North Carolina forward Theo Pinson (1) celebrates during the NCAA Tournament East Regional championship net cutting ceremony at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA on Sunday, March 27, 2016. North Carolina beat Notre Dame 88-74 to advance to the Final Four. (Christine T. Nguyen/North State Journal)

Pinson earns a seat at the press conference

PHILADELPHIA — After giving North Carolina six points and a whole lot of hustle off the bench in the team’s 88-74 East Regional Final against Notre Dame, Theo Pinson finally earned a spot at the press conference — nametag and all.

Saturday afternoon, Pinson crashed the starting five’s press conference, earning his place in the viral newscycle as he strode across the stage asking where his chair and nametag were placed.

Sunday night, UNC’s larger-than-life sophomore was all smiles as he was invited to walk across the dais to his seat next to coach Roy Williams.

Before he sat down, he held his phone up high, nearly touching the lights positioned to shine on the foursome and took a selfie.

Once he sat down, Pinson wasn’t done documenting the occasion quite yet, pausing to take a couple selfies with Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson.

Coach Roy Williams even joined in with the jokester, switching his and Pinson’s name plates while Pinson nearly took a sip of his coach’s water and then snapped a photo of his coach making his opening statement.

“We invited Theo because we knew he was going to invite himself,” Williams said. “So we might as well make it legit and let him come.”

It took a couple minutes for a question to be directed Pinson’s way, but once Brett Friedlander of the Wilmington Star News shot one his way, Pinson grabbed the microphone with both hands and was ready to roll.

Pinson, who played 23 minutes in Sunday’s win, answered a couple questions, but his enthusiasm dwindled as the conference went on and the questions continued to come.

The Greensboro native said he’d be ok if he wasn’t invited to another press conference — he’d just crash it again.

When his time was finally up, Pinson grabbed his paper nameplate from Williams, promising to hang it on his dorm room door.

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