For Northern Arizona, which turns 100 next year, it was worth the wait.
''It's taken 99 years to get there,'' coach Ben Howland said Sunday after the Flagstaff, Ariz., school made the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
Howland's enthusiasm was tempered by the University of Cincinnati's stat sheet as he crunched the numbers in his office waiting for the Bearcats' videotapes to arrive.
His Lumberjacks (21-7) won the Big Sky championship with the country's top three-point shooting (43 percent) and second-leading shooting percentage (51 percent), but Howland also noted UC is in the top 10 holding opponents to 39 percent shooting.
''They pose a lot of problems, and the No. 1 thing is that (coach Bob) Huggins gets them to play so hard,'' said Howland, in his fourth season at NAU.
''That's the one thing that's consistent with them through the years. And you look at their defensive stats and the fact they're outrebounding people by eight a game, and that translates to a 26-5 record.''
Howland believes the key for his team is rebounding, where the Lumberjacks are outrebounding foes by just three per game.
Their tallest players, 6-foot-9 junior Casey Frank, an all-conference center, and 7-foot sophomore sixth man Dan McClintock, combine for less than 10 rebounds per game.
Howland is worried about the matchup with Frank and 6-7 Billy Hix against the strength of UC's Ruben Patterson and Bobby Brannen. Frank has spent the season in foul trouble, fouling out of seven games. McClintock came off the bench to earn MVP of the Big Sky Tournament with 33 points in 31 minutes.
NAU is getting steadier guard play these days. Junior point man Kawika Akina sat out a year and a half after transferring from Hawaii, and was a bit rusty after becoming eligible the second semester. But he had 19 assists in the past three games.
After going 6-20 two years ago, Howland staged the 10th biggest turnaround in NCAA history last season when the Lumberjacks went 21-7 in a season marred by losses in the final two games, an upset loss to Northridge State in the conference tourney first round and a blowout loss to Arkansas in the first round of the NIT.
A beefier December schedule helped prevent a collapse this season, even though NAU lost by 11 at Arizona State and by 22 at UCLA.
''They were teams that press and do the things Cincinnati does,'' Howland said. ''We're not the same team we were then.''
There is an Ohio connection to NAU. The Lumberjacks NCAA invite comes the season after Charles Thomas got out of school.
Thomas, who went to the same high school as Bengals running back Ki-Jana Carter at Westerville South near Columbus, was the offensive and emotional leader of last year's break-through season.
''You need a guy to get your program over the hump, and Charles was that guy for us,'' Howland said.
Scouting report
Road to the finals
Men's bracket
Women play in NIT
Season in stories
