Texas Basketball: 3 reasons UT can win the Big 12 Tournament

The path for a seven-seed

As the two-seed, Texas had an advantageous path to winning the Big 12 Tournament last year. Texas didn't face a single team seeded in the top half of the conference in the Big 12 Tournament last year before the final game against the two-seed Kansas Jayhawks.

Defending the Big 12 Tournament crown will be much more difficult this year regarding the path for the Longhorns than it was winning the whole thing last year. Texas is five seeds lower than it was in the Big 12 Tournament last year.

Even though the path may seem daunting for the Longhorns to make it back to the Big 12 Tournament final in Kansas City this year, there are ways for Texas to have another deep run in store.

For one, Texas avoids having the Big 12's hottest team, the No. 1 ranked Houston Cougars, on its side of the bracket. The two highest seeded teams on Texas's side of the bracket are the two-seed Iowa State Cyclones and three-seed Baylor Bears.

Texas played Iowa State to within a couple of possessions when the two teams met at the Moody Center during the regular season. Iowa State is also coming off a tough road loss to Kansas State in its finale this weekend. Kansas State is a team that Texas defeated during the regular season and will face again in the first game of the Big 12 Tournament on March 13.

The Longhorns defeated Baylor the first time the two teams met in conference play. Texas also had Baylor on the ropes before a knee injury forced Disu out of the game in the second half, drying up the Longhorns' offense late in the contest.

We keep going back to how important Disu is for the Longhorns to make another deep postseason run. The fact of the matter is that Texas has the ability to beat any team in the Big 12 when Disu, along with the guard duo of Abmas and Hunter, are all producing at high levels.

It's definitely not out of the question for the Longhorns to beat Kansas State and either the two-seed Iowa State or three-seed Baylor to return to the final of the Big 12 Tournament for the second year in a row.

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