Loose ends left in Big 12 tourney
After abrupt ending to last season, Horns hunting a deep run
AUSTIN — A helpless feeling washed over Courtney Ramey as the Sprint Center’s thumping pregame soundtrack went silent.
The morning of March 12, 2020, and all around the Texas guard, Big 12 officials, coaches and staffers were forming into tight groups and speaking in frantic whispers. Something was up.
Shortly after the arena went silent, conference officials pulled Texas and Texas Tech off the court ahead of their 11 a.m. quarterfinals matchup. Half an hour later, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby slogged to a podium and announced the men’s and women’s tournaments had been canceled. Soon, everything else would be, too.
“During that time, I was pretty mad,” Ramey said Monday. “I wanted to play. I had family there, so I wanted to perform for them. But, in the grand scheme of things, I understood why they pulled us off the court. And we have a teammate of our own at risk (leukemia survivor Andrew Jones), so I had to think about him as well.”
No. 13 Texas (17-7, 11-6 Big 12) returned to Kansas City this week for the Big 12 tournament. The Longhorns will face 20th-ranked No. 6 seed Texas Tech (17-9, 9-8) Thursday in the quarterfinals in a rematch that’s likely to conjure some tense memories.
The coronavirus ravaged the Longhorns for the better part of three weeks. Coach Shaka Smart had to watch one game in quarantine. The bout with COVID-19 rattled him, cast doubt upon the merit of actually playing out this season amid a viral minefield. Then the winter storm arrived.
All told, Texas had six games canceled or postponed this season because of COVID-19 protocols or weather. The Longhorns made up three of those games last week, hopscotching from Iowa State to Oklahoma to TCU and leaving with three wins in tow.
That thunderous 3-0 close locked the Longhorns into a No. 3 seed in this year’s tournament, which Big 12 officials expect to be played in full at Kansas City’s Sprint Center.
Players like Ramey and senior Matt Coleman still fear the rug might be pulled from under them at the last second all over again. And Smart still anguishes over the conversation he had with Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte moments before the 2020 tournament was shut down.
“I was in the locker room and (Del Conte) said they canceled the tournament,” Smart remembered. “So we call the guys back in the locker room, and at that point we didn’t know what we know now about the severity of COVID and just the long, long lasting impact. But I had a feeling that it would be the last time that we would be addressing that team in a locker room in that season.”
“I won’t name any names, but we had one player that I think was really relieved that we were not playing, did not feel like it was safe to play. We had another player that was extremely upset —you can probably guess based on knowing our guys — that was really mad and disappointed and felt like we had an opportunity taken away from us. But it was outside of our control.”
Texas isn’t naive enough to believe it has total control over its situation in Kansas City. But if the Longhorns can just make it to tip-off, they feel confident about being able to make one more compelling impression on the NCAA men’s basketball committee before Selection Sunday.
The constant stoppages and COVID hangovers battered
Kansas St. vs. TCU, late Iowa St. vs. Oklahoma, late
Oklahoma St. vs. West Virginia, 11:30 a.m. Kansas ST.-TCU winner vs. Baylor, 1:30 p.m. Iowa St.-oklahoma winner vs. Kansas, 5:30 p.m. Texas Tech vs. Texas, 8:30 p.m.
Oklahoma St.-west Virginia winner vs. Kansas St.-tcubaylor winner, 5:30 p.m.
Iowa St.-oklahoma-kansas winner vs.
Texas Tech-texas winner, 8:30 p.m.
Semifinal winners, 5 p.m.
Texas after a thunderous 10-1 start. It was only in final tacked-on week of the regular season that the Longhorns were able to recapture some of their earlyseason swagger.
Senior big Jericho Sims is playing the most inspired basketball of his life as a two-way devastator. Ramey, Coleman and Jones have learned how to cook in the kitchen all at once. Big 12 sixth man of the year Kai Jones is a bucket-getting cyclone in transition and a versatile defender. Freshman Greg Brown keeps growing and soaring. Shooting guard Jase Febres is finally healthy and sniping from the arc. Swingman
Brock Cunningham is still the mad king of hustle plays.
If Texas can just make it through pregame shootaround without the world collapsing again, Ramey believes there’s no more “dangerous” team in the field.
“Knock on wood,” Coleman said, “but it’s why you come to college to play in March. And for us knowing that we’re not going to get that taken away from us, it’s even more exciting.”