The “win and you’re in” phrase could not have been clearer for Texas men’s basketball heading into its final game of the season.
After stringing together a 9–9 conference record, with seven Quad 1 wins, according to ESPN, the Longhorns looked like a team that should be in the tournament. However, Texas lost to Oklahoma at home in their final conference game.
Predictions for where Texas will land in the tournament, if they make it, have now spiraled with no consensus on whether Texas will still be an at-large bid or in the bubble.
“Just when it seemed to be on track to shore up its at-large résumé, Texas dropped its final two games of the regular season on the road at Arkansas and at home vs. Oklahoma … their consensus at-large forecast dropped to 55% after Saturday’s defeat,” Neil Paine wrote in one of his data-supported sports stories for ESPN.
“I do believe we’ve done enough,” senior guard Jordan Pope said. “We have a lot of big wins. We’ve shown a lot of great things that would get us into the tournament, but that’s out of our control. That’s not up to us, so we don’t really want to worry about that.”
Texas head coach Sean Miller’s team still has at least one more game to prove they are worthy of March Madness. Texas will have a rematch with Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.
In early February, the Longhorns and Rebels met in the Moody Center. Texas won 79-68, but it wasn’t a complete game by any means. Texas held an early 18-point lead, but its subpar defense allowed a 22-8 run from Ole Miss to keep the game close in the end.
The contrast in the quality of basketball between the offense and defense has been a recurring scene for Miller’s team. It’s something that can’t happen in the SEC Tournament if they want a bid to March Madness, and it definitely cannot happen in the national tournament.
“We came out after halftime like we’ve done 20 times and we just couldn’t get a stop,” Miller said. “In March, you’re not going to advance just playing one side of the ball. That could be defense, that could be offense — you got to be good at both. You got to play with amazing, sustainable effort. We’ve had a hard time doing that since I got here.”
However, defensive efforts have helped Texas claim some of its best wins on the season. The Longhorns held then-No. 10/8 Vanderbilt to only 64 points and then-No. 21/22 Georgia, the best offense in college basketball at the time, to only 67 points.
The Commodores came into that game averaging 87.67 points in three conference games, and the Bulldogs averaged 85.83 in six games before its loss to the Longhorns.
If Texas is able to recreate those defensive efforts, Texas could be in good shape to defeat the Rebels again, opening up the opportunity for a conference and national tournament run.
Tip-off between the Longhorns and the Rebels is set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
