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Monday, March 17, 2014
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Longhorns swing No. 7 seed for Big Dance Garrett Callahan @CallahanGarrett
After a 1-year hiatus, Texas heard its name called Sunday evening for a bid in the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns, who missed the tournament last season for the first time in the Rick Barnes era, grabbed the No. 7 seed in the Midwest region of the tournament. They are set to face No. 10-seed Arizona State on Thursday at the BMO Harris
Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis. If they advance, the Longhorns will then play the winner of the game between Michigan and Wofford, who are also set to play Thursday. “It’s absolutely great to see our name back on the bracket,” Barnes said. “That’s why we do this, to have a chance to be a part of this tournament. These guys should enjoy it because they’ve earned it. I know they are excited about it.” Texas finished its season
with an overall 23-10 mark and an 11-7 record in Big 12 play, finishing third in the league. The Longhorns, who have earned a bid to the Big Dance in 23 of the last 26 years, sport a 34-33 record in its previous 30 trips to the NCAA Tournament. winning 16 of its 22 opening games. Texas has yet to see Arizona State (21-11, 10-8 Pac12) this season, but the two schools did collide administratively last fall when Texas
poached Steve Patterson from his position at Arizona State to become the new men’s head athletic director of the Longhorns. Sun Devils head coach Herb Sendek also served as an assistant coach to Barnes when the latter was the head coach at Providence University. When the season started, fans had little confidence that Texas would become an NCAA Tournament team,
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Shweta Gulati / Daily Texan Staff
After losing to Baylor in the Big 12 semifinals Friday, Longhorns were given the No. 7 seed on Selection Sunday.
Survivors reflect on crash Student victims recall events surrounding SXSW collision
By Jordan Rudner & Hannah Smothers
By Madlin Mekelburg & Jordan Rudner
@thedailytexan
@thedailytexan
Just after midnight Thursday, Rashad Owens drove a car through the South By Southwest crowd on Red River Street and hit 23 people in less than a minute, according to police. Three of those victims — Greg Cerna, Maria Belyaeva and Ryan Freeman — are UT sophomores. Here, Cerna, Belyaeva and sophomore Oliver Croomes, who was with them the at the scene, recount their memories of the collision. Greg Cerna Nineteen-year-old Greg Cerna, computer science and electrical engineering sophomore, remembers getting pizza with his friends just before midnight Wednesday night. He remembers agreeing to walk to the Mohawk Bar to see Tyler, the Creator, despite not really being a fan. After that, he said, things get a little blurry. “I remember getting to Red River Street but, after that, just loud noises,” Cerna said. “The next thing I remember really clearly is waking up in the hospital and seeing my aunt’s face.” Cerna suffered a
Multimedia Two crash survivors share memories of the night.
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concussion and received scrapes and bruises all along the right side of his body after being hit. His head gash is now marked by nine metal staples. Cerna’s friend Croomes, who was at the scene but did not get hit, said he believes Cerna was carried up the block by the hood of the car. “We had to walk toward people at the next intersection — that’s when I first saw [Cerna],” Croomes said. “I thought maybe he was dead.” Cerna, who spoke slowly on Sunday, searching for words he has trouble remembering, said he is still in disbelief when he thinks about the reality of the collision. “I never thought it was the kind of thing that could happen,” Cerna said. “And, like, to me.”
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Motorist charged in Thursday’s fatalities
Pu Ying Huang / Daily Texan Staff
Greg Cerna, computer science and electrical engineering sophomore, suffered a concussion and received scrapes and bruises along his right side after being hit by a car at SXSW Thursday.
Travis County district judges issued a formal arrest warrant Friday afternoon for 21-year-old Rashad Charjuan Owens, who has been accused of driving his car through a crowded area of downtown during South By Southwest activities, killing two people and injuring 23 others. Owens was charged with one count of capital murder, and his bond has been set at $3 million. At least two people died and 23 were injured after Owens’ car ran through the intersection of Ninth and Red River streets during SXSW just past midnight Thursday, according to the Austin Police Department. The two individuals killed were 35-year-old Steven Craenmehr and 27-year-old Jamie Ranae West. West’s husband, Evan West, is among those who were injured and transported to the hospital. The incident took place right outside The Mohawk, a bar and live music venue. According to the police
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Festival growth raises questions about safety By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
Mengwen Cao / Daily Texan Staff
Festival attendees try to get into a show Thursday night on Sixth Street. City services braced for the influx of Austin visitors, as many hotels were filled to capacity.
South By Southwest has grown from a 700-person festival in 1987 to one of the largest festivals in the world. This year, SXSW featured more than 2,000 musicians and drew celebrities and thousands of guests to Austin, posing a greater risk to guest safety. “The city is definitely bursting at its seams a little
bit every time South By comes,” said Robert Quigley, journalism lecturer and long-time SXSW guest. “We enjoy having all these visitors in town, but I think at some point, they are going to run out of hotel space and places to hold their events.” Early Thursday morning, Rashad Owens crashed through barricades on Red River Street, killing two pedestrians and injuring more than 20 others.
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Even with blocked-off streets for pedestrian traffic and security presence, incidents, such as the one on Thursday, are still a possibility. Dan Solomon, a reporter for Texas Monthly, has been attending the festival fairly regularly since 2000 and covered this year’s festival. “That accident sounds like it was one of those outlier incidents that you can’t prepare
for,” Solomon said. “At the same time, I think that the size of things kind of opens it up to things not going as planned.” Quigley said he believes accidents like Thursday’s could happen any time, not only during SXSW. He was unable to attend this year’s festival but has been following the events on the news. “It could have happened
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