Instant Analysis: UT's NCAA Tournament hopes continue to fade after loss to UCF
- By Ketchum
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 150 Replies
Cliffs Notes: The Texas basketball team's hopes of making the NCAA Tournament took another big hit on Wednesday night with a 77-71 loss to Central Florida at home, which drops the Longhorns to two games under .500 in Big 12 play.
The Participants: NR/NR Texas (12-5, 1-3 Big 12) and NR/NR Central Florida (11-5, 2-2 Big 12)
Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 40) and Central Florida (No. 79)
Texas MVP: You know this game has been circled on the calendar for former Central Florida standout Ithiel Horton and he emerged as a difference-maker on Wednesday night from tip-off, as he had it cooking in the first half by scoring 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting (2 of 4 from 3-point range) and finished the night with a season-high 20 points.
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Key Moment: With the Longhorns trailing 71-68, Dillon Mitchell was stripped of the ball as he was going up for a basket that could have cut the lead to 1-point, but the ball touched him last before it went out of bounds, which gave the ball back to UCF and UCF extended the lead to 73-68 on its next offensive possession with 51 seconds left in the game.
Key Stretch: After the Longhorns took a 55-40 lead with 14:30 left in the game, UCF simply turned it up a notch and outplayed the Longhorns for the rest of the night, outscoring the Longhorns 37-16 to close out the game.
Texas comes out s-m-o-k-i-n-g: The Longhorns came out scorching in the first five minutes, as it build a 15-2 lead through the first 5:00 if the game. Disu scored 7 of the first 9 points of the game in the first 3:10 of the first half by making a pair of jumpers and a three-point shot. The Longhorns didn't miss its first shot until Abmas missed a 3-point shot with 16:15 left in the half.
Thing You Need to Know: Rodney Terry deserves credit for inserting Horton into the starting line-up in place of Brock Cunningham, who has really had a hard-time making a sizable impact in recent games and finished tonight's game with zero points and two rebounds.
Passing Larry Legend: Senior guard Max Abmas passed Larry Bird for 17th place on the NCAA's all-time scoring lost with his first made shot of the night on Wednesday.
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Tracking down History: After moving into 4th place on the NCAA' all-time 3-point shots made list last week, Abmas knocked down 4 of 10 shots from downtown tonight to move within 30 of third-place Travis Bader (Purdue 2010-14).
ESPN Bracketology: In the updated Bracket from this morning, the Longhorns are clearly a team that has a lot of work to do, as you won't find them in the "first four out" or the "next four out" and tonight's game will send them even further away from the cutoff line for making the Tournament.
The Participants: NR/NR Texas (12-5, 1-3 Big 12) and NR/NR Central Florida (11-5, 2-2 Big 12)
Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 40) and Central Florida (No. 79)
Texas MVP: You know this game has been circled on the calendar for former Central Florida standout Ithiel Horton and he emerged as a difference-maker on Wednesday night from tip-off, as he had it cooking in the first half by scoring 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting (2 of 4 from 3-point range) and finished the night with a season-high 20 points.
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Key Moment: With the Longhorns trailing 71-68, Dillon Mitchell was stripped of the ball as he was going up for a basket that could have cut the lead to 1-point, but the ball touched him last before it went out of bounds, which gave the ball back to UCF and UCF extended the lead to 73-68 on its next offensive possession with 51 seconds left in the game.
Key Stretch: After the Longhorns took a 55-40 lead with 14:30 left in the game, UCF simply turned it up a notch and outplayed the Longhorns for the rest of the night, outscoring the Longhorns 37-16 to close out the game.
Texas comes out s-m-o-k-i-n-g: The Longhorns came out scorching in the first five minutes, as it build a 15-2 lead through the first 5:00 if the game. Disu scored 7 of the first 9 points of the game in the first 3:10 of the first half by making a pair of jumpers and a three-point shot. The Longhorns didn't miss its first shot until Abmas missed a 3-point shot with 16:15 left in the half.
Thing You Need to Know: Rodney Terry deserves credit for inserting Horton into the starting line-up in place of Brock Cunningham, who has really had a hard-time making a sizable impact in recent games and finished tonight's game with zero points and two rebounds.
Passing Larry Legend: Senior guard Max Abmas passed Larry Bird for 17th place on the NCAA's all-time scoring lost with his first made shot of the night on Wednesday.
Login to view embedded media
Tracking down History: After moving into 4th place on the NCAA' all-time 3-point shots made list last week, Abmas knocked down 4 of 10 shots from downtown tonight to move within 30 of third-place Travis Bader (Purdue 2010-14).
ESPN Bracketology: In the updated Bracket from this morning, the Longhorns are clearly a team that has a lot of work to do, as you won't find them in the "first four out" or the "next four out" and tonight's game will send them even further away from the cutoff line for making the Tournament.
