Login
How Texas basketball let another must-win SEC game slip through its hands | Golden
If Texas men's basketball doesn't beat Ole Miss in its SEC Tournament opener, Sean Miller’s first season could hit the hardwood skids. The Horns may find themselves back in Dayton for a First Four matchup, or worse: on the outside looking in during March Madness.
It’s all because they blew an excellent opportunity Saturday.
Again.
The 88-85 overtime loss to surging Oklahoma in the Longhorns' home finale was quintessential Texas.
MORE CEDDY: Why the Muschamp hire makes sense for Texas football
And as usual, the Longhorns made it more difficult than needed. Saturday's loss at Moody Center could have been characterized as a choke. Or a second-half collapse. Or even a meltdown. Call it what you want, but it was a loss the Horns could not afford.
Texas isn’t a Cinderella type of team. The Horns rely too much on offense and often they need a Herculean effort to get a win. This time, guard Jordan Pope delivered 30 points in what was hopefully his last game at Moody — we're all too familiar with past NIT nightmares — but woeful defense and ill-timed turnovers conspired against the Horns, who went from being a favorite to finishing with a winning conference record in their sophomore SEC season to crashing face-first in front of a stunned home crowd.
“We really had everything that we wanted here in our final home game,” Miller said. “Amazing crowd, evening start on a Saturday, and obviously we didn't take advantage of that. You have to play well in March. You have to be good at what you do.”
UP NEXT
TEXAS VS. OLE MISS
When/where:
TV/radio:
Well, Texas is good on offense and little else, and to his credit Miller isn't hiding behind platitudes about where this thing can go one day or what must happen over these next few weeks. Give the Longhorns gut points for forcing an overtime with a furious second-half flurry, but attaboys do not matter at this time of year. Wins do and the Horns came up short when it mattered most.
Oklahoma's super backcourt tandem of Nijel Pack and Xzavier Brown delivered the goods with 27 points in the second half and overtime. Texas had no answers and as a result, its 2026 roller-coaster just took another dip.
What it means for Texas entering SEC Tournament
The loss sends Texas stumbling into the Ole Miss game as a No. 10 seed with uncertainty tailgating the team jet on its way to Nashville, Tenn., for the SEC Tournament. Texas finished the regular season 18-13 overall and 9-9 in league play, and it could have been so much more. The Longhorns effectively gave away some credibility with two straight losses after their Feb. 28 statement win at Texas A&M and are 2-4 in their last six games. They need to beat the Rebels to hopefully avoid another First Four trip to Dayton, or worse.
“I do believe we’ve done enough,” Pope said of the team's tournament résumé. “We have a lot of big wins. We’ve shown a lot of great things that would get us into the tournament, but that’s out of our control, so we really don’t want to worry about that. We’re just focused on the present, the SEC Tournament.”
MORE CEDDY:
Texas sits at No. 33 in the latest KenPom.com rankings and for my money will get into the NCAAs and avoid D-Town with a win over the Rebels, whose 64-61 loss to South Carolina dropped them to 12-19 and 4-14 in league play, easily their worst finish under former Texas coach Chris Beard. The unranked Horns have seven Quad 1 wins, which will play well with the NCAA selection committee, but have picked a horrible time to play some of their worst ball.
Texas didn’t deliver Saturday with everything in its favor and a loss to one of the worst teams in the league on a neutral court could prove fatal. It’s why taking care of business at the house against the Sooners whom they routed by 10 in Norman should have been non-negotiable.
“I have no big picture,” Miller said. “I'm not giving any big picture here, because there is none. We lost a big game here tonight and we're going to go to Nashville. We play Ole Miss, and that's it. That picture is no bigger than that for us.”
How it all fell apart for Texas
They were fortunate to even be in overtime after they bumbled their way from a 55-55 tie to a 69-57 deficit with seven minutes left in regulation amid a flurry of turnovers and their usual welcoming defense on the other end.
It’s not that Texas lost, but how the Horns lost. Moody was cooking, especially after Tramon Mark and Pope — who scored 30 points on senior night — resurrected their team with six consecutive free throws to force overtime after each both were fouled while shooting a 3-pointer.
WOMEN’S HOOPS: Madison Booker soars in SEC win
Texas gave it away in the extra frame and it was a total team effort in that department. Mark missed a wide-open layup and short-armed two free throws and the Horns failed to block out on a defensive possession after taking an 82-81 lead on a Pope triple. Mohamed Wague’s tip-in evaporated Texas' last lead.
Worse yet, Texas’ best player, Dailyn Swain, outside of a key offensive rebound and assist on a Pope 3-pointer that gave Texas its only lead of overtime, was a nonfactor at money time. Texas' best bet for a first-team all-conference selection filled up the stat sheet with 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but spent too much time in overtime standing over in the corner while others attempted to keep the Horns in it on offense.
After Swain's jumper with 8:49 left in regulation, he took exactly one shot attempt for the rest of the second half and overtime. He was gassed and with resident football closer Arch Manning seated courtside, the Longhorns' basketball version couldn't summon the energy to do the same against the Sooners.
SOFTBALL:
“Dailyn wore down,” Miller before crediting the Sooners with doing a decent job of defending him. Of course he was not going to slam Swain at the end of a long regular season because the Horns wouldn't even be in NCAA contention without him. No team in this league depends more on one player than the Horns. Swain runs the offense, guards every position and is the one player who cannot afford to have a bad night at the office, lest the Horns will get blown out in most instances.
BASEBALL: Horns remain unbeaten with USC Upstate win
That said, Texas will go nowhere if Swain becomes a wallflower when the game is on the line. He must be the central character in this play, or it will not work. He had zero juice when it mattered most Saturday. It will be up to this coaching staff to steal some rest minutes moving forward to make sure his battery is at least 70% at winning time.
It should not have come to this, but the Horns are backed into a corner again. They should beat the Rebels and are good enough to beat Georgia in a potential second-round match.
Good enough doesn't always cut it for this crew.
Better would be the preference.
