Texas Basketball: How long can Longhorns last in 2021 NCAA Tournament?

After 19 games Texas Basketball is closer to resembling the team the AP Poll thought they were prior to ever playing a game, as opposed to the team the AP Poll thought they were after seeing them play fourteen. After their most recent loss to Kansas Basketball, the Texas Longhorns are owners of an 8-5 Big 12 record.

The AP Poll ranked the Longhorns at No. 19 in the pre-season, then an 84-59 early January victory at Kansas resulted in the Longhorns jumping from No. 8 to No. 4 in the AP Poll. That ranking would last two weeks and still remains their peak as they are currently seeded No.14.

Head Coach Shaka Smart and the Longhorns`can accredit their current top-25 NET to the fact that they have had two seasons in one. Over their first eleven games, the Longhorns suffered just one loss, and that was at the hands of Villanova Basketball. Their impressive 10-1 start included quality wins over North Carolina, Kansas, and West Virginia, as they also won their first four Big 12 games over that stretch.

In their recent nine games, the Longhorns have looked like a good team, albeit not as impressive as their first eleven. Over the aforementioned nine games, the Longhorns have gone 4-5 while being led by Andrew Jones with 18.3 ppg and Courtney Ramey 14.4 ppg over that stretch. For the glass being half full crowd, all five of those losses were at the hands of teams in the top-20 of the NET. For those who tend to lean toward the glass being half empty, those same losses were all on their home court.

With four games remaining on their schedule prior to the Big 12 tournament, there is enough data in order to make a claim to the Longhorns’ possibility of success. The claim will be accompanied by evidence and reasoning to create a point of validity prior to refuting counter-arguments for the Longhorns` ultimate fate in the tournament.