Picking up five-star forward Greg Brown has built up hype for this upcoming basketball season, with Texas expected to be better than usual. Bringing back 100% of their production to go along with Brown and Shaka Smart is expected to have his best team ever in Austin.
Even ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is buying into the hype around this Longhorns team, ranking them as high as a four seed in his 2021 NCAA Tournament Bracketology. This would be Texas’ highest seed in the tournament ever under Smart and the highest since the 2011 tournament.
Playing in the West region, Gonzaga reigns as the No. 1 overall seed. Wisconsin, Big 12 rival Texas Tech, and Oregon round out the top five.
Here is the full region:
Outside of the west, five other Big 12 schools are projected to make the NCAA tournament, including Baylor being a one-seed in the South region. With those first and second-round games projected to be in Dallas, the Bears would have a huge home-court advantage against their opponents.
Kansas is once again expected to be a top team in the country, being a two-seed in the Midwest region. The Jayhawks are joined by Oklahoma State in their region but on the opposite side of the bracket. The Cowboys are projected to be nine-seed. This would be the first time Oklahoma State made the NCAA Tournament since 2017.
To round out the conference, West Virginia and Oklahoma will represent the Big 12 in the East region. The Mountaineers will be a three-seed, while the Sooners will be a nine-seed. The two were both expected to make the 2019 NCAA Tournament but was canceled due to the coronavirus.
As a whole, the Big 12 is going to have a rebound type season in college basketball. While the conference may have the same amount of teams in the NCAA Tournament, a couple schools outside of Kansas and Baylor will be highly seeded.
Thanks to the commitment of Greg Brown, Texas will hopefully be one of those highly seeded teams. Last season, finishing third in the Big 12 (as the Longhorns did) put you in an elimination game in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. In 2020-2021, finishing third in the conference could have you as a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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