Dylan Disu addresses fans that are down on Texas after early exit in Big 12 Tournament

For the fourth straight season the Texas Longhorns have punched a ticket for March Madness, earning the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region of this year’s NCAA Tournament following Selection Sunday.

Momentum will not be on the side of the Longhorns after they lost their first game of the Big 12 Tournament following a second round loss to Kansas State. Which has some fans worrisome about Texas being able to make a run in their next tournament starting on Thursday.

“That’s a good question honestly,” Texas forward Dylan Disu admitted on Monday. “I mean people are going to say what they want to say. There’s a lot of hate that goes around.”

The Longhorns’ early exit from their conference tournament may impact some college basketball fans as they fill out their brackets this year. But it’s not impacting the Longhorns’ according to Disu, who spoke about how his team is looking ahead more than in the rear view mirror.

“But just talking to our teammates and like Tyrese Hunter, his team got bounced in the first round two years ago, Iowa State. I think they lost by 30 to Texas Tech in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, then they ended up going to the Sweet 16,” Disu explained. “So it’s not about what happened in the past or what happened in the last tournament.”

Hunter’s former team did fall in dramatic fashion during the 2022 Big 12 Tournament, losing 72-41 to the Red Raiders before making it to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. As he represents one of several players on Texas’ team that has plenty of experience in March Madness that will use their recent shortcomings to fuel their upcoming game.

“And honestly we’re using that as motivation, we didn’t want to lose to Kansas State, we didn’t want that game to go the way it went. We felt like we could have won that game and made a run in that tournament, but we didn’t,” Disu said.

“And so we had to sit with that this last week, this past weekend and we used that as motivation to come back, practice hard, work on things we need to work on, hold ourselves accountable, and come out and play our best basketball on Thursday.”

Fans can be big critics, but none are more critical of the Longhorns than themselves. They’ll look to bounce back and make another run in this year’s NCAA Tournament on Thursday, as they’ll face the winner of Virginia and Colorado State‘s First Four matchup on Tuesday.