40 Acres Sports

After a big victory over Stanford Friday, the Longhorns now face their toughest test by far of the tournament in the [tag]Memphis[/tag] Tigers. Before the tournament started, I thought the Tigers had a chance to be one of the first number one seeds knocked off. It’s a lot later than I thought but that could still be the case if Texas takes care of business Sunday afternoon.

If the Horns want to hand Memphis only their second loss of the season they’ll have to contain the dynamic guard duo of freshman Derrick Rose and 6-foot-7 junior Chris Douglas-Roberts. Both players are averaging around 15 points and 4 rebounds per game and are excellent on offense and defense. The battle between point guards Rose and [tag]DJ Augustin[/tag] should be an entertaining match-up to watch.

Watch the SI.com video preview of Memphis below:

After playing well in hostile territory in the first two rounds, the Longhorns come home to Texas for the Sweet 16. On Friday the Horns will take on [tag]Stanford[/tag] in a 2 vs. 3 match-up in Houston. The Cardinal pose the biggest challenge in the tourney yet for Texas, particularly the giant Lopez twins down inside.

The 14 feet of Lopezes in the paint means the Longhorns need a big game defensively from the likes of [tag]Connor Atchley[/tag], [tag]Damion James[/tag], [tag]Gary Johnson[/tag], [tag]Alexis Wangmene[/tag], and big [tag]Dexter Pittman[/tag]. On the offensive end Texas needs another hot shooting night out of junior guard [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag], but open looks won’t come as easily as they did in the previous two games.

Watch the SI.com video preview of Stanford below:

After taking care of business on Friday, the Longhorns take on [tag]Miami[/tag] today at 1:15 pm in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. To get past the Hurricanes Texas will have to keep shooting the ball well from outside and stop Jack McClinton from going off. McClinton is an excellent scorer and had 38 points in their first round win over Saint Mary’s. If he does that again the Hurricanes have a good chance of pulling off the upset today.

To learn more about McClinton and the rest of his teammates, watch the SI.com Film Room Preview below:

This time ESPN college basketball guru Joe Lunardi previews the [tag]Austin Peay[/tag] Governors. Sort of. He’s only got 36 seconds of information on Texas’ opening round opponent, and he still couldn’t make it that long without a urine-related joke. No mention of a single player or coach, watch the SI.com preview video for some better analysis.

Here’s the preview of Austin Peay:

ESPN expert Joe Lunardi loves the Horns spot in the South bracket. He thinks Texas has the best résumé in the country and will make it to the Final Four in San Antonio.

Watch his NCAA Tourney preview of Texas below:

I’m not even sure where [tag]Austin Peay[/tag] is located, but the Longhorns will be taking them on Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The former school of NBA legends Trenton Hassell and Bubba Wells, Austin Peay has 8,650 undergraduate students at the Clarksville, Tennessee campus. The 15th-seeded team in the South bracket, the Governors are led by scorer Drake Reed and outside shooter Todd Babington.

Check out the SI.com Film Room preview below for more info:

The Longhorns will face the Governors on Friday at 2pm on CBS. Start working on your excuse to leave work early now.

SI.com has video previews up of all 65 NCAA Tournament teams in their Film Room section. Not exactly a ton of insight, but some nice highlight video of each team and it is a good way to get to know the players to watch.

Here’s the Texas preview:

It’s been a while since [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag] has been in a groove, but he certainly was feeling it Saturday afternoon against the [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] Sooners. In the Big 12 tourney semifinals, Abrams got out of his funk in a big way by making 7 of 12 three point attempts to score 24 points. His shooting helped the Horns take a close game at half time and turn it into a blowout.

ESPN video highlights are below:

Next up for Texas is their third straight match-up with Kansas in the Big 12 Championship finals. Texas lost the previous two games and has never won a conference tournament since the Big 12 was formed. If the Horns can pull out the victory over KU, they’ve still got a shot at a #1 seed for the Big Dance. The game will be on ESPN Sunday at 2pm.

Related Links

• AP game recap
• Box score
• Postgame notes
• Postgame quotes (PDF)
• Photo gallery

The Longhorns got past the [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] Cowboys on Friday afternoon by a score of 66-59. The Horns were up by a comfortable margin for almost the entire second half but could never quite put the Cowboys away and had to hold them off during one final run late. [tag]DJ Augustin[/tag] and [tag]Damion James[/tag] led the team on offense, both shooting the ball very well from the outside. On the defensive side of things [tag]Justin Mason[/tag] was active as usual and big man [tag]Connor Atchley[/tag] blocked four more shots.

Check out some video highlights below:

With the win Texas advances to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. They’ll face off against the fourth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday at 1pm. The game will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPN+ in Big 12 markets.

Many Texas fans are disappointed that stud prospect Russell Shepard won’t be a Longhorn, but the coaches did reel in the player I think is an even bigger recruit in Lake Travis quarterback Garrett Gilbert. The elite QB can sling the football around the field with the best the state’s ever produced at the position. He’s intelligent, talented, and polished, and with the talent that will be around him at Texas my expectations for him are incredibly high.

If you’ve got any doubts, check out the highlight video below from his sophomore season:

I can’t help but think Gilbert’s career leading the Longhorns is going to be a fun time to be a Texas fan.