Florida coach Todd Golden has a ton of respect for Texas men’s basketball.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019re a really tough club,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re the type of team that can make a deep run in March.\u201d<\/p>\n
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If they make the tournament.<\/p>\n
MORE CED: Why the Muschamp hire makes sense for Sarkisian, Texas football<\/a><\/p>\n Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis (8) battles Florida Gators center Rueben Chinyelu (9) for a rebound in the first half of the Longhorns\u2019 84-71 loss to the Florida Gators at the Moody Center in Austin, Feb. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n At 17-11 overall and 8-7 in the SEC, the Horns are still in OK shape when it comes to the\u00a0NCAAs. 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\u00a0 at Texas A&M followed by a road game \u00a0Wednesday against Arkansas and the regular-season finale at home March 7 against 14-14 Oklahoma.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas is a\u00a0respectable 31st in the latest kenpom.com rankings<\/a>. While tourney inclusion is likely, the Horns could once again be eyeball-to-eyeball with the tournament bubble if they don\u2019t get to that ninth win before the conference tournament \u2014 which is interesting since they still got to a play-in \u00a0game in Dayton with a 6-12 league mark last season.<\/p>\n No. 7 Florida flexed its championship muscle Wednesday though its coach said Texas was the better team for most of the game.<\/p>\n Horns played great until they didn’t<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That is, until the final eight minutes happened.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Sean Miller<\/a> and Co. have to figure out how to get into the\u00a0NCAAs before we can even talk about the possibility of catching fire in the Big Dance.<\/p>\n Sign up for Ced’s Corner<\/p>\n Sign up for Cedric Golden’s weekly newsletter <\/a>which drops each Tuesday with hot takes from the unique perspective of the Statesman’s resident sports columnist who was named the 2025 National Sports Media Association’s Texas sportswriter of the year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s 84-71 home loss<\/a> 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\u2019t sustain a high level when it mattered most.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Florida beats teams up with the nation\u2019s most formidable front line of 6-foot-11 Alex Condon, 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu \u2014 the nation\u2019s leading rebounder at 11.8 per game \u2014 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\u2019 six shots in a span of less than two minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n So one can only imagine Miller\u2019s blood pressure spiking as he witnessed those redwoods dominate the paint then Florida\u2019s 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\u00a0over the last 7:27.<\/p>\n MORE HORNS: Reese Atwood powers softball to another win<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe broke at the end,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe just did. They broke us, and that’s to their to credit.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As far as the tourney goes, CBS Sports’ latest projection has Texas as a No. 10 seed playing No. 7\u00a0Villanova in a South Regional opener but the Horns need to solidify their case with a win Saturday in College Station.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019t happen, it will be a colossal waste of one of the best offenses we\u2019ve 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\u2019s an entertaining brand of ball but it puts a huge strain on\u00a0Dailyn Swain<\/a>, Tramon Mark and Matas Vokietaitis to play high-level offense.<\/p>\n PVIL: How a Black HS sports league created football legends<\/a><\/p>\n Of course those are some of the same players who need to pick it up on D.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Miller isn\u2019t 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\u2019t a magic potion that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n “I do think we certainly are good enough, not only to be there, but to get there and be a tough out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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