Wake, Texas share each other's pain

NEW ORLEANS -- First, Texas' players took the podium and answered questions about what's gone wrong. Then, Wake Forest's players took the podium and did the same thing.

Texas is 7-9 over its past 16 games, Wake Forest 1-5 over its past six. Something has to give tomorrow night. Until then, neither team feels too comfortable.

"I imagine they're taking the same position we're taking," Wake Forest guard Ish Smith said. "It's a new beginning."

The NCAA tournament is supposed to be a triumphant moment for a program, a chance to be one of 65 teams with a chance to win the national title. For these two programs, which have underachieved by their own standards, it's almost an apologetic moment.

"People forget we were the best team in the country," Texas forward Damion James said. "We're still the same team. We just have to go out there with that swagger and that demeanor and go out there and go at it."

For Wake, there's another dimension to this: A 0-4 record in the postseason under coach Dino Gaudio and last year's debacle in Miami at the hands of Cleveland State. It may be less about redemption than it is about reversing what has become a habit of postseason failure.

That pressure isn't easy to shrug off.

"You've got to play with confidence," Smith said. "And you have to play free. I think that's the mentality you have to have. I think if we do that, then we give ourselves a chance to win."