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Texas falls to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, now nervously awaits Selection Sunday

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•about 8 hours•

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Tramon Mark
Tramon Mark (Steve Roberts-Imagn Images)

The Texas Longhorns’ run at the SEC Tournament just ran out of gas. Playing their third game in three days against a Tennessee team on a double-bye, the effects of a Wednesday game against Vanderbilt and a double-overtime Thursday game against Texas A&M were made evident by the Vols fresh legs in the Longhorns’ 83-72 loss.

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Texas is eliminated from the SEC Tournament, and now must sweat out the remaining hours until the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS on Sunday. Many bracketologists have labeled the Horns as one of the last four teams in the tournament, but they won’t know whether they made it or not for another 48 hours.

Texas put up a strong effort, but the stamina level available just was not enough to take down one of the best teams in the nation in Tennessee. Tre Johnson was blanketed by Jahmai Mashack for most of the game. Johnson was just 3-for-8 shooting and could not make more than one three-point attempt, failing to find many opportunities to get a shot off.

Jordan Pope and Kadin Shedrick led the Longhorns with 14 points apiece. Johnson was the only other Longhorn in double figures.

Texas kept the game close in the first half, entering the halftime break down 41-38. A strong shooting first period where the Longhorns were 15-for-27 from the field and 4-for-8 from three was able to cancel out individual excellence from Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier. Lanier had 19 points in the first half on 8-for-11 shooting, part of a quality effort from the Vols’ star.

The second half saw Tennessee veteran point guard Zakai Ziegler take over, scoring 19 points on 6-for-7 shooting in all 20 minutes of the second period. Zeigler, as he has often against the Longhorns, was able to slice through tired defense for opportunities for himself and others.

Tennessee extended its lead to as large as 15 in the second half, with free throws from Ziegler putting the game at its largest margin. The Longhorns were able to cut it to 10 with under four minutes left, and got the game to seven points with 39 seconds. But Tennessee hit its free throws and sent the Horns packing from Nashville.

The Longhorns entered the game ranked No. 38 in the NET Rankings utilized by the NCAA in determining its field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament. The loss drops their record in Quadrant 1 games to 7-11, a number that could change depending on other results in the SEC Tournament and even in the Big East Tournament. Texas boasts a 10-15 record in Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 games at this juncture with seven Quadrant 1 wins. That’s a total matched by other top 25 teams like Duke, Maryland, Purdue, Missouri, Texas A&M, and BYU.

Texas hopes its enough to make the field, even if it only results in a trip to Dayton for the First Four. So too does Rodney Terry, who has seen the pressure on him ramp up in recent weeks. Missing the tournament would only ratchet up the temperature on his seat possibly to a level that would eject him from it. Making the tournament might just delay an inevitable dismissal, but missing it would provide an expedited timeline for a decision on the third-year head coach.

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Texas was not without effort in Nashville, but it leaves without a conference tournament title and hoping it has done enough to merit entry into the March Madness for the fourth straight year.

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