Just three weeks ago, Texas was the talk of the college basketball. The Longhorns stampeded through a brutal five-game stretch that included four games against ranked opponents, winning them all by double-digits. They ended Kansas’ seemingly interminable home-court winning streak at 69 games, and shot to the top line of every bracketologist’s S-curve.

The last two weekends changed all of that. Texas dropped back-to-back road games against Nebraska and Colorado, two teams mired in the middle of the Big 12 standings. While losing on the road in a major conference is never a shock, the manner in which the Longhorns stumbled in Lincoln and Boulder has fans concerned. Issues that plagued the team last season have suddenly reappeared, and Texas seems to have lost its killer instinct.

With two conference losses now on the ledger, Texas has lost its edge in the conference race. The Longhorns and Jayhawks are starting the final week of the season in a dead heat, but the two teams seem to be headed in decidedly different directions. If Texas has any designs on a conference title, they must bounce back against a nasty Kansas State team tonight. If Texas comes out with a stagnant offense and lackadaisical defense once more, it could be the harbinger of a very short March for the Horns.

By the numbers

As always, Frank Martin has his Wildcats playing excellent defense. Nationally, their adjusted defensive efficiency of 0.911 points per possession is ranked 25th, but they are just as strong in the tough Big 12. K-State is third in the league behind Texas and Kansas, allowing just 1.009 points each time down the floor.

The most surprising number for Kansas State’s defense is their turnover percentage. In a league with the high-pressure Missouri Tigers, the Wildcats actually have the best TO% mark in conference play. K-State has forced conference opponents into miscues on 22.7% of their possessions, and has forced turnover percentages north of 25% in six different league games.

Offensively, Kansas State uses an excellent frontcourt to fuel their scoring. While the Wildcats have an effective field goal percentage that is right in the middle of Division I hoops, their adjusted offensive efficiency is 57th nationally. The ‘Cats score 1.097 points each time down the floor, thanks in large part to the fact that their big men reclaim the misses. Kansas State’s 41.7% offensive rebounding percentage is fifth-best in the country.

Tonight’s game is bound to be a physical one, which is terrible news for fans of both teams. Kansas State and Texas are almost equally horrible when they get to the free throw line, with the Wildcats hitting 64.3% of their attempts and the Longhorns sinking 64.2% of theirs. While that means that interior fouling won’t hurt Texas as often on the scoreboard, their lack of frontcourt depth is something to be concerned with.

Meet the Wildcats

It has been a long and tortuous road for Coach Martin and the Wildcats this year. In the off-season, they lost big man Dominique Sutton when he transferred to UNC Central to be closer to his children. Then, after a troubling non-conference run in which Coach Martin openly questioned his team’s leadership, the Wildcats also lost Freddy Asprilla and Wally Judge to mid-season transfers.

With Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly both earning suspensions for taking discounts at a clothing store, and Pullen later declaring he wouldn’t play if the team was in the NIT, it has been a disjointed season to say the least.

Despite all of that, a huge home upset of Kansas two weeks ago seems to have righted the Wildcat ship. K-State has reeled off four straight wins, and if not for a loss by mere milliseconds in Boulder, the Wildcats would be riding a seven-game streak heading into tonight’s game.

As any college basketball fan knows, Jacob Pullen is the big man on campus in Manhattan. A preseason All-American, his career-high 38 points against Kansas fueled the Valentine’s Day upset. Since then, he’s averaged 26 points in wins over Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Pullen is a frightening match-up for any team because he can score in a variety of ways. He has an incredibly quick release on the catch-and-shoot, so the Wildcats are constantly running screens off the ball to free him up for the jumper. When Pullen gets open behind the arc, you can practically put the points on the scoreboard. In his last four games, the senior is shooting a blazing 65.2% behind the arc.

Unfortunately, the Longhorns can’t simply play him as a catch-and-shoot threat. With the ball in his hands, Pullen’s hesitation moves and powerful first step make him a constant threat to get to the rack. Even though he’s a smaller guard, he has the strength and athleticism to finish over and around bigger players, and easily scores through contact.

Kansas State’s other senior leader is big man Curtis Kelly, who came to Manhattan after a brief stint at Connecticut. He is a force inside, where he constantly comes down with offensive boards and sinks bunnies. Kelly is also a threat to score off the midrange jumper, though, and that ability allows him to pull opposing forwards out of the paint and open up driving lanes for Pullen and the other guards.

The main knock on Kelly’s game, though, is his raw emotion. He easily lets foul calls get in his head, and it can affect the other aspects of his game. If Kelly is clicking, he’s a tough player to stop. But frustrate him with the whistle or some solid post defense, and his performance typically goes downhill.

Joining Kelly in the frontcourt is Jamar Samuels, who was the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year last season. He’s a skilled offensive forward, who has the ability to face up post defenders and blow by them on the dribble. Samuels also can score with his back to the basket, as he often backs his man right down the lane for an easy two. On the glass, Samuels is one of the team’s best rebounders, claiming more than five boards a night.

The biggest surprise for the Wildcats this season has been the emergence of Rodney McGruder. An athletic swingman, the 6’4″ sophomore contributes all over the floor. He has a great three-point shot — it was his three-pointer that was just fractions of a second late in Boulder — but he can also body up bigger players inside. He leads the team with more than six rebounds per game, and is the team’s second-leading scorer with more than 11 points.

McGruder is a valuable hybrid player because while he contributes inside, he also has the handles and speed to attack from the wings or get out in transition. If Texas is able to limit the damage from Pullen tonight, it will be up to McGruder to pick up the slack for the Wildcats.

In the backcourt, the Wildcats have had another pleasant surprise from freshman Will Spradling. The son of a coach, he is a heady player who is averaging more than six points a game thanks in large part to his ability to read defenses and make smart cuts without the ball. Spradling also has a nice three-point shot, but his slow release makes it easier for defenses to close out on him behind the arc. Despite that, Spradling has still made 36% of his threes this season.

Another smart Wildcat is Shane Southwell, a sound defender who is practically a coach on the court. He can often be seen shouting out instructions to his teammates on the defensive end, or even physically pushing them in the right direction when things are breaking down. Offensively, he’s a non-threat, but is useful in setting screens to free Pullen or the cutting bigs. While he won’t fill up a stat sheet, Southwell’s high basketball IQ has earned him 12 starts in conference play.

Although the Wildcats have lost some players over the last few months, they still have a quality bench. In addition to Spradling, Coach Martin also employs a pair of quick guards in Martavious Irving and Nick Russell. Both can easily beat defenders off the dribble and have a knack for finding their way to the rim when the offense is stalling out. While the two guards each play less than 15 minutes a night in Big 12 games, they will likely chip in a few layups tonight.

Also coming off the bench is seven-footer Jordan Henriquez-Roberts, who has made massive strides in his sophomore year. As a freshman, he often looked stiff and awkward with the ball, but now is providing a few points and rebounds off the bench every night. At 7’0″, the one thing that has always come naturally to Henriquez-Roberts is post defense, and as a result he has a team-high 34 blocks despite playing less than 13 minutes per game.

Keys to the game

The biggest issue the Longhorns will face tonight is their inability to keep opponents off of the offensive glass. Kansas State is one of the best teams in the country at reclaiming their own misses, so Texas must limit second chance points in this one. In losses to Connecticut and Nebraska, the Horns allowed their opponents to snag more than 43% of their missed shots. If K-State can do the same thing tonight, it could push them to a huge road upset.

If the Longhorns want to get back on the right track, Jordan Hamilton must bounce back. In his last four games, Hamilton shot just 31% from the field, and was 8-of-24 behind the arc in losses to Nebraska and Colorado. If Hamilton can resist the urge to get into a game of one-upmanship with Pullen and instead take smart shots within the offense, his points will come naturally. If not, it’s very possible that the sophomore star could cripple the Texas offense.

On the other side of the ball, the Longhorns must communicate on defense. Kansas State will constantly set screens, oftentimes multiple ones just seconds apart, all in an effort to free up Pullen for the open looks. The Longhorns have to be on the same page when it comes to handling these screens, and they must also be alert to offer help defense when the K-State guards penetrate off the dribble.

Texas’ defense looked like a sieve on Saturday afternoon, and the Wildcats will have a field day if there is a repeat performance tonight. The Longhorns must get back to the sound team defense that carried them through the first five weeks of conference play.

Texas slid to sixth in both polls this afternoon following back-to-back losses on the road. The Kentucky Wildcats ascended to the top spot as the nation’s lone undefeated team, while Kansas moved up to second in both rankings.

The K-State Wildcats took a slight dip after a home loss to Oklahoma State, even though they were the first team to knock off Texas with a Big Monday victory earlier in the week. KSU is 11th in the media poll and is ranked 13th by coaches. Baylor is the only other Big 12 representative, checking in at 24th in the Associated Press rankings, although Texas A&M, Missouri, and Oklahoma State all received votes in both polls.

The Longhorns also took a dive in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, sliding to the 2-seed line in the Salt Lake City regional. In Lunardi’s mock bracket, Texas is paired with 1-seed Syracuse, an absolute nightmare match-up for a Longhorn team that is paralyzed by zone defenses.

The Jayhawks maintained their hold on a 1-seed, but were moved to the Houston regional that the Longhorns vacated. Lunardi awarded five other bids to the Big 12, putting K-State (3-seed), Baylor (5), Missouri (8), A&M (9), and Oklahoma State (11) in the mix.

The Longhorns survived a scare and an atrocious shooting night on Saturday, as they escaped the Frank Erwin Center with their perfect mark intact after an overtime victory against Texas A&M. Tonight, however, they face a much bigger test from the Kansas State Wildcats, a team that could even crack the top ten of the polls later this afternoon. If the Longhorns have an offensive performance like they did on Saturday night, there’s a very good chance that Fred Bramlage Coliseum will be the site of their first loss.

By the numbers

The Wildcats are a very scary match-up for the Longhorns, and it’s not just because K-State seems to win against Texas in every sport. Kansas State has the 12th-most efficient offense in the nation, and their defense is nearly as good, checking in at 31st in the country. Combining those efficiency numbers gives the ‘Cats a +0.265 differential per possession, and as a result, they push the tempo to exploit that advantage as often as they can.

Last year’s K-State team finished tops in the nation when it came to offensive rebounding, and this year’s squad is leading the way again. The Wildcats grab an insane 43.5% of their chances on the offensive glass, so even when their highly-efficient offense manages to miss a shot, they typically get another chance to score.

If you look at KSU Coach Frank Martin, you could probably guess that his teams play a physical brand of basketball, most likely because he looks like he could have a bit role on The Sopranos as one of Tony’s enforcers. If you made that guess, you’d be quite the smart cookie, as K-State games typically turn into foul-fests where both teams take approximately 3,912 free throws and the game lasts four hours. The Wildcats are the best team in the country when it comes to getting to the line, and one of the absolute worst when it comes to sending their opponents there.

“Oh no!” Longhorn Fan exclaimed to himself after reading the last paragraph. “My team couldn’t make free throws on a Little Tykes basket!” Calm those fears, though, Longhorn Fan. While Texas shoots just 63.4% from the line, the Wildcats aren’t much better, making 66.2% of their attempts. Missed free throws could certainly play a factor in the final outcome, but it might not be quite the disadvantage Texas fans would expect.

One other thing Kansas State excels at is blocking shots. When the ‘Cats aren’t fouling opponents in the paint, they are typically swatting shots into the twelfth row. K-State opponents are stuffed on 13.5% of their possessions, a rate that makes the Wildcats the 30th-best shot blocking crew in the nation. The Longhorns, meanwhile, have a 14.2% mark and are ranked 21st. There is a good possibility that some poor, unsuspecting KSU student could have his fake beard knocked right off tonight by a high-speed rejection.

Meet the ‘Cats

While this section is called “Meet the ‘Cats,” Texas fans need no introduction to Denis Clemente. The lightning-quick guard from Puerto Rico tied the Big 12’s scoring mark with 44 points in Austin last year, shooting his way onto the national scene while simultaneously ruining my 100th-consecutive game. Thanks, buddy.

Clemente can score from anywhere on the floor, although it’s his soft touch on the running floater that often gives opponents their biggest headaches. He can blow past just about any defender off the dribble, and has a tremendous ability to finish in traffic. Fortunately for Texas fans, Clemente has struggled a little bit this season in comparison to last year, as his shooting percentage has dropped to just 38% and his three-point percentage has fallen under the 30% mark.

The superstar this season for Kansas State, though, is junior guard Jacob Pullen, the man being honored by the aforementioned “Beard Out.” Pullen is leading the team with almost 20 points a game and is knocking down over 44% of his long-range bombs. While last season he was an absolute turnover machine, he’s improved his ballhandling a bit and this year actually has a turnover-to-assist ratio that isn’t approaching negative infinity. Like Clemente, Pullen is very quick with the basketball, and the Texas guards will have to work very hard at keeping him in front of them.

After sitting out a season following his transfer from UConn, big man Curtis Kelly has been a huge addition to the roster. Last year’s Wildcat team lacked any sort of identity inside, and this 6’8″ forward has certainly brought that to the table. He’s leading the team with more than six rebounds a game, and is a great defender down low, having already logged 29 blocks.

At small forward, Dominique Sutton is having a solid junior season. He’s chipping in eight points and six boards in 23 minutes per game, and has started in every contest. He spent the summer playing overseas with Pullen on an all-star team, and the extra months of game action are clearly paying off. Sutton looks faster and more sound on defense, while his ballhandling has also improved. His assist-to-TO ratio has nearly doubled in just one season.

The center position for Coach Martin is played mostly by committee, but that depth allows him to employ the physical style that makes the Wildcats so intimidating down low. Their biggest presence is freshman Jordan Henriquez-Roberts, a 7-footer who needs to add some muscle, but still provides twelve minutes a game. He’s the team’s second-best shot blocker with 16 swats, but Ken Pomeroy’s stats point out that when playing time is considered, Henriquez is best on the team in that category. The big man still needs a ton of seasoning when he’s got the ball, but he is definitely going to make an impact on the defensive end tonight.

Just 6’7″, Jamar Samuels is a sixth man that is versatile enough to fill in at the five when K-State wants to go smaller, but is most at home giving valuable bench minutes as a forward. He’s third on the team in scoring despite only starting in one game, and his 4.6 rebounds are best among non-starters. While Samuels often tries to attack off the dribble from the wings, he handles the ball about as well as Damion James circa 2006, and as a result, he is one of the team’s biggest offenders when it comes to turnovers.

Inside, 6’10” senior Luis Colon is another option at the five who is a defensive specialist. At 265 pounds, he’s a physical player that loves to block shots and make life miserable for opposing big men. He also likes punching people, although Ty at Bring On the Cats accurately points out that Colon seems to have funneled that aggression into productive basketball play in recent years. When Big Lu and Big Pitt tangle down low tonight, seismologists may note a spike of activity near the Little Apple.

Freshman Wally Judge was a much heralded recruit coming into the season, and with McDonald’s All-American honors, why wouldn’t he be? But so far his play has left a lot to be desired, as the freshman is picking up fouls more often than points. He’s averaging just 12.5 minutes per game, but still manages to lead the team in personals by a wide margin. His 52 fouls are six more than Samuels has, and he’s done it in eleven less minutes per game.

Freshman guard Rodney McGruder plays about as often as Judge, and provides a scoring spark from outside when he comes off the bench. McGruder loves to light it up from the corner, and his 54.5% success rate from long range would be absolutely terrifying if he had taken more than 22 attempts on the year. In future seasons, McGruder is going to be a pest for opponents, but for now he is a quality role player that compliments Martin’s roster nicely.

Chris Merriewether is the tenth Wildcat who plays more than ten minutes per game, and he’s mostly a glue guy off the bench. He can’t shoot that well, and as a result has only thirteen attempts on the year. Martin puts Merriewether in the game simply for his hustle, defense, and hard work, not for his massive 1.2 points per game.

Keys to the game

The biggest flaw for the Wildcats is still their inability to control the basketball. They are turning it over on 22.1% of their possessions, which is even worse than last year’s team. And when you consider that last year Kansas State turned it over 25 times in a 22-point road loss to Nebraska, that’s really saying something. If Texas hopes to slow down the highly-efficient K-State offense, they are going to have to force a ton of Wildcat mistakes.

As previously mentioned, KSU is practically unstoppable on the offensive glass. In addition to forcing turnovers, the other way Texas can limit the damage is to limit K-State’s second-chance points. The Longhorns must keep the ‘Cats off the offensive boards, and when they do give up second and third looks, they cannot result in easy putback buckets.

Finally, Texas must not settle. When the Longhorns have struggled to score inside this season, their possessions often ended simply with outside and mid-range jumpers. Some nights, those shots were falling, and the Longhorns were able to cruise. On other nights, Texas couldn’t hit the broad side of Darryl K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and they struggled to put away teams like Rice and A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Wildcats are a solid defensive team, and scoring inside will not be easy tonight. Texas must make a commitment to penetrate, flash men to the free throw line, use good ball movement, and most importantly cannot rely simply on contested jumpers where Dexter Pittman is the only player in rebounding position.

The big finish

The Big 12 is a very deep conference this season, and road wins are going to be hard to come by. None will be harder for the Longhorns this year than the one they hope to steal tonight. With the exception of the Kansas game in Austin three weeks from now, this game is the toughest one left on the docket, and there is a very good chance the Longhorns will suffer their first loss of the season in about eleven hours. No matter the outcome, however, this ought to be one hell of a basketball game.

Vegas thinks the game is roughly a toss up, giving the Wildcats a 1.5-point edge thanks to the home-court advantage. They have yet to post the odds of my making it out of Bramlage Coliseum alive, however. Just to be safe, a stop at a costume shop somewhere on I-35 might be in order. Do you think they sell fake beards in child sizes?

If you told most people that a team would post a minus-11 turnover differential, give up 20 offensive rebounds, and still win the game, you’d likely get laughed at. But somehow that is exactly what the Texas Longhorns found a way to do in an ugly, gutsy win over the Kansas State Wildcats in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals.

It’s often said at this time of the season that any win is a good win. That’s very true, although if Texas fans expect their team to play their way past the 7- or 8-seed line, a convincing win would have certainly helped things. Texas is 6-6 against teams currently in the RPI Top 50, and would have to get past Baylor — ranked 59th in this morning’s RPI approximations — to earn a shot at another Top 20 team in Oklahoma State or Missouri. A narrow win over a bubble team like K-State just three days before Selection Sunday could be something that sits in the back of the committee’s mind when they are making their final adjustments to the S-curve.

Of course, the most important aspect of this game was the fact that Texas managed to pull out the win when playing well below their capabilities. Those 20 offensive rebounds for the Wildcats were equal to 37% of the chances that KSU had on the offensive glass. While that might not sound like a large number, it gains importance once you realize that Pitt leads the nation in that statistical category by grabbing 42% of their chances per game. The fact that the Longhorns gave the Wildcats that many extra possessions and still won is a clear indicator of the high level of defense the team was playing yesterday.

Statistically, that defense was stifling. They allowed the Wildcats an effective field goal percentage — a measure of shooting percentage that gives added weight to the three-pointer — of only 33.9% That was the fourth-best outing from the Texas D all season, with the only better games coming against sub-par opponents Appalachian State, Stetson, and St. Joseph’s. If Texas can play that kind of defense the rest of the season, they won’t need to score many points in order to advance.

The leader for Texas once again was big man Dexter Pittman, who powered his way to 19 points and 20 rebounds. Although a bunch of Dex’s boards came off of his own misses of point blank shots, having him be a human vacuum underneath the goal ensures that Texas will get lots of second- and third-chance opportunities. He played a surprising 34 minutes in this game, which came just 24 hours after he played 28 minutes against Colorado. For a large man who averaged less than 15 minutes a game the rest of the season, this weekend will be a true test of how far he has progressed with his endurance.

The bench play for the Longhorns was also incredibly encouraging. With point guard Dogus Balbay struggling for a second straight game, Coach Rick Barnes looked to Varez Ward for some quality minutes in the backcourt. Instead of just hanging on to the ball, Ward attacked the basket for three buckets, and was a perfect 3-of-3 from the line. For a Texas team that has been searching for an answer to its backcourt woes all season long, this sudden flash of brilliance from Ward is a reassuring thing heading into the Big Dance.

Clint Chapman also gave some solid minutes from the bench, hustling for some early buckets on tip ins and awkward moves near the rim. While he was only on the floor for eight minutes, he managed nine points and sunk three free throws on only five attempts. That last stat is notable only because Chapman has been absolutely abysmal all season long at the charity stripe, having made just three other free throws all season for a pitiful 15.7% success rate at the line. I still wouldn’t want to see him at the line in crunch time (or really any time), but it’s nice to see him getting some kind treatment from the iron for once.

The win sets up a semifinal with the Baylor Bears, a team that is suddenly playing inspired basketball and would want nothing more than to end their seemingly interminable string of futility against the Longhorns. A game preview for that one will be headed your way within the hour.

With yesterday’s 11-point win over Colorado, the Longhorns have advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 tournament, setting up a re-match with the Kansas State Wildcats. These two teams were part of a four-squad tie for fourth in the league, with K-State winning the tiebreaker by virtue of a win over the Longhorns back on January 31st.

Unlike yesterday’s game, there’s a lot riding on today’s contest. The Wildcats are sitting on the wrong side of the bubble in most projections, thanks to a weak non-conference schedule and only a pair of quality wins against the Longhorns and Missouri Tigers. Most experts are theorizing that K-State needs a pair of wins in the league tourney to feel safe on Selection Sunday, so expect the ‘Cats to be playing full tilt this afternoon.

The Longhorns, on the other hand, are playing for seeding and a likely semi-final rematch with a Kansas team that they put a scare into on Saturday. Most bracket projections think that Texas has earned a 7- or 8-seed, which sets up an undesirable second-round NCAA match-up with one of the top eight teams in the tournament. But if the Longhorns can pull off a win today and an upset tomorrow, they could possibly work their way up the S-curve. There are a lot of moving parts involved as tournaments go on around the country, so all Texas can do is win.

The first meeting

The first time these two teams met, Denis Clemente became a breakout star, tying the conference’s scoring mark with 44 points in an 85-81 overtime win at the Frank Erwin Center. The Puerto Rican guard was a perfect 12-of-12 from the line and 6-of-6 from long range. Texas also gave up another four buckets from behind the arc, allowing the Wildcats to shoot a ridiculous 67% from three-point range.

Texas showed a lot of moxie in this game, however, fighting back from a 17-point deficit with less than eight minutes left in the game. The Longhorns finally tied things back up with only nine seconds left in the game, but couldn’t get over the hump in overtime.

Since then…

Coming into that game, Kansas State was only 2-4 in Big 12 play, thanks to a very tough opening slate. They followed up the Texas win by claiming victories in six of their final nine games, including road wins against Iowa State and Texas A&M in gyms that are famous for their home-court advantage.

Clemente continued to impress throughout the rest of the season, scoring 33 in a road game against Mizzou and 26 points against the Kansas Jayhawks. Unfortunately, the guard played a little dirty in that KU game, elbowing a player in the back and later slapping another one in the head, and missed the following game as a result.

The biggest improvement during the stretch run, however, came from senior forward Darren Kent. His midrange game has blossomed, and his always-present three-point threat really stretches out opposing defenses. He’s played through a broken nose by wearing a protective mask, and has averaged nearly 10 points and six boards per game since the contest in Austin. With the added attention Clemente sees in this one, Kent could be the player to have a breakout game for Coach Frank Martin.

Keys to the game

For a longer preview of the Wildcat players and their tendencies, you’ll want to read the game preview from that earlier match-up. But for our keys to this afternoon’s re-match, just read on…

Keep pounding it inside – Texas scored 38 points in the paint against Colorado, and they’ll want to keep forcing it inside against the Wildcats. As we mentioned in that first game preview, Jamar Samuels and Luis Colon are foul magnets, and the Longhorns can earn a ton of free points by taking it at the twin towers. After those two frontcourt players, the talent level drops off significantly. If Texas can get them in foul trouble, facing off against lumbering forward Ron Anderson could make the points come even faster.

Defend the perimeter – The Wildcats scorched Texas for 10 three-pointers on only 15 attempts when they played in Austin, and that simply won’t fly if Texas hopes to winn today’s contest. The Kansas State frontcourt is not much of a scoring threat, so it’s worth the risk to play tighter outside on Clemente and Fred Brown while daring the ‘Cats to beat you down low.

Knock Clemente back to Earth – There’s simply no way that Clemente will go off for 44 points again in this one, especially if the officials decide that his forearm shoves are actually worthy of offensive foul calls. But when you consider the fact that the speedy guard dropped 44, his team had a 17-point lead, and Texas still almost stormed back for a win…well, you start to like the Longhorns’ odds if they can hold him to even just 20 points.

Tip is scheduled for 2 P.M. this afternoon, but tournament officials have been giving teams 27 minutes to warm up between contests. If the Bears and Jayhawks happen to run late in the early game, adjust your DVRs accordingly.