Florida coach Todd Golden has a ton of respect for Texas men’s basketball.
“They’re a really tough club,” he said. “They’re the type of team that can make a deep run in March.”
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If they make the tournament.
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Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis (8) battles Florida Gators center Rueben Chinyelu (9) for a rebound in the first half of the Longhorns’ 84-71 loss to the Florida Gators at the Moody Center in Austin, Feb. 25, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
At 17-11 overall and 8-7 in the SEC, the Horns are still in OK shape when it comes to the NCAAs. A 9-9 finish in league play should be enough to get them to the tournament, which means they need to win one of their last three games. They play Saturday at Texas A&M followed by a road game Wednesday against Arkansas and the regular-season finale at home March 7 against 14-14 Oklahoma.
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Texas is a respectable 31st in the latest kenpom.com rankings. While tourney inclusion is likely, the Horns could once again be eyeball-to-eyeball with the tournament bubble if they don’t get to that ninth win before the conference tournament — which is interesting since they still got to a play-in game in Dayton with a 6-12 league mark last season.
No. 7 Florida flexed its championship muscle Wednesday though its coach said Texas was the better team for most of the game.
Horns played great until they didn’t
Had Texas and first-place Florida played shirts and skins before a lively crowd at a raucous Moody Center, it would have been tough to discern the defending national champions from the team desperate to make the tourney field.
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That is, until the final eight minutes happened.
The SEC-leading Gators are streaking with eight straight wins and have a nice chance to defend the title so to hear their head coach speak so admirably of the Longhorns? Well, it carries a bit of weight. His compliment is nice and all but Sean Miller and Co. have to figure out how to get into the NCAAs before we can even talk about the possibility of catching fire in the Big Dance.
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Thursday’s 84-71 home loss stung because the Longhorns gave the Gators all they could handle for the first 32-plus minutes but just like the previous loss at Georgia, which went from a 67-67 tie to a 91-80 loss over the last 7:37, they couldn’t sustain a high level when it mattered most.
Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller shouts to his team in the second half as the Longhorns play the Florida Gators at the Moody Center in Austin, Feb. 25, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Recent history repeated itself against the Gators. In a span of just over seven minutes the Horns went from a 64-61 lead to a blowout loss amid a flurry of dumb turnovers, bricks and Florida triples that found the bottom of the net. The Gators went on a 23-3 run and hit six of their nine 3-point attempts in the second half, a real kick in the pants for the hosts since the Chompers entered the game with an SEC-worst .304 shooting percentage from distance.
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Florida beats teams up with the nation’s most formidable front line of 6-foot-11 Alex Condon, 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu — the nation’s leading rebounder at 11.8 per game — and 6-10 Thomas Haugh. The Gators dominated in blocked shots 11-1 and at one point of the second half, their bigs swatted away four of Texas’ six shots in a span of less than two minutes.
So one can only imagine Miller’s blood pressure spiking as he witnessed those redwoods dominate the paint then Florida’s guards all of a sudden come to life at money time while Texas was busy going 0-for-7 from the field with five turnovers over the last 7:27.
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“We broke at the end,” Miller said. “We just did. They broke us, and that’s to their to credit.”
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As far as the tourney goes, CBS Sports’ latest projection has Texas as a No. 10 seed playing No. 7 Villanova in a South Regional opener but the Horns need to solidify their case with a win Saturday in College Station.
With three games remaining, Texas will have to find it from somewhere and that means figuring out how to get some stops. If that doesn’t happen, it will be a colossal waste of one of the best offenses we’ve seen around these parts in some while. The Horns rank sixth nationally in offensive efficiency but are a nightmare on the other end at 123rd. Opponents are finding it too damn easy to get to the bucket and as a result, the offense faces momentous pressure down the stretch of these games because stops and takeaways aren’t falling from the sky. It’s an entertaining brand of ball but it puts a huge strain on Dailyn Swain, Tramon Mark and Matas Vokietaitis to play high-level offense.
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Of course those are some of the same players who need to pick it up on D.
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Miller isn’t ready to stamp 9-9 as the official record to to punch his Dance ticket but he understands what he is coaching: a team that gives up points as fast as it can score. At this point, there isn’t a magic potion that’s going to turn the Horns into a stone wall on that end. The best he can do is hope they can make enough shots to get in and draw an opponent they can outscore.
Texas Longhorns forward Dailyn Swain (3) deflects a ball form Florida Gators guard Isaiah Brown (20) in the second half as the Longhorns play the Florida Gators at the Moody Center in Austin, Feb. 25, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
“I do think we certainly are good enough, not only to be there, but to get there and be a tough out,” Miller said. “We really are. Our ability to score speaks for itself, but we’re not there yet. It’s important for us to just methodically move in that direction.”
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He doesn’t hide his disgust with the lack of defense, calling the Horns one of the worst defensive teams he has ever coached, though he makes sure to correctly assign blame to himself as the head coach. Those frustrations were exacerbated by Texas holding one of the nation’s best offenses in check for large portions of the game until Florida put together one of its best offensive stretches of the season.
Texas won’t run into another front line like Florida’s over these next few weeks, possibly giving credence to Golden’s assertion that the Horns could make some noise come tournament time.
They’re an offensive team. Defensively, they’re pretty uh, offensive.
Something has to give in the 979 Saturday. The Aggies dropped to 9-6 overall after a 99-84 loss at Arkansas and are a mediocre 5-5 over their last 10 games. While they can’t beat Texas in football, the idea of handing the Horns a third straight loss while clinching a winning record in league play is great incentive.
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Buckle up for what could be a shootout. At least the Longhorns will do their part to make sure there are plenty of buckets scored on both ends.