Rodney Terry defends Texas' NCAA Tournament resume after loss to Baylor

Monday night in Waco was a tough one for Texas, dropping what could be the final Big 12 basketball matchup against Baylor. Rodney Terry needed another win to cement his team’s NCAA Tournament resume with no questions asked. As of now, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Longhorns as an eight-seed with just one regular season game remaining against Oklahoma.

When asked if his team is worthy of making the NCAA Tournament, Terry defended the resume Texas has put together this season.

“We’ve played one of the hardest schedules in the country,” Terry said Monday. “Look at our schedule, look at our body of work. We’ve probably played Quad 1 (games) as much as anybody in the country. I mean, look at our schedule. What do you want us to play?”

Texas is 5-8 in Quad 1 games this season and if the Big 12 Tournament goes well, more can be picked up in the final days before Selection Sunday. At the time of posting, Michigan has the most Quad 1 games with 16 played. Multiple other teams are around 13 Q1 matchups but even so, the number is small.

On paper, the Big 12 might be the best conference in college basketball. Most of those Quad 1 games for Texas have been against conference foes. Playing two games a week against them can become a grind.

“We played six ranked teams (in a row) for the first time in school history,” Terry said. “We’ve done that and we’ve stood toe to toe. Have we had a stumble here and there, just like everybody in this league has? Yeah. We’ve had that. But we’re one of the best teams in the country and we can play with anybody.”

The streak Terry references began back in January when Baylor was in Austin. Six straight ranked opponents were on the schedule, with Texas splitting them evenly. Ironically, two of the wins occurred on the road while two losses came in Austin.

KenPom has Texas ranked as the 25th hardest schedule in the country (but No. 251 when only looking at nonconference). Baylor, Kansas, and West Virginia are the only Big 12 programs higher in the metric.

Terry does not know what else his team can do if they are not considered an NCAA Tournament team this season.

“What else do you got to do?” Terry said. “We can play anybody on any given night.”