Big 12 Tournament
Griffin McVeigh
On paper, you would hope Texas can win at least one tournament game before presumably attempting to beat Kansas for the third time this season. However, for some reason, Texas Tech has owned the Longhorns over the past few years. Chris Beard has a career 8-4 record over Texas and all eight wins have come in the last nine matchups. My expectations are that Texas should be able to make the semifinals, but I predict Texas Tech will be the winner come the final buzzer Thursday night.
Cami Griffin
Momentum is a real thing. At first glance, I wasn’t very confident in Texas having to face Texas Tech in the first round for obvious reasons. However, they’re playing for revenge and have seemingly found a way to put it all together over the last week. We’ve witnessed the Longhorns collapse at the end of close contests this season, but something tells me they won’t shoot themselves in the foot in this one. They have something to prove. Regardless, I’m only confident in them winning one or two (at best) games throughout the Big 12 Tournament — they’re just not consistent enough to assume otherwise.
Shane Carter
Texas finished the 2021 regular season on a three-game win streak, including a revenge game against Oklahoma, so they’re obviously riding high with plenty of momentum. However, their first game in the conference tournament is against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, whom they’ve lost to twice this season. In both matchups, forward Greg Brown obtained three personal fouls and the team only made 58.1% and 66.7% of their free throw attempts. Both games were close, but Texas only hurt themselves. I’m not confident that Texas can beat a team that’s had their number the last few seasons.
Lastly, how will Shaka Smart’s squad fare throughout the NCAA Tournament?