For the first time in 16 years, the Minutemen are going dancing.

The University of Massachuetts basketball team, which was last seen in an 85-77 loss

to George Washington that ended its Atlantic 10 Championship run, was named to the field of 68 for the 2014 NCAA tournament Sunday night. The Minutemen will be a No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region and will face the winner of the No. 11 seed play-in game between Iowa and Tennessee on Friday.

UMass' seed is far more favorable than what many analysts had projected. Experts had speculated that UMass would fall somewhere between a No. 7 or No. 9 seed.

The announcement was made on CBS Sports' live Selection Sunday special. The Minutemen watched the announcement live at a team-organized event at the Amherst Brewing Company and were one of the teams showed reacting to their seeding on the selection special.

The cat was let out of the bag briefly during the broadcast when there was an apparent mixup between host Bryant Gumbel and the production team as UMass' No. 6 seed was shown while Gumbel was talking about Duke's seeding in the region. The official announcement came moments after the brief spoiler, confirming the No. 6 seed.

The Minutemen were one of the later teams who were announced, leaving some interesting scenarios on the table. Speculated possible matchups against former UMass coaches Travis Ford or John Calipari. Instead, the Minutemen are slated to face either the Volunteers or the Hawkeyes, with a possibility of facing the Blue Devils in the second round.

In a drastic change from recent history, UMass enters the tournament as a higher seed than Connecticut. The Huskies earned a No. 7 seed.

The Minutemen were one of six teams from the Atlantic 10 to earn a tournament berth, along with No. 5 VCU, No. 5 Saint Louis, No. 9 George Washington, No. 11 Dayton, and A-10 Tournament champion No. 10 Saint Josephs.

UMass' late-season woes led to some trepidation as to the team's chances of getting its ticket punched from some fans. However, the Minutemen have been a lock to make the tournament for a few weeks.

While the team has gone through a recent stretch of inconsistency that featured a home loss to last-place George Mason and a win over now-No. 5 seed VCU, UMass still had a strong tournament resume. The Minutemen finished the regular season 23-7 and boasted and RPI in the 16-18 range, depending on which outlet provided the rankings.