So this is the actual March Madness. Trying to uphold your “real world” responsibilities somewhere in between three-day jaunts to Oregon, day trips to Waco, and five-day vacations in Kansas City, all while desperately searching for the time to actually write about those trips and college basketball.

I’m sure I’ll be faced with the same dilemma early next week, as another few days of travel to the NCAA Tournament will necessitate cramming as many hours as possible into an incredibly short workweek. And I believe that nature dictates that at some point I have to try to sleep. Ack! (Yes, I just quoted the comic strip Cathy. You’re going to have to deal with it.)

I’m not sure when the time will actually present itself in the next 40 hours that allows me to sit down and write my thoughts on that disaster at the Ferrell Center, but considering the Longhorns and Bears could meet again in Thursday’s quarterfinals, it’s something that must be done. If post-game thoughts don’t make their way to this fine website sometime this afternoon, look for it in the waning hours of Tuesday night before we hit the road for KC. For now, it’s off again to the McJob and a litany of TPS reports.

Just a quick hit, as I’m boarding a flight at PDX in about 10 minutes so I can be back in Texas for the game with Baylor tomorrow. I apologize in advance for any egregious spelling errors in this hasty entry.

The trip to Eugene was a rousing success, and I should be posting the article about their student section, the Pit Crew, sometime during the “dead days” on Monday or Tuesday. I hope to have photos and videos ready by then, too, but I’d rather not set unattainable goals during this incredibly busy time of year.

I’m going to be taking advantage of the nearly four-hour flight to DFW so that I can finally get my thoughts down about the OU game. It’s not exactly timely at this point, but I feel there are some important points to make as we head into March Madness. This team has been wildly inconsistent for more than two months, but there were a lot of things in Monday’s game that could perhaps signal that this team is finally starting to figure things out. Better late than never, no?

For now, enjoy those early conference tourneys. We’ll be back late, late tonight with more.

The Longhorns will be hitting the floor in new uniforms and new sneakers from Nike for tonight’s game with Kansas. The new unis are “dramatically lighter” according to a Nike PR rep, while they feature “unique call-outs to the Longhorn logo, campus landmarks and the school motto.” It also appears that wearing the jersey leads to Zoolander-esque facial expressions.

Just a quick note that the Baylor post-game will be delayed until late this afternoon or early evening. Unfortunately, there’s a few too many “real world” things to attend to in the lone off-day we have before making the trip to Stillwater.

It’s official. The coaches and media agree — Texas is the best basketball team in the country right now.

The Longhorns took home 56 of the 65 first-place votes in the Associated Press poll that was released this afternoon, while 30 of the 31 coaches slotted Rick Barnes’ team first in the nation.

Today marks the first time in school history that Texas was honored with the top ranking in the country. Previously, the Longhorns had held the Associated Press’ No. 2 ranking for a total of twelve different weeks — the previous six weeks of this season, five weeks in 2005, and one week in December of 2002.

Texas is one of four Big 12 teams in the Top 25, as Kansas, Kansas State, and Baylor are all ranked in both polls. Texas A&M, Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech also received votes in both polls.

If that bevy of talented teams in conference play wasn’t enough of a challenge for Texas, they are also less than two weeks away from a road trip to Connecticut, where they will face the 15th-ranked Huskies.

The Longhorns will put their newly-minted ranking to the test with a visit to Ames on Wednesday night. Tip for their game against the Iowa State Cyclones is set for 7 P.M.