JOHNSON CITY - The waiting is finally over and the ETSU men's basketball team has its assignment.

During Sunday evening's live CBS Selection Show, the Buccaneers and the rest of the nation learned that ETSU has received a No. 16 seed in this week's NCAA Tournament and will face off with top-seeded Pittsburgh on Friday in Dayton, Ohio.

Over 1,000 ETSU fans gathered inside the Millennium Center to learn of Bucs' matchup for the tournament, and CBS actually aired the players, coaches and fans' reaction on its national telecast.

The Bucs (23-10) enter the tournament as champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference, while the Panthers (28-4) enter as an at-large team from the Big East. This will be the first meeting between the two schools.

"I really felt we would be a 14, maybe slip to a 15, so I was very surprised when we were a 16 seed," ETSU coach Murry Bartow said.

Bartow said he thought the Buccaneers might have earned a better seeding after beating Belmont, the team that has represented the Atlantic Sun Conference in the past three NCAA tournaments and came within one point of upsetting Duke in the first round last year.

ETSU (23-10) will face the East Region's top seed, Pittsburgh, in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday. It's the Bucs' eighth trip to the tournament, where they are 2-8.

"We knew that first-round game was going to be against probably a Top 10 team no matter what our seed was, so we knew it was going to be a good team, the best team we'd played all year and knew we'd have to play a heck of a good game," Bartow said.

The Bucs are in the same bracket with the Tennessee/Oklahoma State game and the two teams will play back-to-back on Friday in Dayton. The Vols play at 12:25 p.m. and the Bucs will follow.

For more on the Bucs as they prepare for the NCAAs, visit ETSUBucs.com.