Longhorns stampede into March Madness as No. 2 seed: 'So proud of the guys and they’ve worked their tails off'

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The University of Texas Longhorns men's basketball team hopes to win a national championship under interim head coach Rodney Terry. | Dreamstime

The University of Texas (UT) Longhorns men’s basketball team hopes the momentum triggered by their four-game winning streak sustains it in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball tournament.

After defeating incumbent national champion Kansas for the Big 12 Conference tournament title on Sunday, UT locked the No. 2 seed in the Big Dance’s Midwest Region bracket.

“This has been a resilient group all year, I’m so proud of the guys and they’ve worked their tails off. They’ve been awesome all year long, I’m so happy for them,” interim head coach Rodney Terry said in a report from Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.

Terry replaced Chris Beard about nine games into the 2022-2023 season after the latter was sacked by the university in response to alleged domestic violence charges against him.

The Travis County District Attorney’s (DA) Office has since elected not to further prosecute Beard, who’s reportedly the new head hoops coach at Ole Miss.

The Longhorns enter March Madness with a 26-8 overall record and are slated to face 15th-seeded Colgate University in the first round in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.

Among the players UT will look to is conference tournament Most Outstanding Player (MOU) Dylan Disu.

According to KXAN, the senior forward from nearby Pflugerville led the Longhorns to their second win over the Jayhawks in a week with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Disu, who averaged eight points per game (PPG) during the regular season, scored nearly 15 points a contest during the tournament, the station reported.

Per a program-issued press release, 2008 was the last time UT landed the second seed in the NCAA Tournament. 

The team’s final tournament appearance under Beard last year ended in an 81-71 second-round loss to Purdue University. 

This year marks the 37th overall time UT has punched its ticket to the Big Dance, the release said.