MINNESOTA GOPHERS MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM MAKES THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

After recording a 22-win season, Minnesota was rewarded with a No. 10 seed in the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The Gophers (22-10) will face No. 7 seed Texas (22-11) on Thursday in Greensboro, N.C. The Gophers will make their first NCAA appearance since 2005 and its sixth overall.

The Gophers are the No. 10 seed in the East Regional. Should the Gophers defeat Texas, they will face the winner of No. 2 seed Duke and No. 15 Binghamton. The No. 1 seed in the Regional is Pittsburgh.

"First, I want to thank the NCAA selection committee and say how excited we are to be in the Tournament. It's one of the greatest sporting events in our culture and our country. I am excited for our players," Smith said following the selection. "We only have one kid that has participated in the Tournament, in 2005 (Jon Williams). To be going there in just two years, I am very happy with the direction of our program. I want to thank Joel Maturi and President Bruininks for giving me the opportunity to lead this program and hopefully we will build on this. Being a No. 10 seed, we are just excited to be playing. Rick Barnes and the Texas Longhorns are from a very tough conference. He is an outstanding coach and they have outstanding players so we know we will have to be at our best to give them a good game.""For me, it's going back to an area I went to college. It's just 20-30 minutes away but Rick Barnes is from North Carolina. We played against each other in college. He was a freshman at Lenoir-Rhyne and I was senior at High Point. I taught school in North Carolina for two years and went to college there for four years. I have a lot of friends in that region."

Minnesota has never faced Texas in its history. The Longhorns are 22-11 and finished tied for fourth in the Big 12 with a 9-7 conference mark. They lost to Baylor in the Big Ten 12 Tournament semifinals.

Minnesota has enjoyed a stellar season, finishing with 22 wins, which ranks as the fourth-highest total in school history. The Gophers' 21 regular season wins is also the second-most in school history. Head Coach Tubby Smith earned his 16th straight 20-win season as well, the longest active streak in the country.

Senior Jamal Abu-Shamala

On tension during selection show...“At first we were getting nervous. You’d see some teams that were getting the spots that we thought we would get. But when they called our name it was one of the greatest feelings. Everybody got excited and it was just a great experience.”

On team’s expectations of Texas...“We’ve seen them play a little bit. They’re a very tough team; they have some big guys inside and have some very good scorers. They’re going to be a tough team but we have to really just take care of what we can control and go out there and play.

Senior Jon Williams

On comparing this selection to his previous tournament selection...“I think it was a little more nerve racking this time. But it shows hard work pays off. We had some tough times this year and we stuck together and played good basketball and now we’ve been rewarded.”

On Tubby Smith’s impact on the program so far...“When Coach (Tubby) Smith came here, one of the main things he emphasized was going to the NCAA tournament. I think overall we improved in all aspects of basketball. He told us he was going to do everything to make us better players. I think last year we were a good team and now we’re an even better team. There’s nothing but progress this year and I’m sure there’s more to come.”

Junior Damien Johnson

On reaction to being selected into the tournament...“I was surprisingly one of the most nervous people. I saw Maryland make it and then saw Arizona get in. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it at that point since we were in the same position as those guys. Once we found out, everyone went crazy. I think there were some people body slamming each other out of excitement and it was just pure happiness.”

On match up with Texas...“With this game it’s more about what we can do, more than worrying about what Texas will do. We have to play our own game. It’s tournament time and a lot of crazy things are going to happen. I think we’ll just focus on getting the win.”