IT Week in Review: Texas is a top five team according to the NCAA Selection Committee, baseball stumbles out of the gate

On3 imageby:Joe Cook02/19/23

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Inside Texas’ Week in review takes a look at the job Rodney Terry has done to earn a No. 5 ranking from the NCAA Selection Committee, plus the rough opening weekend for Longhorn baseball.

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One of the more enlightening developments in recent years courtesy of the NCAA is the result of the governing body’s decision to be more transparant with data related to the NCAA Tournament field.

Previously, all the public had to work with was RPI and attempts from experts to go inside the mind of committee members for a somewhat murky look into the field of bracketology. We’ll never be able to go inside the mind of the NCAA, a horrifying thought, but we now have data like NET and the committee’s own estimation of teams in the public discourse.

On Saturday, the committee released to the public the top 16 seeds in the tournament if it were to start before the weekend’s games. Texas received billing as the No. 5 team in the nation, and a spot in the midwest region along with one-seed Houston, three-seed Tennessee, and four-seed Xavier.

The regional semifinals and final for that quarter of the bracket would be in Kansas City, Mo. on March 24 and 26.

NET isn’t the be-all and end-all for the committee when it comes to seeding. They have eyes and ears, too, and use data accumulated via the senses to make their decision.

What they’ve found is despite a head coach getting suspended and fired, Texas has played at a level that has them tied for first in the Big 12 with Kansas. Nationally considered the toughest league in the country, the Longhorns and the Jayhawks are tied atop the standings and neck-and-neck for a one-seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Texas had what can only be considered an up-and-down (or maybe down-and-up) week, with a loss on the road to Texas Tech on Monday before an overtime win over Oklahoma on Saturday.

The ebbs and flows of a game can be frustrating at times for a team that is chock-full of experience. Every starter save Dillon Mitchell has college basketball and NCAA Tournament experience. That doesn’t include Jabari Rice, whose exploits as a sixth-man have flat-out carried Texas to victory in recent weeks. That includes Saturday.

There are still four games remaining in the regular season for interim head coach Rodney Terry’s team. Texas hosts Iowa State this week before traveling to Waco on Saturday to face the scorching hot Baylor Bears. The Horns then venture to Fort Worth for a midweek matchup with the equally as hot TCU Horned Frogs before welcoming the Jayhawks to end the season.

No doubt about it, these are difficult contests for the Longhorns. But so too are they difficult matchups for UT’s opponents. Of all four remaining teams on the schedule, only Iowa State seemed to be able to handle whatever Texas threw at them, and that was in the friendly confines of Hilton Coliseum. UT had a comeback victory over TCU, kept Baylor at bay for most of a close contest, and almost completed a signature second-half comeback in Allen Fieldhouse. Texas’ experience, defensive toughness, and skill in the midrange from multiple players make the Horns a tough opponent for anyone.

Just ask Gonzaga, or Creighton, or any of the other Quadrant 1 wins on the Longhorns’ resume that has them as a two-seed according to the selection committee.

These preview rankings are designed to be conversation-starters and give teams a glimpse of where they are at in the brackets. It doesn’t go any further than 16, meaning bubble teams like those in the bottom third of the Big 12 (or College Station, at least right now) don’t receive any info as to where they need to improve their resume. In those cases, it may not matter all that much. They just need to win.

For Texas, an experienced team likely can handle the information out there about their No. 5 status. Players like Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Jabari Rice, Brock Cunningham, Christian Bishop, and Dylan Disu can see that lofty ranking and understand it’s a testament to their hard work so far under Terry’s watch, but also know it’s not the final seeding. Of course, it isn’t the Final Four either, where Texas wants to be in late March in front of a friendly crowd in Houston.

The information can change and will change with the results of the four remaining contests. Whether Texas remains a two-seed, moves up to a one-seed, or drops to three-seed (or, gasp!, four-seed) status will be determined by the coming two weeks of games, with potential additional data from the Big 12 Tournament. That data seems to have waned in terms of importance in recent years.

But make no mistake, no matter what may happen in emotional game-to-game, half-to-half, possession-to-possession swings, the entire course of the season has proven that Texas is one of the best teams in the country, and the NCAA selection committee recognized that on Saturday.

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Rodney Terry, coach of the year?

Is Rodney Terry the Big 12 coach of the year?

After being thrown into a situation he never signed up for, Terry has guided Texas to the top-five billing and first-in-the-league status detailed above.

While the league is filled with great coaches who have a number of Final Fours and national championships between them, Terry has stood toe to toe with every single one of them and won 10 of 14 conference contests.

Coach of the year is a tough accolade to sort through every season for the 10 head coaches in the league. In a conference where eight teams have the chance to make the field of 68, there is a lot of quality instruction, planning, and adjusting.

So why not Terry?

He has been the head coach for every conference contest for Texas, and all except one (or arguably two) have been games Texas had an opportunity to win. He snapped Texas’ six-game losing streak to the Bears, who have been the premier program in the state of Texas for several years (and may still be). He swept OU, WVU, and OSU and has the chance to do the same versus Baylor and TCU.

No matter what, that’s a strong coaching effort.

This isn’t a piece evaluating whether he will end up as Texas’ permanent head coach. That estimation probably won’t be made until after the NCAA Tournament. But compared to other coaches in the Big 12, who has a better argument for coach of the year?

K-State’s Jerome Tang still has a great chance but his case lost some luster in recent weeks. The Wildcats are 20-7 and 8-6 in conference play, and are playing at a level much higher than most expected during Tang’s first year.

Scott Drew has Baylor humming, even after surrendering a first-half lead to Kansas on Saturday in a second-half drubbing at the hands of the Jayhawks. With Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua back for the Bears, plus LJ Cryer and Keyonte George playing at a high level, the Bears’ seem primed to contend for a second national title in three seasons.

Of course, it’s always easy to argue that Kansas’ Bill Self could win the honor every year. After taking home his second national championship leading the Jayhawks, KU looks like they could repeat this year with potential player of the year Jalen Wilson running the show in Lawrence.

However, none of those coaches had to manage off-court situations like Terry. The interim UT coach has good reason to thank Chris Beard, who Terry once again described as being like a brother on Saturday, for a lot of what he has to work with this season. Even Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte mentioned that aspect on a recent radio appearance.

But Beard isn’t the one coaching the players for 40 minutes. He’s not running practice. He’s not interacting with the players on a daily basis to figure out how to get them to perform. Beard is somewhere else, not involved, and not steering the ship. That’s Terry, that’s been Terry since December 12, and that’ll be Terry at least through the remainder of the season.

Since Terry’s elevation, Texas is 14-5 and, once again, at the top of the Big 12 leaderboard. How Terry navigates the end of the season, the conference tournament, and the NCAA Tournament will have a major impact on whether he becomes Texas’ permanent head coach.

If he wins Texas’ first conference regular season title since 2008, what coach can say that someone else has done a better job than Terry? What coach would say otherwise with their vote?

They don’t give out the award until after the season is over, but at this rate it’s hard to find a better candidate than the one in burnt orange. That’s a testament to a lot of things, but first and foremost it’s a testament to Terry’s own effort since the program became his in December.

Baseball starts off slower than slow

There may be one or two positives from Texas baseball’s opening weekend in Arlington, but it would take a heck of a search party to find them.

The Longhorns went 0-3 versus Arkansas, Missouri, and Vanderbilt, losing one-run contests to the Razorbacks and Tigers before a complete shellacking at the hands of the Commodores.

The first two one-run contests can be viewed through a ”that’s baseball” lens. The complete dismantling versus Vanderbilt, however, is the result of a multifaceted breakdown in the weekend finale.

Texas had more fielding errors (5) than hits (3) on Sunday. Only four of the ’Dores’ 12 runs were earned.

It’s a young team, but there were a lot of mistakes made for a team of any age not typically seen from a David Pierce squad, especially on the defensive side of things.

Two years ago, ”Remember Arlington” became a rallying cry for the 2021 Longhorns that eventually reached the national semifinals. That team had an arctic storm interfere with practice in the days leading up to three losses versus SEC teams. This year’s team did not, though they achieved the same result.

That team obviously made a ton of strides throughout the course of the season, eventually hosting a regional and a super regional. A mix of experience coming of age with just the right portal additions helped Texas make its deepest run of the Pierce era that year.

This team will have to do the same, but it may struggle to reach the same ceiling. There could be too much youth and there may not be a true portal difference-maker like Mike Antico. Luckily for all involved, there are 53 games left to see if that early estimation will hold true.

The Horns return to the Disch for a home opener versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday at 5 p.m. before the Indiana Hoosiers come to town for the first home weekend series of the season.

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