By Brett Martel
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Texas fans have had it easy lately when it comes to seeing the Longhorns play in the NCAA tournament. And coach Rick Barnes isn't about to apologize for the abundance of burnt orange in the stands.

The Longhorns' wins last week over Connecticut and Michigan State were in San Antonio, only 80 miles from campus in Austin.

Now, Texas is playing just a few hours' drive from its state border, in a stadium where about 40,000 Texas fans showed up last fall and drowned out the home crowd when the football team played Tulane (Several times, Texas defenders waved their arms to rile up the crowd on third downs for Tulane).

"People are talking like this has never happened before in the history of the tournament and it has happened all the time," Barnes said Friday, on the eve of his team's semifinal game against Syracuse. "I hope we'll get a whole lot of people."

Syracuse played its last two rounds in upstate New York. But now the Orangemen are playing more than 1,000 miles from home.

Some have suggested Syracuse might gain an advantage from playing in the cavernous Superdome, since the Orangemen play their home games in the Carrier Dome.

Coach Jim Boeheim doesn't see it that way.

"Teams come into our building, some come in and shoot great, some struggle," he said.

Syracuse lost the 1987 national championship game at the Superdome, when Keith Smart hit a deciding baseline jumper for Indiana in the final seconds.

"I've tried to block out everything that ever happened here," Boeheim joked.

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HOMECOMING: Not only will Texas be playing closest to home, but Longhorns forward Brandon Mouton will be playing in his home state.

"It's a great feeling to come back home to compete for a national championship and have my family and friends really come out and support me," said Mouton, who's from Lafayette, a little more than a two-hour drive west on Interstate 10.

Barnes isn't sure Mouton's homecoming is an advantage. He suggested it may even pose off-court distractions.

"We talked about it before we got here," Barnes said. "Emotionally, sometimes you can wear yourself out before you even get started. We made sure once we boarded the plane to head down here, we were going to go back to that inner circle we dealt with all year long and we're not going to let anybody penetrate it."

Barnes said one of the hardest things to do is to get his players to understand they have to say to be able to say "no" to some of the requests they get this week.

It seems Mouton already has figured that out.

"I had everyone back in Lafayette saying they need tickets," he said. "I'm only allowed six - that's all I'm working with."

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MAKING THE GRADE: Several coaches attending or participating in the Final Four have applauded new NCAA president Myles Brand for his desire to find a new way to measure the academic performance of players.

Coaches complain the current system of focusing on graduation rates is unfair, in part because of the how the rate is calculated.

For example, when players transfer, they still get a degree, but neither the first school nor the last gets credit for those student toward their graduation rates.

In addition, the rate is calculated over a six-year period for each player, so if someone leaves for the pros and comes back to finish school after a long playing career, that counts against a university's graduation rate.

Boeheim recounted a two-year period in which four of his players left school early.

"They averaged $5 million a year, but they all counted against us," Boeheim said. "I didn't tell them, 'Wait a minute, you're making a big mistake here."'

A day earlier, Brand said he agrees the current way of calculating graduation rates is unfair and that he expects a new measuring system in the near future.

That's especially good news for coaches in light of the fact that other proposals floating around would provide for harsher punishments for universities that don't meet some specified minimum academic standard. Possible disincentives could include the loss of scholarships or removal from postseason play.

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REMEMBERING MCGUIRE: Marquette coach Tom Crean said it never occurred to him that Al McGuire's legacy could become a burden.

McGuire, who died two years ago, guided Marquette to its only national title in 1977, then retired from coaching. Many of his successors have tried to impose their own identity on the program, perhaps believing that living off of past glory was counterproductive.

But Crean says his love for college basketball began when he was a Marquette fan watching McGuire's championship run, so he naturally wanted to recreate the ambiance that surrounded that team.

"I loved the tradition. That was one of the big reasons I wanted the job," Crean said. "I felt he was as big a part of the tradition as anybody else."

The two coaches ultimately became friends before McGuire died and Crean said the relationship was as meaningful as anything in his life.

"I went from being an awe-struck person to somebody I considered to be my buddy," Crean said. "It was real easy to embrace him."

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BIG TIME BIG 12: Must a conference have a national championship team to be considered a major basketball power? Barnes doesn't think that's the case with the Big 12, which makes up half of the Final Four for the second straight season.

Since the Big 12 grew out of a merger between the Big Eight and a handful of teams from the old Southwest Conference in 1996, none of the 12 teams in the league have won the title.

Barnes said it's only a matter of time.

"There's no doubt that it's going to happen sometime ... whether its this year or next year," he said. "I think everyone realizes our league is as good as any league in the country right now."

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FINAL WORD: "That was a lot more fun because no media covered us. I phoned in the scores. I just phoned them in when we won. Everybody thought we were undefeated." -Jim Boeheim, on his days as Syracuse's golf coach, a job he held before becoming head coach of the basketball team