No. 10 Texas trending upward as March Madness nears

Feb 6, 2023 - 12:28 AM

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The NCAA Tournament picture is rapidly coming into form and things continue to trend upwards for Rodney Terry and the Texas Longhorns.

Now 12-3 under Terry, Texas has surged out to the front of the Big 12 standings at 8-2 in league play, and 19-4 overall. And now, according to DraftKings, Texas is among the teams with better odds to win the NCAA Championship, tied with Saint Mary’s, Creighton, and Gonzaga for the 10th-best odds at +2500.

Interestingly enough, despite headlining the Big 12 standings, Texas trails Kansas (+1300) and Baylor (+2000) in DraftKings’ futures odds.

But more immediately to that end, Texas is well-positioned to be among the top seeds during March Madness. CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm, and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi each project Texas to enter the NCAA Tournament as a 2-seed, while BetMGM slots Texas as a 3-seed — all three projections came before the Longhorns went on the road and upset No. 7 Kansas State.

As things are trending, Texas is setting itself up to secure a 2, if not a 3-seed, but there’s still plenty of high-level basketball left on their schedule. Next up, the Longhorns are on the road on Monday against No. 8 Kansas, and down the road, they’ll close the regular season against four straight ranked foes in No. 13 Iowa State, on the road against No. 11 Baylor, then again away from home against No. 15 TCU before closing the regular season against the Jayhawks.

But if the Longhorns can ultimately navigate the rest of the Big 12 slate and Big 12 Tournament well enough to earn a No. 2 seed, it will be the program’s highest seed since Texas was also a No. 2 seed in 2008 before ultimately making an Elite 8 appearance.