Texas Basketball: NCAA Tournament fortunes await vs. Kansas

The NCAA Tournament result for the 2018-19 season for the Texas basketball program is set to boil down to one pivotal game against the Kansas Jayhawks.

By now, fans of the Texas basketball program recognize the difficulties that this coaching staff and locker room has with consistently producing solid efforts on the floor game in and game out. This Texas basketball team is anything but consistent this season, as the highs and lows through the entire course were incredible.

Few bubble teams for the NCAA Tournament boast a resume like that of Texas basketball with some of the quality victories in store. Texas basketball has some wins over potential high seed tourney teams like the North Carolina Tar Heels, Kansas Jayhawks, Iowa State Cyclones, Kansas State Wildcats, and the Purdue Boilermakers this season.

Especially wins over the likes of Kansas and UNC will carry a lot of weight in the eyes of the Selection Committee. But, if the Texas Longhorns basketball program is unable to emerge victorious in at least one game during the Big 12 Tournament, Selection Sunday might not let a team with a .500 record into the tourney field.

Texas had such a rough finish to the regular season, losing four of five games, that this team is doing anything better trending up at the moment. That’s one factor that the committee seems to use in its selection for the field too. It would choose a hotter team of late over the Horns, all else equal. That’s at least the way it should be done.

However, there is one final chance for the Horns to solidify the status of an NCAA Tournament team well inside the final four in. Kansas enters a key second round showdown in the Big 12 Tournament against Texas basketball on March 14 in Kansas City as a 3.5-point favorite.

Vegas did give a rather large edge to head Texas basketball coach Shaka Smart and his team for most of the season. This is a difficult team to bet against, though, since you never know which Texas team will show up on the court each game.

What we do know is that Texas would move to 16-16 (8-11 Big 12) on the season if this meeting in the Big 12 Tournament results in a loss. That would put them right on the bubble and possibly on the outside looking in for the Big 12 Tournament.

A return of dynamic senior shooting guard Kerwin Roach Jr. to the starting five after a five game suspension at the end of the regular season should spark the scoring. Some rather recent injury issues for senior center Dylan Osetkowski and freshman forward Jaxson Hayes should be worked out by now with the long break too.

Texas is in a good position to handle the challenge of a shorthanded Kansas team. Head coach Bill Self is definitely fighting an uphill battle with a loaded field in the top half of this tournament. Texas played the Jayhawks really tight in the two previous meetings this season, splitting the series so far. This is the most important of the three the Horns will have against Kansas this season.