Biggest Winners and Losers of the 2021 NCAA Tournament

By Matt Melton | Apr 8, 2021

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - APRIL 05: Jared Butler #12 of the Baylor Bears celebrates after winning the National Championship game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 05, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Baylor Bears defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 86-70. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

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Texas Longhorns 2021 NCAA Tournament (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

Loser – Texas Longhorns

After a successful regular season and Big 12 Tournament where the Longhorns won their first Big 12 Tournament title, this was a very disappointing and unexpected end to the season for Texas.

Before the NCAA Tournament began, it felt like the Longhorns were a sleeper team that could make a run to the Final Four. Coming in as a 3-seed in the East Region, Texas had all the talent and depth needed to make this run, but as you know things didn’t happen the way they imagined.

The Longhorns were upset by 14-seed Abilene Christian 53-52 in the First Round in what was the Wildcats first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. This was a disappointing performance for Texas as the Longhorns committed 23 turnovers (12 more than Abilene Christian), and allowed the Wildcats to take 27 more shots.

While this was certainly a disappointing loss, it has caused a domino effect of moves for the Texas program since then. Head coach Shaka Smart left Austin to take the job at Marquette, while the Longhorns replaced him with Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard, and prominent players including Kai Jones and Greg Brown announced their intentions to head to the NBA.

Maybe new head coach Chris Beard can build some momentum to help make the program bounce back after this loss, but there is no denying that this was certainly a disappointing loss to a potentially promising NCAA Tournament run for the Longhorns.

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