Texas Basketball: 5 arguments for Longhorns to make NCAA Tournament

1. Quality of losses

This last part of the list for the Texas basketball program partly plays into the previous point. Texas had a good strength of schedule and strength of record rating so far this season. They haven’t lost to all that many bad teams, which is a major difference from what happened under Smart’s direction last year.

Arguably the worst losses on the season so far for the Longhorns came at the hands of the Providence Friars, Iowa State Cyclones, and Georgetown Hoyas. At least all three of those teams have NBA level talent on the roster between point guard Tyrese Haliburton, combo guard Mac McClung, and guard Alpha Diallo.

However, the nature of the losses for Texas against Providence, Iowa State, and West Virginia by a combined margin of more than 55 points is definitely a mark against the Longhorns. At least Texas mostly has losses to top 25 caliber teams, and not all that many of them. Texas was swept in the season series against the top two teams in the nation in the Kansas Jayhawks and Baylor Bears.

Texas can use this as a real argument in their favor that they had to compete with some of the nation’s top teams all season long. They can take a seasoned squad that could be deserving into the NCAA Tournament field. This could very well be a team that has a top 20 or 25 ranked strength of schedule in the country entering Selection Sunday.

Texas also has quality wins over the likes of the No. 23 Purdue Boilermakers, No. 20 West Virginia, Cal Golden Bears, TCU, and the Texas A&M Aggies so far this season. They can get one or two more against the Oklahoma schools. And the Big 12 Tournament offers a good chance for them to add a final set of good wins ahead of Selection Sunday.