3/30/03
No. 5 Texas 85, Michigan State 76
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| Brian Boddicker, James Thomas and Brad Buckman |
AUSTIN, Texas -- No. 1 seed Texas (26-6) used a familiar formula - getting key contributions from 10 players – in posting an 85-76 victory over No. 7 seed Michigan State (22-13) in the South Regional Final on Sunday at San Antonio’s Alamodome. The victory earned the Longhorns a spot in the NCAA’s Final Four for the first time since 1947 and just the third time in school history (the other was 1943). UT’s previous two Final Four squads came when the tournament was an eight-team event.
"We went into the first weekend focused on winning a two-game tournament and we accomplished that," said fifth-year coach Rick Barnes, who improved his NCAA tourney record at Texas to 7-4. "That was our focus this week and we reached our goal again. Now, we have one more tournament to prepare for and all of our attention is on playing a great Syracuse team on Saturday."
A crowd of 30,169 fans, mostly sporting burnt orange and white, filled the Alamodome to cheer on the Horns. That came two days after 33,009 fans were on hand to watch a pair of "Sweet 16" contests on Friday night. Those crowds were the top two crowds to see a Longhorn basketball game in the program’s history.
"This weekend was great for Texas basketball," Barnes said. "It proved there is a lot of love for Longhorn basketball. There was great fan interest all week. I think there were a lot of fans who had a chance to see our program in person for the first time this weekend and hopefully they came away excited. I can’t tell you how exciting it was seeing all of the burnt orange in the crowd."
Longhorn fans will have a chance to follow Texas, the lone remaining No. 1 seed in the tourney, to the Final Four this weekend. The Horns will face No. 3 seed Syracuse on Saturday in New Orleans (Super Dome). Second-seeded Kansas will face No. 3 seed Marquette in the other national semifinal.
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| Rick Barnes |
Texas advanced to the NCAA semifinals in a victory that saw eight players register points. Led by NCAA South Region Most Oustanding Player sophomore T.J. Ford’s 19 points and 10 assists (against just two turnovers), Texas had five players tally double-digits scoring in tying the school-record for victories in a season (26). Texas hit 49 percent of its shots (25 of 51), 42.9 percent from three-point range (6 of 14), 76.3 percent from the line (29 of 38) and dished out 16 assists while committing a season-low four turnovers.
"Today was a great team effort," Barnes, who has taken UT to a school-best five straight NCAA tourneys, said. "I’m happy for the guys because they get to play another day," Barnes said. "It was great for me seeing the guys and their families all smiling and watching them cut down the nets. This is their moment. They were the ones that came to Texas with days like this as their goals. They were the ones that put in the sweat. They bought into the program and committed themselves to winning and deserve all of the credit.
"With that said, they know there still is a lot of work to be done."
The Horns 85 points were the most the stingy Spartan defense (giving up just 60.5 points per game) had allowed this season. MSU, a program that had advanced to three Final Fours in the previous four years, entered the game having won eight of its last nine games. The most points an opponent had scored during that stretch was 64.
Ford registered 32 points and 19 assists in two tourney games in San Antonio and has posted 61 points and 38 assists in four tourney games thus far. He was joined on the South Region All-Tournament team by junior Brandon Mouton, who tallied 16 points against Michigan State. Mouton led the Horns with 27 points in their win over Connecticut and registered 43 points in two games in San Antonio. He has scored a team-best 64 points in four NCAA tourney contests thus far.
Freshman Brad Buckman added 11 points, four rebounds and three steals. Junior Brian Boddicker (15 points and six rebounds) and sophomore Sydmill Harris (12 points) led a group of Horns that came off of the bench to contribute 29 points. Boddicker (6 of 10 FGs/3 of 6 threes) and Harris (4 of 6 FGs/2 of 4 threes) combined to hit 10 of 16 shots and 5 of 10 threes.
"All year we have been able to depend on our bench to help get the job done," Ford said. "Everybody on this team has a role and is committed to getting their job done. That’s what we did tonight. Everybody did their job and that’s how we got the win."
The Longhorns and Spartans exchanged leads four times and were tied four other times in the games first 7:38 before Harris’ three-pointer with 11:22 left in the first half put UT up for good at 18-16. With the game tied at 11-all, Harris scored 10 of Texas’ next 14 points as the Horns went on a 14-8 run to claim a 25-19 lead midway through the first half. Sparked by Alan Anderson’s three pointer (a layup and a free throw), MSU answered with a 5-0 run to pull within 25-24 with 8:13 left in the half. That was the closest the Big Ten foe would get.
Boddicker and Mouton each scored five points as Texas went on a 12-2 run, including a 10-0 spurt, over the next three minutes to claim a 37-26 lead with 5:08 remaining in the first half. Twenty-four of the Horns first 35 points came off the bench. The Spartans 12-6 run the remainder of the half sent UT to the locker room at 43-38. MSU’s Paul Davis score five of his team-high 15 points during that stretch.
Buckman scored four of his 11 points in the first 3:40 of the second half as Texas opened the final period with an 8-3 run to extend its lead to 10 points (51-41) with 16:20 remaining in the game. The Spartans battled right back, as Maurice Ager’s three-pointer ignited a 5-0 run.
Texas’ lead didn’t get any bigger than eight points over the next nine minutes as MSU fought to hang on. Buckman hit a pair of free throws that extended the Horns lead to 72-63 with 6:30 left and UT answered every Spartan bucket down the stretch.
Mouton fed Buckman for a basket and the freshman was fouled with 5:44 remaining. Buckman’s free throw extended the lead to 75-65. Chris Hill’s three-point basket made the score 75-68 before Ford went on a four point run, driving for a layup than connecting on a pair of free throws to extend the Texas lead to 10 again (79-69).
Anderson’s hoop and another Hill three pointer
provided one last threat as the Spartans pulled within five points (79-74)
with 2:28 left before Texas scored six of the final eight points of
the night and the celebrating began.
The Longhorns connected on 13 of their final 15 free throw attempts,
including a stretch of 12 straight made free throws at one point, to
secure a victory.
Texas’ evening was capped off by the cutting of the nets and when Barnes snipped the final cord on the south end goal, he officially culminated the Horns first-ever victory in an NCAA Regional Final. With two tournaments down, now the quest for another Longhorn first, in a year of basketball firsts that has been building since Barnes’ arrival in Austin in 1998, takes Texas on the road to the Final Four and a hunt for the National Championship.
