Texas men hope to translate regular-season success into postseason tournament wins
Throughout a tumultuous regular season, the Texas men’s basketball team tested itself in the best conference in the league.
Now that tournament time has arrived, interim head coach Rodney Terry hopes that the lessons learned throughout Big 12 play can translate into postseason success. The Big 12 could have four teams among the top eight seeds when the NCAA selection committee releases the NCAA brackets Sunday afternoon, depending on the results from this week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
No other conference will likely have more than one team among the top eight seeds.
“What a big-boy race, man,” said Texas interim coach Rodney Terry, referring to the Big 12. “You know, in March, it's about finishing and advancing. I think our guys have really embraced the joy of playing in March right now.”
More:Marcus Carr, Jabari Rice among Texas players selected to coaches All-Big 12 team
Texas played with plenty of joy Saturday, when the Longhorns beat No. 3 Kansas to secure sole possession of second place in the final Big 12 standings as well as a No. 2 seed in this week’s Big 12 Tournament. The No. 7 Longhorns will try and carry that momentum into their Big 12 Tournament opener Thursday evening against either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State.
Texas may have swept both teams in the regular season, but that’s the only similarity in the season series. The two wins over Oklahoma came by a combined three points, which included a thrilling overtime win at home Feb. 18. Both the wins over Oklahoma State were by double digits.
Could defense key Texas hopes of tournament wins?
But the opposition doesn’t matter as much as Texas’ approach to the game, said senior Jabari Rice, especially away from the team’s home court at Moody Center.
More:Bohls: No. 9 Longhorns guard (and guard, and guard) against letdown, throttle No. 3 Kansas
“I really believe that our team, we have to play defense on the road when the crowd is not at our advantage or if we don't have as loud as a crowd that we usually do (at Moody),” said Rice, the New Mexico State transfer who was recently named the Big 12’s sixth man of the year by the conference’s coaches. “And I think we're going to accept that challenge and bring our defense on the road.”
The Longhorns will need to if they hope to at least reach the Big 12 title game and strengthen their case as a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns went 16-1 in their debut season in the madness of Moody Center. However, they had just an 8-8 record away from Austin and enter the Big 12 tournament on a four-game road losing streak.
Considering that only West Virginia has a longer trek to Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center than Texas, the entire Big 12 Tournament can qualify as a road contest for the Longhorns.
A 'lot of basketball' left for Texas, says the coach
But Terry says his team has spent the entire regular season — both mentally and physically — prepping for the heightened focus of tournament play, where one cold stretch from the floor or a sudden defensive lapse can lead to a quick end to the season.
The Longhorns racked up their most wins and their best Big 12 finish since the 2010-11 season despite the sudden departure of former head coach Chris Beard, who was suspended in December after being arrested on a felony charge for family violence against his fiancée. Beard was fired by Texas in January and had the criminal charges dropped by Travis County in February.
“I'm really proud of this group,” Terry said. “And I can't say it enough to those guys. Just the way they carried themselves on the court, off the court. They stayed the course. We have probably been the most challenged team all year from an adversity standpoint. And these guys never stopped working. They keep working every single day; their work ethic has been off the chart.”
So have some of the offensive numbers. The Longhorns led the Big 12 in scoring and ranked first in field-goal percentage and free-throw shooting. If his team can consistently stand firm on the defensive end of the court and battle teams to at least a draw on the boards, Terry thinks the Longhorns have the right stuff to make a deep run in the Big 12 Tournament and beyond.
“You look at all the top stats, we were the cream of the crop in this league,” Terry said. “Rebounding was the one Achilles, (but) we knew we could fix it throughout the course of this season. We don't want this journey to stop. We know there's a lot of basketball to be played.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas men's basketball wants to carry over regular-season success
