No. 2 seed on line in finale against Kansas
AUSTIN — Texas’ first losing streak of the season came at the worst possible time.
The ninth-ranked Longhorns lost at No. 8 Baylor last Saturday and at No. 22 TCU on Wednesday night. Those defeats clinched yet another outright Big 12 regular-season title for No. 3 Kansas and dropped Texas (22-8, 11-6 Big 12) from a tie for first into a three-way tie for second with Baylor and No. 11 Kansas State heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
While Texas played itself out of sharing the league crown with Kansas, there’s still plenty at stake in Saturday’s 3 p.m. game against the red-hot Jayhawks (25-5, 13-4) at the Moody Center.
Due to the conference’s tiebreaker procedures, the Longhorns will land the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City with a win and a loss by either Baylor (versus Iowa State) or Kansas State (at West Virginia). If Texas, Baylor and Kansas State all win, the Longhorns will be the No. 3 seed. If Texas loses and Baylor wins, the Longhorns will be the No. 4 seed.
“You’re playing for seeding right now,” interim head coach Rodney Terry said Wednesday.
“You’re playing to put yourself in the best position right now for the big prize. And I think we have as good a team (as any) in the country that has a chance to win a national championship. You’re playing for your resume right now, and that’s what March is about right now. It’s about finishing possession and finishing games and advancing. So there’s a lot to play for, a lot more basketball to be played.”
Saturday’s tilt with Kansas could have an impact on Texas’ seeding in the NCAA Tournament, too.
ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi
has had Texas locked in as a No. 2 seed for weeks now. The Longhorns are still on that No. 2-line despite dropping two straight games, but a second loss to the Jayhawks paired with an early exit from the Big 12 tournament could drop them to a No. 3 seed.
A win over Kansas on Saturday would likely secure Texas’ spot among the selection committee’s top eight teams and grant the Longhorns an outside shot at nabbing a No. 1 seed if they go on to win the conference tournament for the second time in three years. That, of
course, will be a tough task — Kansas is 15-5 in its last 20 games against Texas, though it has lost two straight in Austin.
And after two straight road losses, Texas should get a boost from playing this one back at the Moody Center, which has created a genuine home-court advantage for the Longhorns for the first time in ages.
Texas has had a sellout crowd in each of its first 16 contests at the center and is averaging 10,943 fans per game. It has a tidy 15-1 record at home, its only misstep a wild 116-103 loss to Kansas State back on Jan. 3.
“Yeah, it’ always great playing at home,” graduate guard Marcus Carr said this week. “We love our fans, you know, they come out, they show up and they show out for us. And it’s always a great environment for us. So definitely looking forward to playing back at home.”
Celebrating Texas’ seniors
Texas will recognize a group of five upperclassmen Saturday during a short pregame ceremony at 2:45 p.m.
Graduate guards Marcus
Carr and Sir’jabari Rice, fifthyear senior forwards Timmy Allen and Christian Bishop, and senior forward Dylan Disu will all be honored on Senior Day along with senior student support staff.
“It’s gonna be senior day for a lot of us,” Carr said following Wednesday’s loss to TCU. “It’s obviously gonna be an emotional day. It’s March and we want to finetune the things we gotta to finetune and at the end of the day still get a win, protect our homecourt and get some momentum going into the postseason.”
Notably, graduate forward Brock Cunningham will not join his fellow veterans for the pregame ceremony. Last month, the Westlake alum and longest-tenured Longhorn announced he would return for a final season in 2023-24.
Cunningham, who will play in his 106th career game Saturday, could potentially pass A.J. Abrams’ program record of 144 games played late next season.
“I haven’t thought about it a lot,” Cunningham said last month. “That’d be a nice record to have, but I’d rather go get a Big 12 conference championship, tournament championship and make a run, to be completely honest.”