Gonzaga harping on 'toughness' entering NCAA Round of 32 game against streaking Texas squad
Mar. 20—PORTLAND — It's true, there are Cinderella components to the run Gonzaga's next opponent made over the last four to five days at the NCAA Tournament. Tension going into Selection Sunday?
Texas dealt with it for the better part of four days after many suspected a 76-66 loss to Ole Miss at the SEC Tournament would bump Sean Miller's team off the NCAA bubble. Multiple victories in games they weren't favored to win? The 11th-seeded Longhorns check that box, too, beating North Carolina State 68-66 in Tuesday First Four matchup in Dayton before traveling across the country to beat fifth-seeded BYU and freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa 79-71 two days later.
Texas is soaking up every bit of its unexpected run this week but as Mark Few pointed out Friday afternoon, the Cinderella comparisons can only go so far when you wear burnt orange and have an SEC patch stitched to the front of your jersey. "This is one of the beauties of the tournament," Few said Friday. "Ordinarily when you play Texas, I mean, it's Texas man.
Texas has everything usually: the resources, the student population. I wouldn't exactly classify this as some sort of Cinderella or anything here. "This is a team that has some great players.
They played in a tough league, so they took some losses. The SEC's got some really, really good teams in it. " The Longhorns (20-14) may not be your traditional Cinderella but they've already had a number of Cinderella experiences since hearing their name called as the 67th of 68 teams to qualify for this year's NCAA Tournament.
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