Robert Barker/University Photography

The Cornell men's basketball team and the crowd react to Cornell's first-round matchup with Temple University in the NCAA tournament. From left: Geoff Reeves '10, Pete Reynolds '10, Ryan Wittman '10 and Alex Tyler '10.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Coach Steve Donahue introduces the players and addresses the crowd before the selection show begins.

Newman Nation's gone national. On March 14, CBS cameras captured the reaction of screaming fans in Newman Arena as the Cornell men's basketball team drew the Temple University Owls for first-round NCAA tournament play.

Cornell, seeded No. 12, will play the No. 5-seeded Atlantic 10 conference- and regular-season champions in the East Region bracket, on March 19 in Jacksonville, Fla.

About 2,000 spectators, the pep band, cheerleaders and, of course, the Big Red Bear, joined the Ivy League champions to tune in to the live CBS "NCAA Selection Show," in which 65 teams around the country learned their first-round matchups in the tournament.

Half of Newman was sectioned off so the show could be projected onto a large screen. Tension was palpable as the crowd sat through several brackets before Cornell came up -- and the fans went crazy.

"It's kind of up and down. You're sitting there waiting on the edge of your seat," said senior forward Alex Tyler '10 of the anticipation.

Fans wearing red and waving foam fingers took up an entire half of the gymnasium.

"I have two prelims this week that I probably should be studying for right now," said Tyler Twilley '10, an ILR major, who joined the student section for the show. "But this is a once in a college experience-type event."

Wanda Foote, mother of senior center Jeff Foote, was impressed by the turnout in Newman.

"It's just so nice to see all the students and everybody showing up. It's such an accomplishment for them," she said.

Coach Steve Donahue admitted his heart sank when he learned they'd play Temple: the Owls' coach, Fran Dunphy, was Donahue's mentor at the University of Pennsylvania, where Donahue served as an assistant coach for 10 years before coming to Cornell. Under any other circumstance, he'd want Dunphy to succeed, Donahue explained.

But, he said, "I'll get over that in an hour. [Dunphy] is the most competitive person I've ever met. He'll get over it, and he'll want to kick my butt -- and I'll want to do the same."

In last year's tournament, Cornell traveled to Boise, Idaho, to take on the University of Missouri Tigers, to whom they fell 78-59.

The year previous -- the team's first trip to the tournament since 1988 -- they lost in the first round to the Stanford Cardinal, 77-53, in Anaheim.

Cornell is one of 31 Division I basketball teams to secure an automatic bid to the tournament. Automatic bids are awarded to conference champions. The Ivy League is the lone conference that awards its automatic bid to the team that wins the regular-season championship.