oak Hill Academy and signing with the Rebels. The South Carolina native averages more than nine points and four rebounds a game.

Central Florida features 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall, a Senegal native who is on pace to break the NCAA’s career record for shooting percentage. The senior had shot 74 percent from the field in 110 career games entering the conference tournament.

Powers was delighted to have Williamson, plus plenty of other schools with “big alumni bases,” he said.

“I expect a lot of people to come to Columbia and have a great time,” he said. “Today has been kind of a strange day. It’s been nervous, it’s been exciting. For the last year we have prepared so much for the things we could control and then gone to something that was completely out of your control.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 9:03 PM.