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No. 7 Texas will face No. 10 Kansas State on March 13.
Texas concluded the 2024 college basketball regular season with a 94-80 win over Oklahoma on Saturday. Continue reading “A look at the 2024 Big 12 Tournament bracket for men’s basketball”
Texas’ move to the SEC got more real after its Big 12 regular season finale against Oklahoma.
Texas football has been an SEC program for a couple of months now. Basketball is soon to join it on the other side of the move from the Big 12.
The Longhorns played their last Big 12 regular season game in Saturday’s win over the Oklahoma Sooners. After the upcoming week’s conference tournament, the team’s only tie to the league will be representing it in neutral site games over March Madness before departing.
There’s no love lost between the Longhorns and their current league. This season has seen fans of a couple teams chant “S-E-C” to punctuate victory over Texas. The Longhorns don’t take it as an insult.
Texas is on to bigger and better things in football, but the move to its new conference will make for a more manageable basketball schedule that what it has faced in the Big 12. College basketball’s juggernaut increased in difficulty when it added Houston to a conference led by Kansas, Baylor, Iowa State and other prominent basketball programs.
The Longhorns’ time in the Big 12 is coming to an end. Saturday marked the final basketball regular season in the conference.
Texas will play its final Big 12 basketball tournament as it tips off March 12.
Texas reached 20 wins to cap the regular season with a win over Oklahoma.
For the third consecutive year, the Texas Longhorns swept the Oklahoma Sooners on the basketball court. It was the Longhorns’ seventh consecutive win over their hoops rival.
The win turns up the heat on Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser who has yet to beat Texas since taking over in Norman.
Texas head coach Rodney Terry took pressure off himself getting to the 20-win mark for the season. His team did so for the most part without reliance on three point baskets.
The Longhorns attempted 12 three-point shots making six of them. Consequently, Texas made 63.5% of its field goals and scored 94 points. The high scoring output was bolstered by a 22-for-23 performance from the free throw line.
The high field goal percentage and volume of free throw attempts are perhaps a result of more two-point shot attempts. Perhaps, for a program who isn’t afraid to shoot from long range, the team might have found a more efficient way to score given its personnel.
Texas isn’t loaded with three point scorers, but that doesn’t mean it lacks scorers altogether. The scoring output was well distributed on Saturday.
Veteran guard Tyrese Hunter led the scoring for the Longhorns with 30 points on 13 shot attempts. By comparison, fellow guard Max Abmas put up 11 points on 13 shot attempts.
Forward Dylan Disu added 16 points in post-injury action while Dillon Mitchell scored 14 points off the bench. Texas reserves Chendall Weaver and Kaden Shedrick put up nine and eight points respectively.
The Longhorns will look to follow one of their more complete offensive performances with a win in the Big 12 tournament.
A look at the best photos from the Oklahoma Sooners loss to the Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 regular season finale.
The Oklahoma Sooners got off to a sluggish start in their Big 12 regular season finale against the Texas Longhorns. The offense had a couple of cold stretches, and the defense wasn’t up to the challenge in Austin, and the Longhorns completed the Red River sweep of Oklahoma 94-80 on Saturday afternoon.
Javian McCollum returned but didn’t provide much, scoring just five points on 2 of 6 shooting in 26 minutes. Rivaldo Soares stepped up and had a great game with 21 points to lead the way for the Sooners.
The Longhorns shot an astounding 63.6% from the field and 50% from three.
This season, the Texas Longhorns were simply a bad matchup for the Sooners. Oklahoma lost the two games this season by a combined 29 points. Unfortunately, the Sooners will now face the Longhorns in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament, which begins Wednesday.
The Oklahoma Sooners dropped their Big 12 regular season finale to the Texas Longhorns 94-40.
The Oklahoma Sooners recovered from another slow start to close the first half trailing by only five. But the Texas Longhorns took it to another level by outscoring the Sooners by nine to win 94-80.
The Sooners fell to 20-11 and 8-10 in Big 12 play.
The Sooners struggled to get their offense going in the first half, especially from three. But late in the half, the Sooners began to find their rhythm and were hitting from deep to close the gap.
But the Longhorns took control in the second half, pushing their lead to as many as 20 over the final 20 minutes. The Sooners struggled to contain Tyrese Hunter, who had a career-high 30 points for the Longhorns, shooting 9 of 13 from the field. Hunter was also 3 of 4 from the three.
Oklahoma got a big game from [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag], who led the Sooners with 21 points on 7 of 9 from the field and 3 of 4 from three.
Despite the return of [autotag]Javian McCollum[/autotag], the Sooners offense wasn’t consistent enough to hang with the Longhorns for a full 40 minutes and the defense wasn’t much better, allowing the Horns to shoot 63.6% from the field.
The Sooners now head into Big 12 tournament play hoping to make a statement and solidify their NCAA tournament hopes. The Sooners will be the No. 9 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will have a difficult road in Kansas City.
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Rodney Terry thinks Texas is one of the best teams in college basketball.
The Texas basketball program has won five of its last 12 games. It currently sits at 19-11. Still, its head coach Rodney Terry believes the Longhorns are one of the top teams in college basketball.
Terry said the following of his team on Monday.
“We’ve played one of the hardest schedules in the country. Have we had a stumble here or there, just like every other team in this league has? Yeah, we’ve had that. But we’re one of the best teams in the country. We can play with anybody.”
It’s unclear how widely Terry is expanding the list of college basketball’s best teams, but he paints a different picture than the team’s record would indicate. While the Longhorns have played a difficult schedule, they haven’t performed to the level of a college basketball contender.
The Longhorns lost their two marquee nonconference games in the early going. They lost by 10 points to reigning national champion UConn before losing by 21 points against former Texas coach Shaka Smart and Marquette.
The conference slate has only been marginally better. The Longhorns are 3-6 in ranked games in conference play. That’s to say nothing of ugly losses to unranked West Virginia (9-20) and UCF (15-13).
Texas is good enough to make the NCAA tournament, but hasn’t earned much more acclaim than that. While there is still time to improve heading into college basketball’s postseason, there is work left to do for the Longhorns.
Texas will play Oklahoma for a higher tournament seed in Saturday’s regular season finale at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN.
Rodney Terry on if Texas should be in the NCAA Tournament:
“We’re one of the best teams in the country.” pic.twitter.com/zz42QvQRbp
— Texas Sports Unfiltered (@TSUnfiltered) March 5, 2024
Baylor’s 34-for-42 performance at the free throw line provided enough cushion to run away with the game.
We had a high scoring matchup in Waco on Monday night. The Baylor Bears and Texas Longhorns ran the score high despite only 18 combined three-point baskets made.
The Longhorns got off to a fast start from three-point range, but finished the game at 9-for-23 from the three-point line. The cold streak proved costly.
Baylor did much of its damage from the free throw line hitting 34 of 42 free throw attempts. Texas head coach Rodney Terry noted the disparity of free throw opportunities as the Longhorns had just 21 attempts to the Bears’ 42 from the free throw line.
Midway through the second half, Baylor stormed back into the game. Nevertheless, the game took a turn for the worst when Texas forward Dylan Disu went down with injury. Then the Longhorns’ lack of depth was on full display.
Baylor went from falling behind by double digits early to running away with the game.
Despite falling to 19-11 on the season, an earlier win against Texas Tech and dominant victory over Oklahoma State should have the Longhorns in the NCAA tournament field. Whether they can win in the tournament is still to be seen.
The Longhorns will end the season with a home Red River game with the Oklahoma Sooners (19-10) who also look to solidify tournament seeding. The teams will play Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN.
After falling to Kansas, it’s time to accept that the Longhorns aren’t a viable contender for postseason success.
Texas basketball is not a legitimate contender heading into March. It’s time to embrace it. Continue reading “Texas basketball falters at Kansas, 86-67”
The Houston Cougars picked up a massive win over the Baylor Bears in overtime, and have an argument as the top team in college basketball.
The Houston Cougars earned an incredibly hard fought victory on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Baylor Bears on the road in overtime by a score of 82-76.
Houston had a 16 point halftime lead but Baylor erased it with a strong second half, tying the game with 4.4 seconds left on an and-1 bucket from Yves Missi. Missi missed the free throw and Jamal Shead hit what looked like a game winning three pointer, but replay showed he just missed getting it off. Blowing a 17 point lead and going into overtime on the road against a team with momentum is a monumental task, but Kelvin Sampson and the Coogs calmly took care of business in the extra frame.
Houston is No. 2 in the country according to the AP Poll, and with UConn going down on the road to No. 15 Creighton earlier this week, this win could move Houston into the No. 1 spot.
The Coogs are 24-3 on the season, the same record as both Purdue and UConn, and being in first place in the toughest conference in college basketball is certainly a strong argument for the top spot.
Regardless of who is No. 1, Houston has the inside track on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the way they are playing lately they are a great bet to be back in the Final 4 this April.
There’s no better resume building opportunity moving forward for Texas than Kansas on the road.
Another opportunity to move off the bubble will take place on Saturday. The Texas Longhorns (17-9) take on the No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks (20-6) in Allen Fieldhouse.
Like the Houston Cougars who Texas faced last Saturday, the Jayhawks are good at protecting their home floor. Kansas is 13-0 at home on the season compared to a 3-5 record on the road. That doesn’t make them any less vulnerable.
The Jayhawks have five losses in Big 12 conference play with an 8-5 record in such games. College basketball’s toughest conference has got the better of most teams. Kansas is no exception. Pulling an upset will still be a tall task for the Longhorns.
Texas enters the game with conference wins over No. 11 Baylor (19-7), Oklahoma (18-8) and TCU (18-8). Another top victory could solidify the team’s NCAA Tournament resume and take pressure off of its final four regular season games.
It’s not a must-win game for the Longhorns, but like Houston, Iowa State and BYU it’s an opportunity to earn a difficult win that they failed to earn in previous tries. Texas will face Kansas on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN.
