Texas Basketball: 3 most difficult remaining games this season

Five games are left on the regular season slate for the Texas basketball program, needing a solid finish to get into the NCAA Tournament.

On Feb. 22, the Texas basketball program gets set to take on the Kansas State Wildcats with a chance to move their record to 16-11 (6-8 Big 12) on the season. Texas did manage to pull out a win over the TCU Horned Frogs on Feb. 19 thanks to a huge effort from two unlikely sources, including freshman center Will Baker and junior shooting guard Andrew Jones.

Those two combined for more than 40 points in that 70-56 rather surprising win over the Horned Frogs at home in front of a rather desolate Frank Erwin Center earlier this week. At least Texas got a win and gave a storyline that wasn’t the hot seat surrounding fifth-year head coach Shaka Smart.

That’s all that is getting talked about these days surrounding the Texas men’s basketball program, the hot seat that Shaka can’t seem to stay off of. Get to the NCAA Tournament, and that will be a conversation that is put on the back burners for a while at least.

Texas cannot be making the NIT again this year and expect that to be good enough. It doesn’t matter if Smart is winning the NIT or getting knocked in the first round, that is not the desired result for any hoops fan on the Forty Acres.

Start with a win over Kansas State and go from there. But this will be a difficult stretch run of the regular season for the men in burnt orange without a doubt.

Here’s a look into the definitive three most challenging remaining games on the regular season schedule for the Texas Longhorns basketball program during this stretch run.