RALEIGH, N.C. — The NCAA men's basketball tournament starts Thursday with three out of North Carolina's four Atlantic Coast Conference schools in action.

At the RBC Center in Raleigh, Wake Forest Wake Forest won a close game against Virginia Commonwealth 79-78.

Duke plays Alabama State at 7:10 p.m. North Carolina meets Air Force in Denver at 9:40 p.m.

North Carolina State plays Friday in Orlando against Louisiana-Lafayette. Tip-off is scheduled for 12:15 p.m.

The last time the NCAA Tournament was held in Raleigh was at Reynolds Coliseum in 1982.

The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau and its bid partners have submitted a bid to be an NCAA Tournament site in 2007 or 2008. A decision will come this summer.

College basketball fans will be able to watch all 63 men's NCAA Basketball Tournament games on

WRAL-TV5 and WRAL-Digital

. The WRAL NewsChannel will carry post-game press conferences of ACC teams approximately one hour after games end.

The NCAA Tournament will preempt regularly-scheduled CBS programming. Soap operas will resume Monday where they left off Wednesday. Primetime programming will be rescheduled.