Hampton’s Mike Tuitt (11) leads the team to the floor before practice for an NCAA West regional tournament college basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, March 17, 2011. Hampton plays Duke on Friday. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone)
Duke enters as a 23-point favorite over Hampton (24-8), which won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament in Winston-Salem five days ago and is in the round of 64 for the first time since 2002.
“It’s a good chance to measure where you are as a program,” Hampton coach Edward Joyner Jr. said.
Then again, the Pirates have pulled off a stunner before.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, they knocked off then-No. 2 seed Iowa State as a No. 15 to match the biggest upset according to seeding in the history of the NCAA tournament. At the time, Joyner was on the staff at Johnson C. Smith University, the Division II school in Charlotte where he was a player.
“Ten years later, I got the opportunity to possibly, you know, make history again,” Joyner said. “No disrespect to Iowa State, they ain’t Duke. We’re going to go out there and try.”
