The madness continues.
Texas men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart led the Longhorns on a miraculous five-game win streak over the past month. In what appeared to be a disappointing season that had minimal hope, Texas began to creep into discussions regarding the NCAA tournament.
The hype was short-lived as Texas fell flat in the season finale at home to Oklahoma State. In doing so, the Longhorns finished the regular season .500 in Big 12 play and 19-12 overall.
Some believed Texas would need to defeat Oklahoma State in order to receive an at-large bid into the tournament, while others were confident Texas had already done enough to sneak in.
Kansas head coach Bill Self agrees with the latter. According to Dallas Morning News reporter Chuck Carlton, Self believes six teams from the Big 12 should be included in the selection process.
Kansas' Bill Self on how many Big 12 teams will make the NCAA Tournament: "I see six. I see a solid six." He included both Texas Tech and Texas in that list.
— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) March 9, 2020
It’s quite an uphill battle for Texas to win the Big 12 tournament and receive an automatic bid. Kansas and Baylor are in a superior tier to the rest of the conference, while the Longhorns would still have to defeat a solid Texas Tech team in the first round to even make it to that point.
In terms of how successful Self has been this season with the Kansas program, his words carry a bit of weight. If you go at least .500 in conference play, you have a much higher probability of making it into the NCAA tournament.
The six Big 12 teams mentioned would include Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas and Texas Tech. Four of those six programs concluded the season by going 9-9 in conference play. Texas Tech has the worst overall record of the six teams, but they also have a legitimate chance to make a statement in the Big 12 tournament.
Each of these six teams can make a great case for the NCAA tournament, it solidifies that Texas is still very much in consideration for an at-large bid this year.