The Texas Longhorns made it into the NCAA Tournament but still have some work to do to make the field of 64, facing off against the NC State Wolfpack in the First Four.
Texas ended the season as cold as any team in the country, losing four of its last five regular-season games and getting bounced from the SEC Tournament in the opening round. The Longhorns’ odds to make the tournament fell from more than 90% to just above 30% during that run, with many assuming they’d played their way out of the tournament. However, when the bracket was revealed, the Longhorns saw their names among the last four teams in, meaning they’d be one of the first four teams playing — alongside a familiar foe from earlier in the season.
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The Longhorns squared off with the Wolfpack in the final game of the Maui Invitational at the start of the year, taking a 10-point lead into halftime, but having to turn away a late push to come away with a five-point win. It was perhaps one of Jordan Pope’s best games of the year, scoring 28 points, including seven three-pointers.
NC State had a similarly lackluster end to the regular season, dropping four straight to close ACC play, losing six of their last seven, with a shocking 24-point upset of the North Carolina Tar Heels as the lone bright spot. Unlike Texas, the Wolfpack managed to win a game in the ACC Tournament, taking down Pitt in the opening round before being bounced by Virginia.
This should be a relatively tight game, with Texas as a 1.5-point favorite according to FanDuel, with both teams hoping to advance past the opening games for a matchup against the BYU Cougars in the Round of 64.