So the deal is where. And against whom.

Winthrop guard Greg Lewis was Big South Tournament MVP.(AP)

Since deep in the back of your mind, you realize the reality that, once again, your NCAA tournament experience isn't going to last long, this means a great deal. It's one thing to watch the brackets in hopes of getting a good draw and an easy road to advance down. It is another when that first game is also going to be your last.

Do you want to play the best team? Do you want to go to the play-in game, where you have a chance to win? Do you want to get to someplace different, such as Albuquerque?

"That's all we talked about all week," said Pierre Wooten, a 6-3 junior guard for Winthrop.

Wooten was pleased Sunday. The 16th-seeded Eagles (19-11) play top seed Duke in the South Region.

That might seem like a daunting, frightening task, especially when you're the player who will likely draw national player of the year Jason Williams as your defensive assignment, but the way Wooten sees it, what the heck?

"I (wanted) to play Duke," he said. "When you play Duke, you get to see where you are at."

This is Wooten's fourth trip to the tourney, although one of those seasons, he was a medical redshirt. Still, technically, he has been to more NCAA Tournaments than say, Bill Walton, who was merely a three-time NCAA player of the year.

"I never thought of it that way," said Wooten, who next year will go for NCAA appearance No. 5.

What he and his teammates thought about last week was whom they were going to play. Although coach Gregg Marshall said he wanted to get into the NCAA play-in game like last year, none of the players shared that sentiment. Marshall likes the additional exposure the game gave the program, which otherwise might get lost as just another No. 16 seed.

The players hated it.

"It doesn't even feel like you are in the tournament," said Wooten of the Tuesday night game in Dayton.

Instead Wooten dreamed of the Blue Devils. Most of his teammates liked the opponent but knew that it meant a trip to Greenville, S.C., which is just 122 miles from the school's Rock Hill, S.C., campus.

"That's the only thing with playing Duke," said Wooten, who averaged 9.3 points and 3.7 assists a game. "We could go up to Greenville tonight."

But that's where they are headed. Which is just as well. Wooten has been watching Williams on television for three seasons and always thought about how he might fare against the Blue Devils great.

"He's wanted to be able to guard Jason Williams for a long time," said Wooten's mother, Sandra. "That's what he's wanted, that's what he's talked about. He's excited about it."

So is Sandra, who just happens to be one of the most passionate college basketball fans in the country. While Winthrop doesn't have a lot of followers, it does have Sandra, who can certainly match the dedication and volume of any Duke fan.

Although the Wootens live in Cincinnati, she and husband Elton, who works for Delta Airlines, have missed only one Winthrop game, home or away, in four years.

"There was an ice storm in Atlanta, and we were grounded," she said. "I was upset."

This is a woman who actually pulled a hip muscle shouting at the refs during last week's Big South semifinal. ("The ref was terrible.") After receiving treatment from the Winthrop trainer, however, she was right back out there for the title game.

"She's like that all the time," laughed Pierre.

The funny thing about Winthrop is how its place in the world shifts so dramatically. In the small-pond world of the Big South, the Eagles are the biggest of fish, the most despised bully on the block. Earlier in the season when they lost at Elon, the Elon student body actually stormed the court in celebration.

"It's not a good feeling," said Wooten. "We took that to heart. The thing that happens is teams beat us, then they won't win again for five games because they were so hyped up."

That was last week, though. Now, especially with a 16 seed next to its name (the Scarlet Letter of Bracketville), Winthrop is the team every tournament picker will shun.

"That's OK," he said. "We know no one thinks we can beat them, but we are not going to back down from the big dogs."

He knows that despite the long odds, it's he and his teammates who will be experiencing the tournament. Again. It will be him lining up against Jason Williams on Thursday. It will be Sandra and Elton in the stands of the Bi-Lo Center hollering at those refs (Duke does get all the calls!). It will be a lot of other guys watching from home.

"Three years ago when we walked in for our practice session, there were 10,000 people there just to watch practice," he said. "That was more than came to any of our games all year, and it was just to watch practice. I was a freshman and I said to myself, 'This is what I want to do.'"

Again and again and again and again.