After falling in the Quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament to the Tennessee Volunteers, the Longhorns’ NCAA Tournament hopes were announced on Selection Sunday where Texas will face off against Xavier in a play-in game where the winner will face off against the 6th seed in the Midwest Region, the Illinois Fighting Illini.
Following what Rodney Terry has described as ‘the most challenging conference race he’s been apart of’ the feeling inside the locker room was a big sigh of relief and understand that not every team gets gifted another forty minutes of basketball at this stage of the season, let alone in the NCAA Tournament and will make the most of their opportunity.
What the next 24 hours will look like for the Longhorns is starting off with watching as much film as possible on Sean Miller’s Musketeers tonight. On Monday morning they'll hit their routinely weight room workout with strength coach Darby Rich before diving into an intense practice. Later in the evening, they'll depart for Dayton, Ohio, to face off against Xavier.
Tre Johnson described that the guys in the locker room were nervous beforehand, but that they eventually all had the same kind of reaction when they saw their name on the board. One of the things that Tre Johnson emphasized was just being from the state of Texas and being able to represent for the state as well as being a role model for many to look up to in the state of Texas.
One of the biggest adjustments this staff made was moving Tramon Mark to the Point Guard role where he would be primary ball handler of the team. Tramon told us that the first time he was informed that he would be playing Point Guard was in the first media timeout against Vanderbilt, when asked how he felt he said it kind of surprised him and while he didn’t know exactly why they came to that decision, he was comfortable playing that role of the offense, being he’s played the Point in both Arkansas, Houston, as well as High School.
With Wednesday’s matchup against the Xavier Musketeers officially on the horizon, one thing that the team has stressed is how much Xavier gets out in transition and how efficient they are at it. Tramon Mark watched the Musketeers’ last game against Shaka Smart’s Marquette Golden Eagles in which Xavier Guard, Ryan Conwell, tallied 38 points in 35 minutes while shooting 13/18 from the field and knocking down 7 threes.
I asked Arthur Kaluma how he felt facing a team in Xavier that he’s seen multiple times in his career at Creighton and stated that while they’re a very good offensive team he likes the matchup against Sean Miller’s Musketeers.
Jayson Kent and Julian Larry both talked about facing off against former Indiana State teammate, now Xavier’s second leading scorer, Ryan Conwell where Julian stated he’ll be sure to give the staff ‘inside scoop’ on his former Sycamore teammate.
Following what Rodney Terry has described as ‘the most challenging conference race he’s been apart of’ the feeling inside the locker room was a big sigh of relief and understand that not every team gets gifted another forty minutes of basketball at this stage of the season, let alone in the NCAA Tournament and will make the most of their opportunity.
What the next 24 hours will look like for the Longhorns is starting off with watching as much film as possible on Sean Miller’s Musketeers tonight. On Monday morning they'll hit their routinely weight room workout with strength coach Darby Rich before diving into an intense practice. Later in the evening, they'll depart for Dayton, Ohio, to face off against Xavier.
Tre Johnson described that the guys in the locker room were nervous beforehand, but that they eventually all had the same kind of reaction when they saw their name on the board. One of the things that Tre Johnson emphasized was just being from the state of Texas and being able to represent for the state as well as being a role model for many to look up to in the state of Texas.
One of the biggest adjustments this staff made was moving Tramon Mark to the Point Guard role where he would be primary ball handler of the team. Tramon told us that the first time he was informed that he would be playing Point Guard was in the first media timeout against Vanderbilt, when asked how he felt he said it kind of surprised him and while he didn’t know exactly why they came to that decision, he was comfortable playing that role of the offense, being he’s played the Point in both Arkansas, Houston, as well as High School.
With Wednesday’s matchup against the Xavier Musketeers officially on the horizon, one thing that the team has stressed is how much Xavier gets out in transition and how efficient they are at it. Tramon Mark watched the Musketeers’ last game against Shaka Smart’s Marquette Golden Eagles in which Xavier Guard, Ryan Conwell, tallied 38 points in 35 minutes while shooting 13/18 from the field and knocking down 7 threes.
I asked Arthur Kaluma how he felt facing a team in Xavier that he’s seen multiple times in his career at Creighton and stated that while they’re a very good offensive team he likes the matchup against Sean Miller’s Musketeers.
Jayson Kent and Julian Larry both talked about facing off against former Indiana State teammate, now Xavier’s second leading scorer, Ryan Conwell where Julian stated he’ll be sure to give the staff ‘inside scoop’ on his former Sycamore teammate.
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