For the first time in eight years, those that follow Texas basketball are actually still discussing the team being in the tournament after the first round.
The Longhorns, along with the other five teams out of the Big 12, advanced to the Round of 32. Texas was able to extinguish Virginia Tech’s scorching hot streak that saw them win 13 of their last 15 games, including the ACC conference tournament.
Texas’ reward for advancing is to take on No. 3 Purdue in the second round, whose ranking never dropped out of the top 10 all season.
It will be a tough matchup for Chris Beard’s squad considering the Longhorns struggle with teams who have skilled big mans. Purdue has two of them in 7-foot-4 Zach Edey and 6-foot-10 Trevion Williams. Not to mention, the Boilermakers also have projected top five NBA draft pick in Jaden Ivey running the offense.
On the bright side, Beard has a 2-0 record against Purdue in the NCAA tournament, as he beat them once while at Little Rock and once while at Texas Tech.
Texas will need to be flawless in every aspect of the game in order to upset Purdue on Sunday. Let’s take a look at how Texas and Purdue rank in some key statistical categories.