Texas Basketball: 3 reasons Longhorns can win Big 12 Tournament

Facing a challenging road ahead in the Big 12 Tournament, the Texas basketball program could parlay momentum into a real title run.

With a monumental win over the Oklahoma Sooners being delivered with a last-second three-pointer from junior guard Matt Coleman, the Texas basketball program managed to win their fifth straight game. Establishing this five-game winning streak came at the perfect time for Texas to help take a lot of the heat off the shoulders of head coach Shaka Smart.

Throughout most of the month of February, Smart was on one of the hotter seats of any head coach in all of the power conferences. Texas has a higher standard of success for their men’s basketball program than just making it to one NCAA Tournament in the span of four years. And that’s the way Texas was trending on the hardwood prior to this hot streak in the last five games.

Texas has now beat three NCAA Tournament quality teams in the midst of this five-game winning streak. Two of those tourney-caliber teams were also ranked in the top 25 at the time that Texas took them down. Those two top 25 wins came over the likes of the No. 22 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders and the No. 20 West Virginia Mountaineers.

Maybe the biggest win over this stretch came over head coach Chris Beard and Texas Tech on the road in Lubbock last weekend. Texas now carries a record of 19-11 (9-8 Big 12) into the final game of the regular season, which comes at home against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on March 7. After that, Texas will be set to take part in the Big 12 Tournament next week.

Here’s a look into three definitive reasons why the Texas Longhorns basketball program could win the Big 12 Tournament this year.