Rodney Terry campaigns for Texas men’s NCAA Tournament berth behind SEC’s incredible season

SEC

Texas Longhorns Men’s Basketball

With Selection Sunday just a few days away, the opportunities and time for Texas men’s basketball to get off the NCAA Tournament bubble are running out.

But a prime opportunity was presented for Rodney Terry’s Longhorns on Thursday at the SEC basketball tournament in Nashville against No. 16 Texas A&M.

Less than 24 hours after upsetting Vanderbilt, the 13-seeded Longhorns took full advantage of their opportunity on Thursday by squeezing out a 94-89 win over the 5th-seeded Aggies in double overtime despite losing several key players down the stretch due to foul trouble.

REQUIRED READING: SEC tournament bracket: Full schedule, how to watch 2025 conference championship

Texas entered the day as the top team in the “First Four Out” category of ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s NCAA Tournament projection. With its win, and a loss by Xavier to Marquette in the Big East tournament, the Longhorns moved into the “Last Four In” category of Lunardi’s bracketology.

The win was Texas’ seventh Quad 1 win of the season, a highly valuable statistic used by the NCAA selection committee. Texas will have an opportunity to win its eighth Quad 1 win on Friday when it meets Tennessee in the quarterfinals.

Rodney Terry discusses Texas basketball’s NCAA Tournament case

Here’s what Terry had to say postgame about how he believes Thursday’s win over Texas A&M should impact the Longhorns’ case of making The Big Dance:

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fastDownload for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *