BYU coach earns seed in 2nd year

PROVO — In his second season as BYU's head coach, Dave Rose will take the Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years to face Atlantic 10 co-champion Xavier in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday in the first round of the South Regional.

The BYU-Xavier winner likely will face No. 1 seed Ohio State, a team many consider the top team in the county.

"We're excited. These players deserve to be there, and we're looking forward to playing Xavier," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "They are a very well-coached team and are conference champions. We'll see how we match up and work on a game plan for Monday (practice)."

This will be the 22nd NCAA tournament appearance for the Cougars, who have an 11-24 record and have struggled to get low bids. The latest invitation came in 2004, which ended with a loss to Syracuse in Denver. Before that the Cougars also were one and out against several powerhouse programs: UConn in 2003 and Cincinnati in 2001.

The last NCAA win by BYU was under Roger Reid in 1993, when the Cougars defeated SMU 80-71 and then lost to Greg Ostertag and Big Eight Kansas in Chicago.

The Cougars gathered for Sunday's release of the NCAA brackets in Lindon at Noah's, a reception center just off I-15. The team bus pulled up and dropped off the team, which had just flown into the Salt Lake airport from the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas.

When the matchup with Xavier flashed on the screen, there were the customary celebratory yells and claps. The Cougars appeared toward the end of the program and Cougar players watched as UNLV drew a No. 7 seed to play Georgia Tech.

Xavier is in Ohio.

"I don't know anything about them right now," Austin Ainge said.

"We're so excited, though. This is all we've been focused on all year. All the other goals we've had were to lead up to this one, to play in the NCAA tournament. We want to win, we're not just happy to be there. If we win and get a chance to go at Ohio State, that would be a lot of fun."

Xavier (24-8) finished tied for the Atlantic 10 Conference title with UMass at 13-3. Like the Cougars, Xavier lost in its conference tournament, a 79-71 setback to Rhode Island. That ended a nine-game winning streak.