Texas comes in as one of the last four in the tournament per Lunardi's latest Bracketology.

Next two games for the Horns:

• Feb. 14 - at Missouri (No. 57 in NCAA NET)
• Feb. 17 - vs. LSU (No. 64 in NCAA NET)

Texas is currently 38th in the NET.

What would you think of using Pope situationally as a sub rather than as a starter?

I think a 10-8 conference record will make us almost a lock. 9-9 could do it if we somehow beat Arky or Florida.

3 hours ago, MarkInAustin said:

What would you think of using Pope situationally as a sub rather than as a starter?

I wouldn't, but just me. His floor spacing requirement is a key part of the offensive success of Texas. Opponents game plan to not let him get clean looks, so he's defended out to 25 feet. He's a double figure scorer on average for two years running in the SEC, and plays to his role. 

42 minutes ago, smokeyiii said:

I think a 10-8 conference record will make us almost a lock. 9-9 could do it if we somehow beat Arky or Florida.

Texas will be a lock at 9-9 barring a bunch of conference tournament upsets

4 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Texas will be a lock at 9-9 barring a bunch of conference tournament upsets

Yep.

This has been simple for a while. Consider us the 35-40th best team in the nation (a lot of advanced ratings have us around there). 

1. That itself is close to getting in at large. Not a lock, admittedly. But close.
2. What is a lock is getting to 9 SEC wins (and even 8 is 50/50 odds IMO, projecting from where we are now)
   1. If we just play to "chalk" the rest of the season against those rankings, we get there easy. We have shown the ability to "play down" and that Miss St. loss still hurts, but we also have the ability to "play up" and beat almost anybody (except Florida IMO). So call it a wash if we lose one we shouldn't and win one we shouldn't.

A LOT of evidence at this point says we are between 35-40 nationally...  just be who we are — a frustrating but tantalizing team who averages out to around 35-40th in the nation — and beat who we're supposed to beat on the rest of our schedule (according to those advanced rankings) and we get to the magic number of SEC wins to get that tourney bid. Since about 4-5 weeks ago, when the rankings really started to stabilize and we've gotten to know who the rest of our scheduled teams are, I haven't understood the doom and gloom that says we won't make the tournament. I'm 75% sure we will🤘

Edited February 13Feb 13 by AZ Longhorn

On 2/12/2026 at 11:33 AM, CJ Vogel said:

Texas comes in as one of the last four in the tournament per Lunardi's latest Bracketology.

Next two games for the Horns:

• Feb. 14 - at Missouri (No. 57 in NCAA NET)
• Feb. 17 - vs. LSU (No. 64 in NCAA NET)