Why Texas basketball left Nashville as an NCAA tourney team | Golden
The wait until Sunday will feel like forever for the Texas Longhorns who left their home court just last week to Oklahoma fans chanting “NIT! NIT!.”
Now here they sit a legitimate NCAA hopeful because of what they did in the SEC tournament. Selection Sunday will reveal their fate and the hope is the Sooner faithful will be told to go eat cake as the Horns make travel arrangements to Dayton.
“It's definitely going to be nerve-wracking for me,” guard Jordan Pope said after Friday’s 83-72 loss to Tennessee. “This is my first time in this process. I understand we're a team I guess that's on the bubble. It's out of our hands. It's not in our control.”
The quarterfinal result shocked no one since the Volunteers are a potential No. 1 seed that can “D” up a fleet of speeding Mack trucks if needed. The country’s top-ranked defense put the clamps on SEC scoring champion Tre Johnson, holding the electric freshman to 11 points on eight field goal attempts, many of which were taken with him under constant pressure from long-armed defender Jahmai Mashack.
The Horns were playing their third game in as many days against a team playing in its home state on nearly a week’s rest. They trailed 41-38 at the half but the Volunteers, star guards Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier, played to their No. 8 ranking and showed their mettle, pulling away midway through the final 20 minutes.
That said, the Horns left town with a newfound confidence born of a freer flowing offense with Tramon Mark’s move to point guard and some nice production from 6-foot-11 forward Kadin Shedrick. They even showed they could stay in a game even if Johnson isn’t scoring 20 though it’s more than understood that he will have to be much better on both ends moving forward.
The biggest question is did they do enough to convince the selection committee to include them in the upcoming March Madness festivities.
I say hell yeah.
The case for Texas
The Longhorns arrived in Nashville as presumed SEC roadkill.
They left with the look of an NCAA tournament team.
Now looks can be deceiving but if we’re taking ESPN bracketologist guru Joe Lunardi at this word, the Longhorns will be dancing in a few days.
The 19-15 record is pepper-spray painful on the eyes but sometimes it’s about who you beat and not how many wins you have.
The Horns got what they needed. For two days, they played harmonious hoops in the Music City and takedowns of tournament bound teams Vanderbilt and Texas A&M got them to seven Quad I wins, all in arguably the best league of teams in the sport’s history.
That easily outdistances other bubble teams like Indiana (4), Dayton (3), Boise State (2), Xavier (1) and North Carolina (1) which is much more name than game these days. The Tar Heels dropped to 1-12 against Quad 1 teams after Friday’s 74-71 loss to a Cooper Flagg-less Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
“We played in the best conference in the history of college basketball this season,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “Seven of those Quad wins are against the field that's going into the tournament.”
His mentor Rick Barnes did his best stump job for his former employer.
"There is no doubt in my mind they did enough," he said. "I think they’ve done more than enough. I think we should have 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament is what I think."
Sure, there have been some butt ugly losses on the Texas ledgers — the one to 0-13 South Carolina is the biggest indictment against their case — but the overall picture appears rosy.
Texas fans should feel like a fourth grader that got an extra slice of pizza in the lunch line for free because this team bears no resemblance to others we’ve watched play uninspired ball without the right amount of desperation down the stretch yet the Horns are here now, buoyed by improved play from all over, the return of gluey guard Chendall Weaver — “he’s the toughest guy on our team,” Terry said — and a late-game poise that was missing in inaction for most of the season.
Who knows why they finally found their basketball swag this late in the game.
Maybe it’s the March air that’s bringing out the best in them. Perhaps those tweaks in the lineup are starting to come together at the right time. Maybe the players have discovered a hardened resolve and have united not only to win but to help save their head coach’s job.
Whatever the reason, the Horns were different in Nashville.
Dayton different.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golden: Texas basketball's two SEC wins should earn NCAA tourney entry
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