BEVO BEAT Men's Basketball NCAA Tournament preview: Texas vs. Nevada Posted March 15th, 2018


NCAA Tournament preview

No. 10 seed Texas vs. No. 7 seed Nevada

When: Approx. 3:30 p.m. Friday


Where: Bridgestone Arena (capacity 17,578)

TV/Radio: TBS/104.9 The Horn

About the series: Nevada leads the all-time series 1-0. The only matchup between these two programs happened in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Texas center Jason Klotz scored a career-high 20 points and Brad Buckman had 14 points and 11 rebounds. But the Wolf Pack scored the game’s final eight points to give the Horns a heart-breaking 61-57 loss in Indianapolis.

No. 10 seed TEXAS (19-14 overall, 8-10 Big 12) No. Pos. Player Class Ht. PPG RPG 2 G Matt Coleman Fr. 6-2 9.7 4.1* 12 G Kerwin Roach II Jr. 6-4 11.9 3.7 13 G Jase Febres Fr. 6-5 3.5 1.8 21 F Dylan Osetkowski Jr. 6-9 12.9 7.4 4 C Mo Bamba Fr. 6-11 12.9 10.4 Coach: Shaka Smart (50-49, 3rd year at Texas; 213-105, 9th year overall) *-indicates assists per game

About the Longhorns: Junior Dylan Osetkowski had a simple thought about the week. “Definitely a sigh of relief that we’re in,” Osetkowski said. “Now that we’ve made it, I think the next thing is what do we want to do here?” Osetkowski is arguably a huge X-factor for the Horns. He finished in double figures for seven games before scoring only four against Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament. … Jericho Sims’ father, Charles, played for Nevada coach Eric Musselman’s father, Bill, at Minnesota. … UT is one of eight schools to play in 18 of the last 20 NCAA Tournaments. Texas lost its last appearance in the NCAAs two years ago on a half-court, buzzer-beater by Northern Iowa’s Paul Jespersen.

No. 7 seed NEVADA (27-7 overall, 15-3 Mountain West) No. Pos. Player Class Ht. PPG RPG 11 F Cody Martin Jr. 6-7 13.6 4.6* 10 F Caleb Martin Jr. 6-7 19.1 5.3 13 G Hallice Cooke Sr. 6-3 4.9 2.1 21 G Kendall Stephens Sr. 6-7 13.2 2.0 24 G/F Jordan Caroline Jr. 6-7 17.9 8.8 Coach: Eric Musselman (79-28, 3rd year at Nevada) *-indicates assists per game

About the Wolf Pack: For all the talk about the Martin twins, Jordan Caroline has scored at least 20 points in the last five games. The former transfer from Southern Illinois is a career 33.5 percent shooter from 3-point range. Nevada is 25-2 whenever Caroline has a double-double. … Nevada is 4-4 this season against other teams in the NCAAs. That includes losses to Texas Tech and TCU. … G Lindsey Drew suffered a ruptured Achilles in his right foot on Feb. 14 and was lost for the season. The junior was averaging a career-high 8.8 points per game. … This is Nevada’s eighth all-time appearance in the NCAAs. The program has never gone beyond the Sweet 16.

Contact Brian Davis at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com.

News on Bevo Beat is free and unlimited. Access to the rest of Hookem.com is included with an Austin American-Statesman subscription in addition to Statesman.com and the ePaper edition. Subscribe today at statesman.com/subscribe.