Provo » Starting forward Noah Hartsock gets to play close to his hometown, they are matched up against a team that is a lot like them -- the Florida Gators -- and if they win two games, their Sweet 16 game will be in Salt Lake City.
But for the 29-5 BYU Cougars, the best news that came out of Sunday's NCAA Tournament draw is what isn't going to happen. The Cougars aren't a No. 8 seed, and they won't be playing Texas A&M.
Having lost in the first round as a No. 8 seed the past three years and having lost to the Aggies the past two, the Cougars generally expressed satisfaction and enthusiasm after watching the Selection Show in private before facing the media on campus at Legacy Hall.
"We are excited to be in this tournament," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "I went into this kind of hoping we weren't an eight, and we weren't playing Texas A&M, so in [regards] to that situation, I am way excited."
The Cougars got a No. 7 seed and will play the 10th-seeded Gators (21-12) at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City on Thursday. The winner moves on to a Saturday game against the winner of second-seeded Kansas State (26-7) and 15th-seeded North Texas (24-8).
Rose said he has watched "bits and pieces" of three or four Florida games this year, and called the Gators an athletic, up-tempo team that likes to run as much as the Cougars do.
"I watched a lot of their games this year on ESPN," said BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette, from Glens Falls, N.Y. "I have played against a lot of their kids. Their point guard [Erving Walker] is from New York City. I used to play against him in AAU and everything. So I am actually real familiar with them and some of their players and personnel. Hopefully we can get out and get a win."
The only disappointments Sunday were that the Cougars were not sent closer to home in San Jose, Calif. -- for everybody but Hartsock, a native of Bartlesville, Okla., some 21/2 hours from Oklahoma City -- and the fact that they didn't get a higher seed. San Jose was one of the other three places they could have been sent without having to play on Sunday.
Most bracketologists had BYU as a four or five seed entering the Mountain West Conference tournament last week, so the Cougars' 70-66 loss to UNLV in the semifinals was obviously a big blow to their high seed hopes.
All three teams that beat the Cougars this season -- New Mexico, UNLV, and Utah State -- also received bids, with the Lobos getting a No. 3 seed. San Diego State also received a bid, meaning that the MWC received four berths in the tournament for the first time in its history.
Fredette said the Cougars, with an RPI hovering around 20 most of the season, were hoping for a five seed but were not too bummed out about getting a seven.
"I figured we could have been anywhere from a five to a seven seed, just depending on how they looked at it," he said. "I figured it would be somewhere around there. So we got a seven seed and we got to match up against Florida, we're OK with that."
The Cougars have not won a first-round game since 1993, going 0-7 in that stretch. However, 1993 was the last time they were a seven seed, and they beat SMU 80-71 in Chicago.
