New Orleans ? This is good stuff. Great stuff, actually. Only eight basketball teams are playing in this weekend’s men’s and women’s Final Four, and two of them are wearing Texas Longhorns uniforms.
This city only thinks Mardi Gras falls only in February. Grab some beads because the real party is just getting started. They’ll be doing the Texas two-step at Pat O’Brien’s and in the Buckhead district — and in the Superdome and Georgia Dome.
It doesn’t get much better than this, but check back Monday and Tuesday nights just in case it does.
There’s little doubt that Texas is smack dab in the middle of a golden era of sports. The women are back in the Final Four for the first time in 16 years, and the men are returning after an absence of 56 years.
There was the uplifting national championship in baseball last June. Back-to-back 11-win football seasons, capped by bowl victories.
Three straight NCAA titles in men’s swimming until last week. Consecutive women’s track crowns in 1998-99.
Where does it end? Or does it have to end? Maybe not.
This pair of Texas basketball teams share much more than final destinations. Both are founded first and foremost on defense, with rebounding a close second.
They both boast rock-solid coaches in rising star Rick Barnes and Hall of Famer Jody Conradt, seemingly endless benches, tons of scoring options and unique, brilliantly creative point guards who offer stabilizing leadership and a security blanket that even the Peanuts’ Linus would envy. Consider that between T.J. Ford and Jamie Carey, they have a mind-boggling 54 assists and 15 turnovers in eight NCAA tournament games. The stuff of legends.
By reaching the Final Four in both genders, Texas has duplicated something only three other schools have. Oklahoma did it a year ago, Duke doubled its fun in 1999, and Georgia was co-ed colossal in 1983.
However, none of those schools left the Final Four with a trophy. Oh-for-six. Half of them — the female Sooners and both Blue Devils — reached the final.
The law of averages rules in Texas’ favor, but there’s nothing average about these two teams.
They are reflections of each other, but not total mirror images. Conradt’s team is the only team in Atlanta that isn’t a No. 1 seed. Barnes’ club is the only one in New Orleans that is. But they each earned their way.
The women ravaged the Big 12 competition, streaking to regular-season and tournament titles. The men had a more formidable obstacle in the Kansas Jayhawks — Texas doesn’t have far to look to find them, just across the bracket — and didn’t capture either crown.
While the men jauntily skipped 80 miles down the Interstate 35 to take care of business inside the cavernous Alamodome, the women were accruing 5,700 frequent-flier miles to Cincinnati and then to Northern California, where they cruised past the competition in cozy Maples Pavilion.
Some 29,000 burnt-orange faithful were on hand in San Antonio to celebrate Texas’ official coronation as a basketball school. It seemed like about 290 in Palo Alto, but they were a loud 290.
Both have been tested. The men almost sleepwalked through their first two rounds, while the women walked all over their two early opponents. Barnes had to get by North Carolina-Asheville’s Eddie Biedenbach, the man who gave him his first coaching job. Conradt had to beat Sue Gunter, the Louisiana State coach who is a longtime rival and one of Conradt’s closest friends in the profession.
Inside, both UT coaches thought it possible, but probably didn’t dare to dream this big. How could they, after they each won only two NCAA tournament games last year?
“Sometimes,” Conradt said, “the best things are the ones that surprise you.”
It could be argued that both teams are ahead of schedule. Conradt has two seniors, only one of whom (Tai Dillard) starts.
Barnes has three, but none starts or even gets appreciable minutes except for Deginald Erskin on occasion.
That bodes well for the future, but why rush?. The present is all too exhilarating to ignore.
It’s no longer March Madness. It’s April, and even though nothing rhymes with that month, Austin has gone stark crazy mad over what has been one of the most fulfilling and inspiring runs in school history.
Oh, and there’s another parallel. The men summarily bounced 1999 national champion Connecticut from the tournament in San Antonio, and the women square off against — who else? — defending national champion UConn on Sunday night.
“Hmmm,” mused Texas forward Kala Bowers, “maybe that’s a sign.”
Maybe it is. The Hook ’em, Horns sign.
