A Cajun restaurant in Austin serves as the go-to spot for Texas Longhorns men's basketball head coach Chris Beard and his assistants following home victories, but on Selection Sunday on March 13, Shoal Creek Saloon played host to Beard and his program as they awaited their March Madness fate.
The Longhorns will begin the long, arduous journey to the 2022 Final Four in Milwaukee, the site of their last tournament win in 2014, as the sixth seed in the East Region, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
They'll play 11th-seeded Virginia Tech Friday (March 18).
"Let's go!" the Texas men's basketball official Twitter account tweeted after the Longhorns secured their Big Dance invite.
Beard said making the tournament isn't as easy as it looks.
“I think you never take for granted getting in the NCAA Tournament," he said, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “There’s a lot of good teams today that wanted to see their names come across. They didn't. So I have a lot of appreciation of our players, coaching change, first year and to get back in the tournament with a good seed and a chance to make a run, I’m super proud of the players.”
Beard said all of the 68 teams in the tournament are good.
Even though Texas is five seeds higher than Virginia Tech, the matchup between them is chock full of challenges for the Longhorns.
"We have a really tough challenge in the first game,” Beard, who came to Austin last year from Big XII and in-state rival Texas Tech, told the Austin American-Statesman.
Having suffered a three-game losing streak to end the regular season, Texas looks to achieve a second wind in the Big Dance.
The Longhorns have dropped five of their last eight, including the Feb. 28 game against defending national champion Baylor to conclude 45 years of residency at Erwin Center.
Texas has been to the tournament 36 times in its history, according to a team-issued press release.
Its last Final Four appearance was in 2003 when it lost the national semifinal to Syracuse and future NBA star Carmelo Anthony.
The school last reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2008, a year after Kevin Durant declared for the NBA Draft and was taken second by the Seattle Supersonics.