Whether the Longhorns deserve to be a four seed or not, there is nothing they can do about it.
The road to Houston would have definitely been much easier had Texas been awarded a two or three seed. But they aren’t.
Texas was placed in the West Regional. To reach the Final Four at Reliant Stadium, the Longhorns would have to go through Tulsa and Anaheim and four games that will be no walk in the park.
The Longhorns are capable of beating any team. At the same time, they are capable of losing to any team. That includes Oakland, Texas’ first round (or technically second round, with the tourney expanding to 68 teams) opponent.
Oakland is already becoming a popular upset pick by people who are trying to stir things up in their bracket. The Golden Grizzlies ran through the Summit League. In non-conference play, they went up against four (then) top-10 teams including (then) No. 7 Tennessee who they upset in Knoxville. With all this experience against teams such as Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue, they should not be intimidated by Texas.
Oakland scores points. They are second in the nation in both field goal percentage and points scored. This probably isn’t the first round matchup Texas was hoping to have, but it is what they got.
Other notable teams in the West Region:
No. 1 Duke: The Blue Devils would be a potential Sweet 16 opponent for Texas. Duke got the best of Texas in the NCAA Tournament two years ago. A Dogus Balbay-Nolan Smith matchup would be something to see.
No. 2 San Diego State: Should the Aztecs make it past their first two games, they would be playing very close to home in Anaheim. It is definitely too early to talk about a potential game between San Diego State and Texas, so I won’t bother discussing yet.
No. 3 Connecticut: Kemba Walker got the Huskies up from a five or six seed to a three seed in five days. Connecticut won five straight games in the Big East Championship to earn its place in the bracket. Like San Diego State, it is too early to discuss, but it would interesting to see a rematch of one of the games of the year.
No. 5 Arizona: The Wildcats would have to get past Memphis to possibly meet up with the Longhorns. Arizona is a tough to gauge considering they play in the Pac-10 – a conference that did not impress this year. Arizona’s Derrick Williams is a Morris twin-like player that can do a little bit of everything.
The rest are just details. Good luck on your brackets.
