Texas Basketball: NIT Semifinal Preview and Prediction

A huge time of year for the Texas basketball program is upcoming when it will take on the court on April 2 to face the TCU Horned Frogs.

The Texas basketball team didn’t want to be here in the NIT and neither did the fans. But here we are. Texas basketball arrived to the Big Apple on Sunday night in preparation for their NIT semifinal game against the TCU Horned Frogs on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Texas basketball is currently riding a three-game win streak and has looked like a different team since postseason play has started. An NIT championship isn’t the best, but at least it would be a way to end the season on a positive note after such a mediocre year.

But the Horns must get past fellow Big 12 rival TCU first if they want to ply for a title. So, let’s look at how the two stack up against each other.

Texas basketball and TCU met twice during the regular season, both ending in Horned Frog victories. The first contest all the way back in January in Fort Worth was a 65-61 victory for the Horned Frogs. The second time the two clubs met was on the final day of the regular season in Austin.

Many projected that a loss for Texas would crush any hopes of making the NCAA tournament. The Horns were defeated 69-56 which capped of a 16-16 season for Texas. An utter disappointment to say the least.

This third time around both teams are on three game winning streaks and playing some of their most consistent basketball of the season. The two players that the Texas Longhorns basketball program will be paying a lot of attention to are Desmond Bane and Kouait Noi.

This duo has led the charge for the Horned Frogs during the NIT and will be relied upon heavily if TCU wants to come away with a victory. Noi is coming off a 25-point game where he knocked down six three pointer’s in TCU’s quarterfinal win over Creighton.

In the previous game Bane scored 30 for the Horned Frogs. Safe to say that Shaka Smart better have his team ready to lock down Noi and Bane as best as they can.

On the Texas basketball side it’s been the same guys getting it done in the NIT who did all season long. Dylan Osetkowski led the way with 15 points in the quarterfinal against Colorado and Kerwin Roach added in 14.

Tuesday night at MSG is going to come down to which team can shoot the three ball. Texas has looked much better in these last three games. They’ve made a whopping 35 of them during the NIT.

TCU on the other hand was a decent three ball team this season but has not looked sharp during the NIT. If Texas can hit around 13 threes, they have a great chance to win this game.

Rebounding will be another big factor in this game. TCU clearly has a size advantage on the Horns, and it showed during the previous two matchups where Texas was outrebounded by nine and eleven boards.

Osetkowksi will have to play big and be a force on the boards for Texas to pull out a victory. He has been the leader of this team all year long as a starting senior and has been doing everything of late so this squad can fight another day.

After all of that, let’s go with a 77-75 Texas victory. Roach gets to the rim and creates for his shooters. Osetkowski is a mad man on the glass and the Horns play for a NIT championship crown on Thursday night.