Texas basketball (15-9, 4-7 SEC) dropped its second consecutive SEC game Saturday with a 80-74 loss at Vanderbilt. The Longhorns now face a critical two-game stretch at home that begins with No. 1 Alabama Tuesday and cont9jnues against No. 18 Kentucky Saturday.
With one win in those two games, Texas would earn another coveted Quad I win and likely crawl back in the top 30 in the NET ratings, a key component used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. But two losses in those two homes games could mean a bounce off the bubble for Texas. Even if this year’s version of the SEC projects as one of the highest-rated conferences in college basketball history, Texas coach Rodney Terry knows his team needs to get a few wins over some of the nation’s best teams to ensure a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had been a part of a league that’s been as ultra-competitive as this league is, where you literally have to coach every game like it’s an NCAA Tournament game,” Terry said. “You can play 30 good minutes in this league — really good basketball at a very, very high level — and you’ve got nothing to show for it at the end of the day.”
It doesn’t get much more competitive than Alabama (20-3, 9-1), No. 1 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. But the Tide are just part of what’s been a grueling schedule; they’ll be the fourth different opponent this year for Texas that has reached either No. 1 or No. 2 in the AP poll, joining Auburn, Tennessee and Connecticut.
(This will be updated once the game begins).
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Julian Larry, a graduate transfer from Indiana State, will start at point guard in place of Jordan Pope against Alabama. Larry leads the team with 88 assists and averages 5.5 points in 22.4 minutes a game, while Pope has averaged just seven points a game over the past seven contests.
Day: Tuesday
Start time: 8 p.m.
Location: Moody Center in Austin
TV channel: ESPN
Livestream: Fubo (free trial), ESPN+, SEC+
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