Men, women in hunt for Big 12 titles in final week
AUSTIN — The annual trips to Waco, Fort Worth, Lubbock and the rest of Big 12 country will cease following the 2023-24 season with Texas set to join the SEC in the summer of 2024. And both the UT men’s and women’s basketball programs would like to claim at least one more conference championship before leaving the league they’ve been competing in since 1996
Heading into the final week of the regular season, both programs are in a position to do just that.
The Texas women steamrollered archrival Oklahoma 67-45 in Norman on Saturday to seize sole possession of first place in the Big 12. The Longhorn men coughed up a 14-point lead in an 8271 loss at Baylor but can still claim a share of the league crown by beating TCU and first-place Kansas this week.
“I mean, we just can’t dwell on this one,” senior forward Dylan Disu said after the Texas men unraveled in Waco on Saturday afternoon. “We’ve just gotta take what we learned from this one and apply it to the next game. We don’t view it as a setback. We’re just trying to get better every game and get stronger as we go into March.”
With a decisive stretch ahead, here’s a look at what both Texas basketball programs need to do to claim a long-awaited Big 12 title.
Men need to win out
The math for the eighthranked Longhorns (22-7, 11-5 Big 12) is simple: win out and earn at least a share of the Big 12 title with No. 3 Kansas (24-5, 12-4).
The Longhorns travel to Fort Worth to face No. 24 TCU (19-10, 8-8) on Wednesday night. Texas took the first game in Austin back on Jan. 11, roaring back from an 18-point deficit to earn a 79-75 win.
Texas then hosts the Jayhawks on Saturday afternoon at the Moody Center in the regular-season finale. If KU handles its business at home against Texas Tech on Tuesday, the Longhorns will only be able to claim a share of the Big 12 title by avenging their earlier loss to the Jayhawks in Lawrence.
If Kansas loses to the Red Raiders and Texas beats the Horned Frogs, then Saturday’s game will become a winner-take-all contest.
Kansas beat Texas 88-80 at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 6. That marked the start of a current six-game winning streak that pushed the Jayhawks into sole possession of first place.
Texas has won three Big 12 titles in its history, most recently in 2008. Despite the program’s long drought, only Kansas (18 regular-season titles) has finished atop the conference standings more frequently.
Women in control
The 19th-ranked Texas women (22-7, 13-3) are in a stronger position than their burnt orange counterparts heading into these final two games.
The Rori Harmon-led Longhorns have a one game lead over the Sooners thanks to Saturday’s rout and have won 19-of-22 games since starting the season 3-4. And if the Longhorns win out, they’ll win the Big 12 title outright.
Texas faces Baylor (18-10, 9-7) on Monday night at the Moody Center and closes the regular season on the road Saturday against eighth-place Kansas State (16-3, 5-11). The Longhorns beat both of those teams by double-digit margins earlier this season.
If Oklahoma wins out — it’s home against Kansas State on Wednesday and at Oklahoma State on Saturday — and Texas goes 1-1, the Longhorns and Sooners will share the Big 12 title. If OU wins out and Texas loses out, the Sooners will finish alone in first, with the Longhorns one game back.
Texas won its only two women’s basketball titles in consecutive years, going back-to-back in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, the Longhorns parlayed that Big 12 title and No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament into a Final Four run, the program’s most recent appearance in the national semifinals.
“They know what it is,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said Sunday. “I don’t need to bring it up. We’ve got work to do. We have a lot on the line. You’re talking about conference championships; you’re talking about seedings. We have a lot at stake, and I think they know all that.”