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How sweet it is: Dylan Disu, Texas men edge Penn State to advance in NCAA Tournament

thomas jones, austin american-statesman
·4 min read
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DES MOINES, Iowa — With nothing less than the season, and perhaps the job of interim head coach Rodney Terry, on the line, it’s no surprise who the Longhorns looked to down the stretch Saturday night.

Texas senior Dylan Disu capped the biggest game of his career with a flurry of late baskets as the Longhorns rallied for a 71-66 win over Penn State in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Wells Fargo Arena. Disu, a 6-foot-9 forward from Hendrickson High School in Pflugerville, scored 28 points to help the Longhorns advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 15 years. That total matched his career high that he set as a sophomore at Vanderbilt.

More:Bohls: Home-grown, late-arriving Dylan Disu has been a late bloomer for Texas basketball

“It means a lot to be showing up in March Madness, but I couldn't do it without my teammates,” said Disu, who also had 10 rebounds. “I mean, they were finding me, getting me a lot of my shots. My teammates had to find me first, so credit to them and credit to the coaches that were putting us in position to score.”

The timing of Disu’s buckets mattered even more than the amount. With Texas trailing 58-55 with 4 minutes, 48 seconds left in the game, Terry took a timeout to settle his team and clarify Texas’ strategy.

In other words, the Longhorns were going to go inside to Disu again. And again. And again.

Texas forward Dylan Disu celebrates in the last seconds of a 71-66 victory over Penn State in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Saturday. Disu had 28 points to carry Texas into the Sweet 16 for the first time in 15 years.
Texas forward Dylan Disu celebrates in the last seconds of a 71-66 victory over Penn State in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Saturday. Disu had 28 points to carry Texas into the Sweet 16 for the first time in 15 years.

Disu delivered each time, scoring three straight baskets to turn that three-point deficit into a 61-58 lead with 2:42 left. After Marcus Carr scored on a driving layup, Disu added two more smooth turnaround jumpers for good measure to help seal the win.

“This whole game and our game plan offensively was to really own the paint,” Terry said. “It was a paint game for us on the offensive end of the floor. We didn't want to settle. We knew (Penn State) was a really good offensive team, we had to try to make them work on defense and we wanted to attack the paint all night long.

“We knew we had a size advantage; we knew we had a guy (Disu) that could score the ball that's playing at a very high level.”

Indeed. Disu entered the game averaging a team-best 15.3 points and 8.8 rebounds a game while shooting 73.5% from the floor in his previous four Big 12 and NCAA tournament games. He also earned the Big 12 tournament MVP award after leading the Longhorns to the tournament title last week in Kansas City.

Texas (28-8), a No. 2 seed, won even though the Horns’ outside shooting matched the frigid wind whipping around outside the arena. After making 13 3-pointers in Thursday’s first-round win over Colgate, Texas managed just one made 3-pointer on 13 tries compared to 30-of-48 shooting from 2-point range.

More:As senior year winds down, Timmy Allen doing what it takes to advance in NCAA Tournament

That cold shooting helped Penn State get back into the game and briefly regain the lead, but Terry kept his squad calm in the timeout that preceded the Horns’ late rally.

Texas guard Marcus Carr, left, drives against Penn State guard Seth Lundy during a 71-66 victory over the Penn State in a NCAA Tournament second-round game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. With the win, Carr and the Longhorns advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 15 years.
Texas guard Marcus Carr, left, drives against Penn State guard Seth Lundy during a 71-66 victory over the Penn State in a NCAA Tournament second-round game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. With the win, Carr and the Longhorns advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 15 years.

“I said, ‘guys, we've been here before, it's nothing we haven't faced this year,’” Terry said. "I said we've played the toughest league in the country, let's go out right now. We've got to put it on our defense. We've done it all year long. We've got to get a stop and score and put some stops together here and try to finish this game out. And I thought our guys went out and did that at a very high level.”

Timmy Allen, a senior who scored nine points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, nodded in agreement with his coach.

“We've been battle-tested time and time again. This was nothing new,” Allen said. “When we got down there, there was no shake, no bend. We just went back to what we do, what we prepped for. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We knew there was going to be a time today where we would have to go through adversity and get over that hump, and we did that. A ton of guys stepped up, a complete total group effort. And Dylan had a special night. Another special night, I should probably say.”

Penn State (23-14), a No. 10 seed and one of the more efficient offensive teams in the country, shot just 41.7%. Point guard Jalen Pickett, the Nittany Lions’ all-American candidate, had 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting and just one assist and seven turnovers while being hounded by everyone from Allen and Brock Cunningham to Jabari Rice.

“We know some nights you know we're not going to shoot as well as we want to shoot, but our defense travels,” Terry said.

It’ll travel with the Longhorns back to Kansas City for the Midwest regional tournament. The Longhorns will play either third-seeded Xavier or No. 11 Pittsburgh on Friday.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Dylan Disu, Texas men edge Penn State to reach Sweet 16 in NCAAs