MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s stage is set.

The Mountaineers will open their 2023 NCAA Tournament run as the 9-seed in the South Region, taking on No. 8 Maryland at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday. This will be WVU’s third all-time meeting with the Terps in the Big Dance, most recently facing Maryland in the 2015 Second Round.

Alabama, the champion of the SEC, took the No. 1 overall seed and squares off against the winner between Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Southeast Missouri State.

WVU (19-14, 7-11 Big 12) finished the season strong, winning three of its last four games in the regular season. It won the Big 12 Tournament opener decisively over Texas Tech, but fell to Kansas.

The Mountaineers return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. That year, they earned a 3-seed and won its first game against Morehead State before falling to Syracuse in the Round of 32.

Maryland (21-12, 11-9 Big Ten) finished fifth in its conference after an up-and-down regular season. The Terrapins picked up resume-boosting wins over Purdue and Indiana at various points in their campaign, but eventually fell to the Hoosiers in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal.

The Mountaineers and the Terrapins tip off at 12:15 p.m. ET on CBS.