AUGUSTA, Ga. — The University of North Carolina at Pembroke men’s basketball team may be the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament Southeast Regional, beginning Saturday in Augusta, Georgia, and their first-round opponent may be the No. 7 seed.

But don’t let that fool you, Braves coach Drew Richards says, in a deep regional field — all eight of these teams are just as good as the other seven.

The Braves and North Georgia will face off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Christenberry Fieldhouse.

“They’re as good of a team as we’re going to see in the rest of the region, with anybody else and any other seed,” Richards said. “Once you get to this point, seeds don’t really matter; it’s more about who’s locked in, who has the intestinal drive to continue to push to wants to continue to play, and it could be any one of those teams in the regional.”

UNCP (26-3) and North Georgia (20-7) both earned at-large selections into the field; the Nighthawks will make their first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, while the Braves will make their ninth, including six straight in seasons the team completed.

The programs met 24 times as Peach Belt Conference foes from 2005-20, most recently in the 2020 Peach Belt Tournament; UNCP leads the series 14-10 and has won 10 of the last 11. They have not faced each other since UNCP joined Conference Carolinas in 2021.

North Georgia is led by standout Frank Champion, the Peach Belt Player of the Year averaging 20.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game this season.

“We’ve called him around here ‘Baby Giannis,’” Richards said, referencing two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. “His ability to push the break at 6-(foot)-7, 230 (pounds) and facilitate, he’s as good a player as we’ve faced, not just this year but the past couple of years.”

Guard A.J. White was named Peach Belt Freshman of the Year after averaging 14.3 points this season; Giancarlo Bastianoni is key in the post for the Nighthawks with 11.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.

“They’re extremely talented with (Champion and White), and the big fellow inside Giancarlo, and then have a lot of really good pieces around them that makes them really good. … It’ll be quite the tall task,” Richards said.

North Georgia scores 77.0 points per game, while allowing 70.5; the Nighthawks shoot 50.3% from the field, 10th best nationally in Division II.

“They’re really good offensively … and they’re really good in transition defense,” Richards said. “They don’t beat themselves; they’re a very well-coached team.”

UNCP enters Saturday’s game having played just once since Feb. 22, a semifinal loss in the Conference Carolinas Tournament last Saturday; Richards says he’s tried to keep his team focused on the task at hand during the hand during two long layoffs.

“You try to get better in practice, that’s the big thing,” Richards said. “It’s crazy in that amount of time this late in the season not to have many contests. But trying to keep the guys locked in mentally and focused on the game plan.”

The UNCP-North Georgia winner will advance to face the winner of No. 3 Lincoln Memorial and No. 6 Lander in the second round Sunday; the Railsplitters and Bearcats open the Southeast Regional at noon Saturday. Other first-round games in the Southeast Regional include No. 1 Augusta against No. 8 Emmanuel at 5 p.m. Saturday and No. 4 USC Aiken against No. 5 Catawba at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s a tough region this year, and if we’re lucky enough to get past that first round we’ll have more opportunity to see what other great team is up next,” Richards said.