Play-in preview: SDSU faces UNC as part of Tuesday "First Four" round

Driving the news: SDSU faces UNC at 6:10pm tonight in Dayton, Ohio. It will be televised on truTV.

• The winner will become the 11 seed in the south bracket and face 6-seed Ole Miss at 1:05pm Thursday.
• UNC is favored by 4.5 points.

Between the lines: SDSU landed in the play-in game after going 3-3 to close the season, including a 10-point loss to Boise State in their only Mountain West tournament game.

Yes, but: Freshman forward Magoon Gwath, the Mountain West defensive player of the year and a 7-footer who has generated some NBA Draft attention, is set to return after missing the last five games.

The other side: UNC's bid has been heavily criticized after they went 1-10 against tournament teams this season, but statistical models believe the blue blood program has underachieved.

• UNC is the 36th best team in the country, by its NET rating, which figures heavily in tournament selection, and they come in at 33rd by the high-profile KenPom system.
• SDSU, by comparison, finished 52nd in NET and 46th in KenPom.

• KenPom ranks teams by how efficient they are on both offense and defense, adjusted for their strength of schedule and the location of each game. NET similarly ranks teams by how successful they are per possession on both offense and defense, relative to their opponents.

State of play: The Aztecs are again among the best defenses in the country, allowing an average of 63 points per game, 14th best in the country. They aren't built to outscore teams, with a points-per-game output that's 258th in the nation.

• UNC, meanwhile, scores 80 points per game, 32nd best nationwide, and their 8-2 close to the season came as the offense shot 42% from three for the final month of the year.