Texas takes home second Big 12 Tournament title with 20-point win over Kansas

Texas may not have taken home the Big 12 regular season title, but they made sure the 2022-23 season included some hardware sent to Austin courtesy of the conference after a hot streak in Kansas City. With a 76-56 win over the Kansas Jayhawks, the Big 12 regular season champions, the Longhorns took home the program’s first Big 12 Tournament title since the 2020-21 COVID-affected season.

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Dylan Disu had 18 points and six rebounds, while Marcus Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice added 17 points apiece in the dominant win without regular starter Timmy Allen.

In order to win the tournament title, Texas dispatched Oklahoma State with a 61-47 win on Thursday. Then on Friday night, the Longhorns overcame a 2-of-14 night from beyond the arc to dispatch TCU 66-60. Then, Texas took it to the Jayhawks with a hot second half, outscoring KU 37-23 in the final 20 minutes.

The tournament title is the fourth in program history and second as a member of the Big 12.

The win comes following a 23-8 regular season campaign with many games in the brand new Moody Center, the replacement for the Frank Erwin Center. Texas suffered just one loss all year in the new facility, a loss to Kansas State they avenged in Manhattan, Kan.

UT made the most of the upgraded environment, winning matchups over top-10 opponents Gonzaga and Creighton early in the year. They also dispatched weaker teams like Houston Christian, Rice, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff throughout the year to make ‘the Mood’ one of the best atmospheres for college basketball in the state and country.

The Horns swept three Big 12 opponents in the regular season: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. That helped give the Horns the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, which Terry and a very experienced staff made the most of on their way to cutting nets.

It is Terry’s second conference tournament title, joining his 2016 Mountain West Tournament title won while he was head coach of Fresno State.

Terry, who was previously head coach of Fresno and UTEP after a lengthy tenure as an assistant under Rick Barnes at Texas, joined Chris Beard’s staff as associate head coach following the 2020-21 season.

When Beard was arrested on December 12, 2021, Terry was named acting head coach. Since then, the Longhorns have an 19-7 record, including a 12-6 record in conference play. Those 12 wins were the most for Texas in the 10-team Big 12 and the most for the program since the 2010-11 season.

Terry’s guidance of a veteran team with several super seniors, including Carr, Rice, Allen, and Christian Bishop, along with NCAA Tournament veterans Disu and Tyrese Hunter, plus the play of five-star freshmen Arterio Morris and Dillon Mitchell has the Longhorns looking at a deep run in March Madness with a very high seed. But more importantly, it has the Longhorns bringing home hardware that has often eluded the program.

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The Longhorns were the No. 7 team in the country when Terry took over, a slight fall from their highest peak of No. 2 in the December 12 poll. Throughout the remainder of the season under Terry’s oversight, the Longhorns never dropped outside of the top 10 of the AP Poll. In addition, the Longhorns have been a mainstay near the top of KenPom’s rankings.

Most importantly, Texas has impressive numbers in a metric the NCAA Selection Committee cares about most. The Longhorns entered Saturday ranked No. 9 in the NET, the primary sorting tool for the committee. Kansas entered No. 6.

Though the numbers won’t update until Sunday, the Longhorns now have additional data in their favor as the committee determines whether Texas is a No. 1 or a No. 2.

The Jayhawks entered Saturday with the most Quadrant 1 wins in the country with 17. Texas now has 14, good for second nationally.

All that is part of a tremendous story of resilience with a cast of experienced characters on both the court and bench taking part. That story now includes a tournament title, but Texas has sights on another tournament title now that the NCAA Tournament is on the docket.

Texas will find out its seeding Sunday night in the NCAA selection show aired by CBS. It will air at 5 p.m. Central. It will likely have its highest seeding in over a decade as a result.

A portion of that is thanks to the big win over Kansas on Saturday night, culminating a tournament title run.