Texas Basketball looks to keep momentum into Round of 64 matchup
Texas Basketball in the NCAA Tournament
This Saturday Texas matches up with Abilene Christian at 9:50 ET on TruTV. The Longhorns will be looking to continue their winning streak and avoid a massive first-round upset to the 14th seeded Wildcats.
The last 14 seed to upset their 3 seeded 1st round opponent was Stephen F. Austin taking down West Virginia in 2016 by a score of 70 – 56. In 2015 we saw two 14 seed upsets as Georgia State eliminated Baylor and UAB beat Iowa State, each game won by 1 point.
The Longhorns are on fire right now coming off five straight wins and a Big 12 title. They’ve played one of the hardest schedules in the country and in one of the deepest, most talented conferences in the NCAA. The Wildcats have also won five straight and just captured their second Southland tournament championship.
As an 8.5 point favorite over the Wildcats, the Longhorns are clear favorites in their first-round matchup. This will be the toughest team Abilene Christian has played all year, and for Texas, this should be one of the easier opponents they’ve faced.
But since anything can happen in the tournament they still shouldn’t overlook any team in this bracket. Here are 3 keys that the Longhorns will need to make sure they follow if they want to avoid being known as a Goliath that went down to David.
1. Win the battle of the boards
Texas leads the Big 12 in rebounds. In games that the Wildcats lost to power 5 teams like Texas Tech and Arkansas, they were heavily outrebounded. As long as Texas continues to dominate the boards they’ll have no problem running away with this one.
2. Don’t give them open looks from 3
The Wildcats as a team are shooting 35% from 3 on the season. This team is capable of heating up as they have to win 12 of their last 13. They also have a great passing offense for a mid-major so they’ll be looking all night for the open man.
Since Abilene Christian has a great scoring defense as well, in case Texas gets cold at any point in this game they’ll want to stay persistent on defense and not give them any breaks.
3. Watch the turnovers
Believe it or not, the Wildcats actually lead the nation in turnover margin. They can get to the line a lot as well so you don’t want to let them have more possessions. The Wildcats are averaging 10 steals a game and have 268 steals on the season.
dark. Next. Buy or Sell - No. 3 seeds
Meanwhile, the Longhorns average 14 turnovers a game and have 370 turnovers on the year so they’ve shown at times that they aren’t the most careful with the ball. They’ll need to reduce the turnovers if they don’t want to even give Abilene Christian a chance.
Prediction: Texas 76, Abilene Christian 65