MEN’S SOUTH REGIONAL

13 UC Irvine vs. 4 Kansas State Friday at San Jose TV: TBS. 11 a.m.

First Four opener: Fairleigh Dickinson faces Prairie View A&M.

Arizona State is in the First Four for the second consecutive season, but this time around, coach Bobby Hurley is bringing a much different team to Dayton, Ohio.

Last year’s team relied heavily on the three-point shot and didn’t have enough easy offense to get past Syracuse in the First Four, losing 60-56. The Sun Devils are bigger and more balanced, and will try to advance Wednesday night with a win over St. John’s, which was announced as the last atlarge team into the field.

Belmont is also among the First Four. It is one of seven mid-majors who received an at-large berth this year. The Bruins will face Temple on Tuesday night in a battle of 11 seeds in the East Region. It will be the eighth NCAA tournament appearance for Belmont (26-5), but its first as an at-large bid. It’s also the first at-large bid for an Ohio Valley Conference team in 32 years.

Belmont enters the game as the second-highest scoring team in Division I behind Gonzaga at 87.4 ppg. It shoots 49.9% from the field and averages nearly 20 assists per game.

Temple (23-9) is led by American Athletic Conference scoring leader Shizz Alston. Averaging 19.7 ppg, Alston also leads the AAC in free-throw percentage (90.7) and minutes per game (37.1) while ranking second in assists per game (5.0).

The winner flies to Jacksonville, Fla., for a Thursday date with No. 6 seed Maryland.

Fairleigh Dickinson (2013) faces Prairie View A&M (22-12) in the West Region play-in game — the First Four opener Tuesday night. Prairie View answered an 11game losing skid, with a 21-1 run capped by its first tournament title in 21 years when it beat Texas Southern 92-86 on Saturday.

The winner advances to face No. 1 seed Gonzaga (30-3) on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

North Carolina Central (18-15) is in Dayton for the third straight year, facing North Dakota State (18-15) on Wednesday night. The winner faces top overall seed Duke on Friday.

Local teams playing

Cal State Northridge (1320) opens postseason play on Tuesday at 6 p.m. as the Matadors visit Utah Valley (24-9) in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational. The tournament is single elimination for the first three rounds. The final is a best-out-of-three series. Loyola Marymount (20-11) plays on Tuesday at Cal Baptist (16-14) at 7 p.m . ... Cal State Bakersfield (16-15) plays at Cal State Fullerton (16-17) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the CollegeInsider.com tournament.