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Texas Basketball: 5 reasons Longhorns deserve NCAA Tournament bid

By Andrew Miller

AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 19: Kerwin Roach II #12 of the Texas Basketball Longhorns reacts as his team defeats Oklahoma Sooners 75-72 at The Frank Erwin Center on January 19, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 19: Kerwin Roach II #12 of the Texas Basketball Longhorns reacts as his team defeats Oklahoma Sooners 75-72 at The Frank Erwin Center on January 19, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 22: Married couple Phil Handler (L) and Meredith Trubitt of Washington D.C. attend a game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Texas Longhorns during the 2018 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on November 22, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 22: Married couple Phil Handler (L) and Meredith Trubitt of Washington D.C. attend a game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Texas Longhorns during the 2018 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on November 22, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) /

3. Premier wins on the resume

Very few teams in the nation that sit on the bubble for NCAA Tournament contention have the quality of wins on the resume as Texas. All the Horns needed was one additional win at the end of the regular season or in the Big 12 Tournament to get that final push into the NCAA Tournament field.

What wound up happening for the Horns was quite different than most fans could be hoping for. Texas only won one of its final six games entering Selection Sunday. The regular season finale loss to the TCU Horned Frogs combined with the loss to Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament seemed to seal the Horns fate in the minds of most national pundits.

ESPN’s Bracketology now has the Horns on the outside looking in for the NCAA Tournament field on Selection Sunday. The other three teams that ESPN has on the outside looking in among the first four out are NC State, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Belmont Bruins. Other contenders like the Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers are among the next four out.

However, Texas has a convincing win already over one of the teams that sits among the last eight in the NCAA Tournament field, against the Oklahoma Sooners. Some of the other more impressive wins on the resume for Texas this season came against the North Carolina Tar Heels, Iowa State Cyclones, Purdue Boilermakes, Kansas State Wildcats, and Kansas.

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