Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Art Parakhouski (center) is grabbed from behind by Radford University basketball teammate Joey Lynch-Flohr after it was announced on television that the Highlanders will face top-ranked North Carolina in the NCAA tournament first round.

Radford University guard Amir Johnson, does some celebrating after it was announced that the Highlanders will play ACC regular-season champion and East Region top seed North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday afternoon.

Radford University cheerleaders and dance squad members celebrate on Sunday when it was announced that the Highlanders' men's basketball team will play No. 1 North Carolina in the NCAA tournament.

RADFORD -- A Radford University reaction sampler to news that the Highlanders basketball team would engage No. 1 North Carolina when the NCAA basketball tournament convenes in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday.

"I've thought about playing for them." said Greensboro native Eric Hall, a senior forward. "They're my favorite team still. It's time to go to war now, though."

"I like where we go right now to play North Carolina," said big Art Parakhouski, home address Minsk, Belarus prior to two years of junior college at Southern Idaho. "I was hoping for a 15 seed and we go to Boise, Idaho, though. I have friends there. They say, 'Come to Boise. We come cheer for your team.'"

Added Pittsburgh native Amir Johnson: "It's cool playing Carolina. I would have liked Pitt, too. It's all good."

And then there's the opinion of Highlanders coach Brad Greenberg, whose brother, Seth's team, Virginia Tech had just lost to the Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament earlier this week:

"I think it's cruel and unusual punishment to make a Greenberg play Carolina [three] times in one year," he said.

A substantial crowd of well-wishers joined Radford's team for the televised pairings announcement Sunday evening at Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center on campus.

The East Region, where Radford has been dispatched, was one of the last ones announced. Excitement built as the other regional pairings were revealed and briefly analyzed. When "Radford" appeared on the bracket line under Carolina, cheering cascaded through the room.

It was the first time since 1997, the year of Radford's only other NCAA appearance, that such a party had been thrown in the city. On that occasion, Ron Bradley's Highlanders were shipped to Lexington, Ky., to play Duke.

While addressing the crowd before this year's announcement, Greenberg, in his second year at Radford, produced a cap with a tournament logo from that bygone season and showed it to the multitude.

Later, he delivered an initial scouting report on the upcoming opponent for the Big South Conference champs "They're great, but we have three players who match up with their tall players," Greenberg said. "That's a good start."

Hall, one of the team's three seniors, offered his analysis.

"I think Wayne Ellington will pose a problem for us, but other than that, if we play good, sound, help defense, then we ought to be all right."

There was no false bravado coming from the low post player, either.

"It will be real tough matchup for Radford," Parakhouski said. "[They're] basically the best team in the nation right now.

Parakhouski and Johnson have become minor celebrities around here. Both were featured in photo and front sports page stories in USA Today the past two weeks.

Word has gotten back to Belarus about how favorite son Artsiom has made it big in basketball.

"They are proud of me, you know?" he said. "A lot of newspapers in my country wrote about me in United States playing basketball. It's a pretty cool feeling, really. Right now, it's unbelievable feeling to go to NCAA tournament and play No. 1 team in the nation."

In one sense, the Highlanders have been down this road before.

"Our guys may think we're playing High Point," said Greenberg of a rare non-Big South Conference road trip down U.S. 220. "We'll have to tell them, no, we're not playing High Point."

There was more than one Highlander who grew up loving anything with a Tar Heel on it. That's irrelevant now, as far as lifelong UNC fan Radford's Chris McEachin is concerned.

"It's kind of cool, it's kind of funny to play Carolina," he said. "I'm not too impressed by it. This is business."

McEachin had already thought about the possibilities.

"They are probably a little bit more athletic than us at some positions, but we're athletic, too, and we match up pretty well. We just have to play tough and make no mistakes to come out with the 'W.'"

There are similarities in some of the personnel. Radford's Joey Lynch-Flohr, a muscular presence in the post, is always on low boil for game-time, some think like a certain consensus All-American for UNC. Somebody pointed out a while back that Lynch-Flohr might be known as a "the poor man's Tyler Hansbrough."

Greenberg buys that.

"We call him 'Psycho-J.' Joey loves a physical matchup."

The winner of the Carolina-Radford match draws the survivor of the clash between No. 8 LSU and No. 9 Butler. The second round runs Saturday.

Before the student center cleared Sunday, Greensboro-native Hall was already rustling up a rooting section for the local Coliseum.

"I just got about five texts," he said. "I'm going to call my old coach. I'm going to try to get everybody I can to come. I'm going back home for the tournament. It's a good way to end my career. I'm excited."