Texas Basketball: Latest ESPN Bracketology has Horns in Big Dance

Despite their recent devastating regular season finale loss to Oklahoma State last weekend, the Texas basketball program could still be in the tourney.

ESPN’s college basketball insider Joe Lunardi gave his updated predictions for the NCAA Tournament out of a busy weekend around the country on March 8. And the Texas basketball program somehow managed to still come out on the positive end of the latest update to Lunardi’s Bracketology.

In this latest edition from Lunardi, the Texas Longhorns basketball program still was one of the last four teams in. The other three of the last four teams in included the Stanford Cardinal, Indiana Hoosiers, and NC State Wolfpack. The last four byes for teams on the bubble went to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, UCLA Bruins, Arizona State Sun Devils, and the Marquette Golden Eagles.

Lunardi still seems high on the Longhorns, and the overall depth of the Big 12 ahead of the conference tournament (which begins on March 11). He has six teams from the Big 12 still in the NCAA Tournament field coming out of the weekend. The other four teams from the Big 12 that he has in are the Oklahoma Sooners, West Virginia Mountaineers, Kansas Jayhawks, and Baylor Bears.

Only the Big Ten and PAC-12 would have more teams in the Big Dance than the Big 12 in Lunard’s latest projections.

The Longhorns received the lowest seed in the latest edition of Bracketology of all the teams from the Big 12. He has them in a play-in game along with NC State as two 11-seeds. The winner of that projected play-in game between the Wolfpack and the Longhorns would then face the six seed Penn State Nittany Lions.

Texas finished up their regular season slate with a record of 19-12 (9-9 Big 12) after falling short at home at the Frank Erwin Center on March 7 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys by the final score of 81-59. That was a sour note for the Longhorns to round out the regular season slate on. But they still have a shot at redemption during the Big 12 Tournament, as they’ll face head coach Chris Beard and star guard Jahmi’us Ramsey and the Red Raiders on March 12.

The argument for Texas to get into the NCAA Tournament will rest on how their standout guard pairing of sophomore Courtney Ramey and junior Matt Coleman play in the Big 12 Tournament later this week. Head coach Shaka Smart could really use the boost from a strong outing from his best and most experienced players to help his case of job security heading into the 2020 offseason.

Bracketology continues to place the Longhorns on the bubble heading into the Big 12 Tournament and then Selection Sunday. There will surely be a lot of nerves for Longhorn basketball fans heading into the coming weekend. A win over Texas Tech in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament could definitely give the Longhorns resume a big boost for Selection Sunday.