Earning ayes of Texas

Goestenkors has Longhorns making strides

Coach Gail Goestenkors has found success in Austin and is hoping the Longhorns can continue their late-season sprint. (Jessica Hill/Associated Press)

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - All of this talk about Texas coach Gail Goestenkors's previous success at Arena at Harbor Yard took Longhorns guard Erneisha Bailey slightly by surprise yesterday.

In 2006, Goestenkors led the Duke women to a 63-61 overtime victory over Connecticut in the NCAA regional final on its road to the Final Four. Beating UConn in its home state during the NCAA Tournament doesn't happen often. The Huskies are 34-4 in tournament games played in Connecticut.

"I had no idea," said Bailey, who scored 16 points in Texas's 72-55 first-round win over Minnesota. "She isn't the type of person who tells us things like that.

"She doesn't really live in the past. With Duke, she never really brings it up. It's all about us and the future, but maybe some of that luck will rub off on us."

Tonight, Goestenkors will lead eighth-seeded Texas (22-12) against top-seeded UConn in the Greensboro Regional. The Longhorns will attempt to be the first team since 2006 (Boston College) to knock off a No. 1 seed in the second round.

"I love playing here," said Goestenkors, who is in her first season at Texas. "There's a level of comfort, there's a level of confidence when you have success somewhere. My hope is that the confidence and comfort that I feel, that my team will sense that from me and that will allow them to feel confident as well."

Throughout the season, Goestenkors has been reminding her team that it has the talent to win. Texas had a long winning tradition under Jody Conradt, who retired last season after 31 years. But in the previous two seasons, the Longhorns failed to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, finishing 18-14 in 2007 and 13-15 in 2006.

This season, the Longhorns seemed to be on a similar path as they entered a critical stretch. A 15-point loss to Texas A&M seemed to be the spark the team needed.

Texas, 16-10 at the time, went on a five-game winning streak, including triumphs over No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 9 Baylor. Against Baylor, Texas erased a 16-point halftime deficit to win, 76-61, for the biggest comeback in Big 12 Tournament history.

"There's a point in the season where we could have given up and be at home right now watching this," Bailey said. "It was like Coach G helped us find that passion.

"People say we lucked into it, but no, we didn't, because we had a really good season. We just kind of lost our focus of the things that helped us get to where we were."

Goestenkors took a different approach with this team than she did in her 15 seasons at Duke, where she finished with a record of 396-99.

"There weren't many games this entire year, especially since we started Big 12 play, where we were expected to win," Goestenkors said. "And I've been on the other side of it, where you were expected to win almost every game you played all year long. It's definitely a different feel. I'm definitely enjoying this with this team."

Goestenkors doesn't expect anything different from UConn tonight. The Huskies (33-1) defeated Cornell, 89-47, in the first round.

"They've always executed extremely well," Goestenkors said. "I don't care what team it is what year, you just change the parts because they're always going to execute extremely well, and this team is no exception."

The turnaround at Texas does not surprise UConn coach Geno Auriemma. He said he respects what it takes to take over a program.

"It's always hard to go in and coach a team of players you don't know, that you haven't developed," he said. "It takes an awful lot of time, and you have to hope that the players respond, and to me, that's what they've done."

The Texas winning tradition, which includes a national championship in 1986, is something Bailey hopes will continue.

"Coach G is like the new wave, the new era, and that's really going to help Texas get back to that standard," Bailey said. "If you have the best, why not go out and get the best? We feel she's the best."

Monique Walker can be reached at mwalker@globe.com