Associated Press

Wofford coach Mike Young celebrates after the Terriers won the SoCon men's tournament.

Fortunately, Mike Young is not always a man of his word.

The Wofford men's basketball coach declared last month that he would "streak back to Radford" if his team made the NCAA tournament.

On Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., the Terriers beat Appalachian State in the championship game of the Southern Conference tournament to clinch their first NCAA bid since moving to Division I in 1995.

It was the highlight of Young's career. But the Radford High School graduate did not do any streaking to celebrate.

"My mother made me come to my senses," Young, 47, said with a laugh Tuesday in a phone interview from his Spartanburg, S.C., school. "We hopped on the bus this morning and made it on back fully clothed."

Young is the nephew of former Radford High School football coach Norman Lineburg, and the cousin of Radford University athletic director Robert Lineburg and Richmond offensive coordinator Wayne Lineburg. Young's father, Robert Young, once was the baseball coach at Dublin High School.

Is Mike Young now the best coach on the family tree?

"Uncle Norman's still the torch carrier in that department," said Young, the SoCon coach of the year.

The Terriers (26-8) beat Appalachian State 56-51 on Monday in front of a crowd that included not only Young's wife and children but also Young's parents; his brother; Norman Lineburg; and Norman's wife, Joann, who is the sister of Young's father.

Wofford also won the SoCon regular-season title, so it would have reaped an automatic NIT bid if it had lost out on the automatic NCAA bid.

The Terriers will have to play a very good team in the first round next week, but their schedule this season has prepared them. They beat Georgia and South Carolina. They lost at Pittsburgh and Michigan State after leading in the second half, and lost at Illinois in a game that was tied in the second half.

"These guys won't back down, and they'll go into that [NCAA tournament] knowing how they're going to win," said Young, in his eighth season as Wofford's head coach. "We're going to be ready."

Young said his school of 1,400 students deserves to get a No. 13 or No. 14 seed on Sunday.

The Terriers have the SoCon player of the year, junior Noah Dahlman (16.8 points per game) of Braham, Minn.

"Dahlman is a program changer," Young said. "He had nothing in common with Wofford. ... We got him, and the guy is terrific. He changed the mentality of this bunch."

Young played for the late Bob Johnson at Emory & Henry.

"He's sitting up there with Fred Selfe [the late E&H athletic director] with a big smile on his face. I know he is," Young said.

After graduating, Young stayed at E&H for two seasons as an assistant coach. He then spent one season as Oliver Purnell's graduate assistant at RU before getting hired in 1989 at Wofford, then a Division II school.

Wofford became a Division I independent in 1995 and joined the SoCon two years later. Last year was the team's first winning season in Division I.

"We've had some tough years, but we stayed the course," Young said. "To get to this point in 15 years, that's remarkable."

So does the NCAA bid mean Young will become one of those hot coaches that winds up at a bigger school?

"I don't think I could get the Radford Middle School job," Young said with a laugh.

"I'm just a small-town guy that's got a great job and loving life."