{"id":212760,"date":"2026-03-20T10:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212760\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T10:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:45:12","slug":"texas-basketball-just-became-a-tough-out-after-byu-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212760\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas basketball just became a tough out after BYU thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Are these the same Texas Longhorns <\/a>that limped to a 1-5 finish and barely made the NCAA Tournament?<\/p>\n

The Horns have caught a fever of some sort. Perhaps it\u2019s the March Madness <\/a>bug. Whatever this good malady, it\u2019s infected the entire roster, from rejuvenated veteran guards Tramon Mark<\/a> and Jordan Pope to sophomore big man Matas Vokietaitis, who who had a career yet rollercoaster game in Thursday\u2019s 79-71 takedown of No. 6 seed BYU <\/a>in a thriller of a West Region opener.<\/p>\n

Vokietaitis missed his last seven free throws after starting 3-for-4, but the Horns persevered to advance to the second round where they will play the Gonzaga-Kennesaw State winner Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a span of three days, the Horns have gone from NCAA roadkill to beating North Carolina State to get in, to knocking out BYU to become a threat against any team they play.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Cedric Golden’s newsletter <\/a>for hot takes and expert analysis each Tuesday on Texas Longhorns football and beyond. \u00a0It’s called Ced\u2019s Corner, from the mind of the American-Statesman\u2019s resident sports columnist, the 2025 NSMA Texas Sportswriter of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m beyond thrilled to be able to advance and have an opportunity to play into the next round,\u201d Texas coach Sean Miller said. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled for the University of Texas and I\u2019m thrilled for these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Horns (20-14) are a product of their experiences. Battle-tested and hungry to show they\u2019re plenty good enough to stick around for awhile.<\/p>\n

Unlike BYU, which got 35 points from future NBA lottery pick AJ Dybansta, the Horns are far from a one-man band. They got contributions from everywhere and not just on offense. Dybansta got his points, but his teammates combined to score only one more point than he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pope hit a monster triple from the corner put the Horns up 75-68 with 1 minute, 29 seconds left and after Vokietaitis final miss, Mark calmly sunk four straight throws down the stretch to keep the Horns in the tournament.<\/p>\n

While Dailyn Swain has been this team\u2019s best player all season, \u00a0Mark has become its closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a great March Madness experience,\u201d said Mark, who was a part of Houston\u2019s Final Four team in 2021. \u201cThis is my best one. I love this team. We\u2019re doing it in very fun fashion so I\u2019m just happy to keep this thing going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas went from near extinction in bracketology-speak to a dangerous opponent.<\/p>\n

The Horns survived. They advanced.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re still dancing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 Are these the same Texas Longhorns that limped to a 1-5 finish and barely made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[794,11511,2692,9602,67531,48876,81012,19752,1971,69852,83229,19753,27,29,537,19751,28],"class_list":["post-212760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-byu-cougars","tag-cedric-golden","tag-college-basketball","tag-columnists-opinions","tag-dylan-volantis","tag-march-madness","tag-march-madness-tournament","tag-men-s-college-basketball","tag-national-weather-service","tag-ncaa-march-madness","tag-ncaa-march-madness-tournament","tag-sean-miller","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-men-s-basketball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}