Cliffs Notes: The Longhorns played some of the best defense its played all season in advancing to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament with a 56-44 win over a veteran Colorado State squad.
The Participants: No.7 Texas (20-12 and No.10 Colorado State (25-10)
Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 29) and Colorado State (No.28)
Game MVP: Chendall Weaver came off the bench to score 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting, while providing constant energy and defense. The stat line might not show it, but he's the easy selection for MVP honors.
Let's Talk Defense: The Longhorns forced 19 turnovers and held Colorado State to 29.8% shooting from the floor and 25.0% from downtown. It's hard to win games in the Tournament like that.
Key Stretch: In the final 15:13 of the half, the Longhorns went on an amazing 25-3 run to close out the lead to give it a 27-11 lead at halftime. CSU shot 18.5% from the floor, 10% from downtown and didn't attempt a single free throw in the first half. CSU's 11 first-half points were the fewest by any team in the first half of an NCAA Tournament game since 2008.
Impossible to Believe: There's no way I would have believed the Longhorns capable of winning this game with poor games from both Dylan Disu (5 of 18 from the floor) and Max Abmas (5 of 15 from the floor), but the Longhorns somehow advances with the two combining to shoot 10 of 33 from the floor.
Slow start: After taking a 2-0 lead to start the game less than a minute into the game, the Longhorns didn't score again all the way through the first TV timeout, falling behind 8-2 and starting the game 1 of 8 from the field. As described above, things changed dramatically from this moment on in the first half.
Chasing History: Abmas sits in 8th place on the all-time list and entered the game trailing former Creighton star Doug McDermott (3,150 points) by 39 points for 7th place. After scoring 12 points on Thursdayday night, he is now 27 points behind McDermott.
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