AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 5:37?a.m.?Monday,?March?12,?2012
Published: 11:18?p.m.?Sunday,?March?11,?2012
With a basketball in his hands, J'Covan Brown is one of the persistently calm guys around.
But without one, stationed in front of a television in Cooley Pavilion on Sunday evening, Brown became a little nervous.
Participants for three of the four NCAA tournament regions had been announced, and the Longhorns had yet to appear on the bracket.
"We were on the bubble this season," Brown said later. "Seeing all the names that went before us, it got kind of shaky until they finally called our name."
Toward the end, the Longhorns were called to the tournament for the 14th consecutive season, as a No. 11 seed in the East Region.
Texas (20-13) will face six-seeded Cincinnati from the Big East at 11:15 a.m. on Friday in Nashville. The winner plays on Sunday against either third-seeded Florida State or No. 14 St. Bonaventure, first-round opponents.
Coach Rick Barnes said he predicted the Longhorns' first-round matchup while watching Cincinnati and Louisville in the Big East tournament championship game on television Saturday, telling his wife Candy, "We're going to play Cincinnati."
During Barnes' first 13 seasons as Texas coach, the Longhorns had never been lower than an eighth seed. This time, a Longhorn team with six freshmen did not seem assured of even making the tournament until a victory over Iowa State on Thursday in the Big 12 tournament.
"They earned it," Barnes said. "They had to do it the hard way, with a coaching staff that was very hard on them."
The Big 12 schedule was not easy on the young Longhorns, either. They started 3-6 in the league, four of those defeats coming against opponents that were ranked in the top 10 nationally: Kansas, Baylor and Missouri twice. The other two losses were at NCAA tournament-bound Iowa State and Kansas State.
So Texas had some ground to make up, which it did with a 6-3 record during the second half of conference play.
"One of the biggest concerns was could we bounce back?" Barnes said. "It goes to resiliency."
Cincinnati (24-10) knows something about that. The Bearcats had to overcome difficult circumstances largely of their own making. Back on Dec. 10, near the end of a 23-point loss at intra-city rival Xavier, the teams were involved in a brawl. Four players on each team were suspended. One of them, 6-foot-9 Cincinnati senior Yancy Gates, missed six games after punching an Xavier player.
Somehow, coach Mick Cronin rallied his team. The Bearcats won seven straight after the incident, including one against a very good Notre Dame team. They went on to finish 12-6 in the Big East, good for fourth place in the 16-team league. Cincinnati beat 15th-ranked Georgetown and No. 2 Syracuse last week in the Big East tournament before losing to No. 18 Louisville 50-44. (Rankings are from the new coaches' poll.)
Cronin has been using a four-guard lineup, something the Longhorns have faced at least three times this season, against Missouri.
Guard Sean Kirkpatrick leads the Bearcats in scoring with 14.3 point a game. He has made 84 three-point baskets with solid 37 percent accuracy.
The 260-pound Gates can be a load inside. He averages 12.4 points a game but scored 23 and 18 during the Big East tournament wins against Georgetown and Syracuse.
Alexis Wangmene, the Longhorn senior who would have guarded Gates, suffered a season-ending, dislocated left wrist on March 3 at Kansas.
After finding out the Longhorns would encounter Gates without Wangmene, Barnes joked, "you can play with a soft cast. I believe in novocaine."
Contact Mark Rosner at 445-3958 Twitter: @MarkRosnerAAS
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