Golden: With the Final Four in sight, it's now NCAA title or bust for surging Texas men

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Texas Longhorns remain resolute in their mission.

Friday night’s 83-71 Sweet 16 win over NCAA Midwest regional semifinal opponent Xavier was Texas' latest message to the college basketball world that this crew  isn’t interested in just making it to the program’s second Final Four, but in winning the whole thing.

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The Horns are walking around the City of Fountains just dripping with confidence entering Sunday's showdown with Miami, which took down the Houston Cougars the Houston Cougars by 14 in the other semifinal. These teams have to be salivating at a chance to play in a Final Four during the modern era. The Hurricanes have never made it there while Texas' lone appearance came with that T.J. Ford squad back in 2003.

The Nijel-Pack led Hurricanes will be a tough out but Texas' blowout of Xavier explains why the oddsmakers have installed the Horns as a four-point favorite.

The Musketeers never stood a chance. Texas led for all but the first 16 seconds. Two weeks after punking Kansas on the same T-Mobile Arena floor for the conference title, the Longhorns made all the big plays, came up with the important loose balls and showed a national television audience on a round of upsets that they should be the favorites to win the national championship.

The No. 2-seed pummeled Xavier and gave more evidence to the growing belief that Texas is the most complete team remaining in the NCAA Tournament. They’re really good, and better yet, these steers aren’t a one-trick pony. They can woodshed you in a variety of ways.

With the Final Four in sight, it's title or bust for Horns

At this point, nothing short of a national championship will satiate the itch that has propelled this 29-8 team over so many obstacles in what has become one of the most gratifying seasons in program history.

When head coach Chris Beard was suspended in December and fired weeks later, they closed quarters and rallied around his veteran assistant Rodney Terry. The result has been a 22-7 run, including a 6-0 postseason mark and now an Elite Eight appearance that provides more evidence he’s the obvious choice to lead this program.

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Three times this season, Texas has rallied from double-digit deficits to win, once coming back from 18 points down at home to turn back TCU. And when swingman Timmy Allen missed the Big 12 Tournament with a leg injury, the Longhorns proceeded to run Kansas out of the gym with Dylan Disu emerging as a postseason savior.

Xavier represented the latest tall order, one that was seemed even larger with the realization that Disu — a testament in resilience after coming back from his ACL injury two years ago to become their best inside player — wouldn’t be able to go with a bone bruise on his left foot.

Disu’s start and two logged minutes were more ceremony than anything. The coaches wanted to give him a bit of run as a show of respect since he has played the finest ball of his college career over the last month, giving Texas another weapon in its substantial arsenal.

“We know he's carried us over the past three or four weeks,” Allen said. “We just wanted to pick up our brother. We didn't want to see him see us go out sad and lose. It was our obligation to get us back home and we did that. We know he's going to be back soon. And we've got to take care of it while he’s gone.”

Texas controlled Xavier from start to finish

The Longhorns didn’t clear the Musketeers. They went right through them. Christian Bishop played the best game of his UT career with 18 points and nine rebounds. More important was his work on the defensive end against Xavier's 7-foot center Jack Nunge, who had his way in a win over Pittsburgh in the second round with 18 points on efficient 8-of-12 shooting.

Nunge finished with 15 points, but the Horns made him work hard to get there. He was 6-of-19 from the field and was pushed around and rattled early. He missed eight of his 11 attempts in the first half against a three-headed defensive cocktail of Bishop, Dillon Mitchell and even 6-foot-6 Brock Cunningham, who isn’t afraid to bang underneath with bigger players.

Marcus Carr's turnaround 3-pointer found the bottom of net to beat the shot clock in the first half and by the time Allen did him one better with a half-court heave that banked in to beat the buzzer and give the Horns a 42-25 lead at intermission, it was obvious which team would be moving on.

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Experience counts, especially in the NCAA Tournament

There’s something about having some old heads in that locker room that make runs like the one Texas is on make so much sense. They’re old in college basketball years. Cunningham and Jabari Rice are both 24. Bishop, Allen and Marcus Carr are 23. You won’t see any panic setting in during tournament situations because these guys have traveled these NCAA streets and share a thirst for titles.

“We just have that mindset,” said guard Tyrese Hunter, who's playing his best ball at the perfect time of the season. “The next guy is always ready from our bench with us being deep. The coaches do a good job of preparing us for stuff like this just in case this happens in a moment like this.”

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They’re an emotional bunch, as evidenced by a couple of dust-ups involving Cunningham and Rice but they never quite make it to red-line status. It’s a controlled aggression and an on-court arrogance that every team that has ever won anything substantial must have to continue and advance at this level.

Terry’s fingerprints are all over this thing. He capably navigated Texas through some early foul trouble, calmed down an overly hyped up Rice, who spent parts of the night exchanging verbal barbs with Xavier's Adam Kunkel, and shared coaching duties with Carr, the team leader who stood up as much on the bench as he did when asked to deliver on the court in the biggest game of the year.

They say a blues singer who hasn’t been through anything won’t sell any records, and a championship team never won diddly without going through some type of adversity.

“This has been a very resilient team all year long,” Terry said. “We’ve been in this position before. When you play in that Big 12 league, you've been battle-tested. It's not anything you really haven't faced all year long — foul trouble, an injured guy. You just keep playing and keep working the game for 40 minutes.”

To a player, the Longhorns have total belief in the process laid forth by a coach they love and respect. Allen, one of the team's emotional leaders, encapsulated the feeling in the locker room after the game when I informed him that only one of the top overall eight seeds is still in contention for a national title.

Allen quickly processed the info and broke into a big smile, one that told anyone around him that the believe they will beat Miami Sunday and be the last team standing in Houston next weekend.

“We’re living right, family,” he said. “We’re living right.”

Sunday's Elite Eight

(2) Texas vs. (5) Miami, 4:05 p.m., CBS, 104.9

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas is the most complete team still standing in the NCAA Tournament