COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Long Beach State guard Kevin Houston looked out his hotel window Thursday, saw the light snow and shuddered. He was a long way from home.

Long Beach State guard Aaron Nixon looked out his hotel window, saw the light snow and smiled. He was almost home.

Houston grew up in San Bernardino, Calif. He's one of 14 Californians on the 17-man Long Beach State roster.

When they embarked on their NCAA tournament adventure, it was 82 degrees in Long Beach. When they woke up in Columbus, it was more than 40 degrees colder.

That was just fine with Nixon, who grew up in Cleveland, about 110 miles from the Nationwide Arena , where the 12th-seeded 49ers will play fifth-seeded Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA tournament this afternoon.

"I'm tired of sunshine," Nixon said with a smile. "Since I've been in Long Beach, I think it's rained about five times in 2A 1/2 years."

The hot shooter with a fondness for cold weather has a couple of more reasons to be comfortable in his first NCAA tournament.

First, he expects from 60 to 75 family members and friends to make the drive to Columbus. Second, UT plays the up-tempo style of game that Long Beach favors.

Nixon has as big a role in Long Beach's fast-paced, quick-shooting offense, as Chris Lofton -- the SEC player of the year -- does in UT's attack.

Nixon, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior, was recently honored as the Big West Conference player of the year. He leads the team in scoring with an 18.6-point-per game average; like Lofton, he has a history of making shots under duress when it matters most.

Twice this season, Nixon hit game-winning shots at the buzzer. One was a 35-footer against Loyola Marymount.

But you can't measure Nixon's value in last-second shots alone. You need a little history for perspective.

In the three years before his arrival, Long Beach lost 63 games. Since Nixon transferred to Long Beach from Columbus State junior college, the 49ers have won 42 games and are 24-7 this season.

Long Beach center Travon Free has awful memories of the pre-Nixon days. His first two teams went 6-21 and 10-21.

"I really didn't know where our program was going," Free said.

Hope came all the way from Ohio.

Nixon's assistant coach at Columbus State played at Long Beach. So Nixon decided to visit. The visit was as memorable for his future teammates as it was for Nixon.

"He came by and played a pick-up game with us," Free said. "Then, they told me he was thinking about signing with us. I thought, 'That would be huge.' "

He was right.

Nixon and a plethora of other junior college transfers have revitalized a sagging program that hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1995.

Not only did the program change. So did the style of play. Coach Larry Reynolds adapted his offense to the skills of the new, more talented players.

"We don't really run plays," Free said. "We play a more free-rein style of basketball."

That's a perfect fit for Nixon, who has succeeded against a myriad of defenses designed to thwart him.

"They try everything to stop him," Free said. "They face-guard him, double-team him, play a box-and-one. You can't stop him no matter what you do."

Lofton demands similar attention from UT opponents. And Nixon knows all about that.

"I watch college basketball on TV all the time," Nixon said. "I saw Tennessee against Texas, Florida and Kentucky.

"They play a lot like we do. The game will be up-and-down. It will be fun to watch."

No one will appreciate the run-and-fun game more than Nixon. It's his tempo and his temperature.

And with all those family and friends driving down from Cleveland, it's his homecoming, too.