NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Texas basketball made a statement in a gritty, hard-fought, double-overtime win Thursday over bitter rival Texas A&M in the second round of the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
But is that statement loud enough for the NCAA Tournament selection committee and a vocal contingent of Texas fans asking for the removal of head coach Rodney Terry to hear?
In the aftermath of a 94-89 double-overtime win over the No. 14 Aggies, the Texas players had no doubt about the answer after picking up a seventh Quad One win, which is a primary metric used to determine the 68-team NCAA field.
“We should definitely be in,” Texas guard Tramon Mark said. “And if there’s still some doubt in other people’s heads, then we’re going to come out and try to get another one tomorrow.”
Tomorrow means an SEC quarterfinal matchup with No. 8 Tennessee, which is lead by former Texas coach Rick Barnes. Beat the Vols, the fourth seed in the tournament, and the Longhorns (19-14) can likely start worrying more about seeding than selection.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
GOLDEN: How new-look Texas Longhorns, Rodney Terry are about to crash March Madness party
According to Mark, certain Texas fans should worry less about the job Terry has done in his second full season as the Longhorns’ head coach, especially since the game against Texas A&M marked just the fourth game all year that the Longhorns have had a full complement of players.
“He’s proven them wrong,” Mark said. “(Terry) has been doing a great job coaching. And at the end of the day, it’s not on the coaches to win basketball games. We’ve got go there and do it ourselves. And these last two games (at the SEC tournament), that’s been our focus. We’ve had great scouting reports.
“We had great walk-throughs throughout this whole process and throughout the whole tournament. We’re going to have a great scouting report tonight on Tennessee and a walk-through in the morning and get ready to play.”
If the 13th-seeded Longhorns play like they have in their first two games in Nashville, they could pull off another upset over a well-rested Tennessee squad, which hasn’t played since Saturday. After controlling 12th-seeded Vanderbilt 79-72 in a first-round game, they held fifth-seeded Texas A&M (22-10) to 34.7% shooting. And the Longhorns were particularly cool under pressure in overtime after Mark (15 points, four rebounds, five assists) and Chendall Weaver (10 points, six rebounds) fouled out.
Tre Johnson scored 15 of his 20 points after halftime, and Kadin Shedrick (14 points, five rebounds) made a career-high 10 free throws on 10 attempts, all of which came after the halftime break. Shedrick also dunked home the tying basket with 4 seconds left in the first overtime after a nice pass from Mark.
Terry liked what he saw from his players, especially in the taut moments of overtime. But most of all, he liked looking down the bench and seeing all of his players available.
“I’ve seen a team that’s finally healthy, and we’ve got all of our full complement of guys,” he said. “They’re all playing at a very high level for us, they’re all playing together and playing for one another.”
Guard Jordan Pope, who scored 13 points and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds, agreed with his coach about the important of health. He just hopes the NCAA Tournament selection commitee does, too.
“We’re one of the most talented teams in the country,” he said. “You know, we battled some injuries in the season, and we’ve been a little up and down. But when we’ve played our best, we’ve proven that we can play with the best of them. We’ve got a lot of good wins, and we believe we’re an NCAA tournament team.”
Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Access all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
