Longhorns get surprise NCAA Tournament bid

Published 2:12 pm Monday, March 17, 2025

AUSTIN — Kadin Shedrick admitted he wasn’t very positive.

In fact, the Texas graduate transfer was all but sure he and his Longhorn basketball teammates were going to be left out of the NCAA Tournament.

But more than halfway through the CBS Selection Show late Sunday afternoon, Texas’ name popped up in the Midwest Region bracket.

The Longhorns were alive.

“I was a little nervous,” the 6-11 power forward said at the Moody Center practice facility. “Then there were only the last two clubs left, and I got very nervous. It was very stressful for sure. Man, I’m kind of pessimistic. But I didn’t want to end my career like that.”

He doesn’t have to.

The 19-15 Longhorns who were the 13th seed in the SEC Tournament received an invite as an 11th seed at-large team and will meet Xavier (21-11) at approximately 8:10 p.m. (TV: truTV) on Wednesday in one of the First Four play-in games in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of the game, which will be played at the University of Dayton Arena, will face sixth-seeded Illinois in Milwaukee on Friday.

The Musketeers, who were eliminated by Texas in a Sweet 16 game in 2023, were as fortunate to get in the field as their opponent because Xavier had just a single Quad 1 win with a victory over Marquette, the Shaka Smart-led team that just ousted Xavier from the Big East Tournament in the quarterfinals.

Tre Johnson was relieved his college career hasn’t ended yet either. The 6-6 freshman shooting guard led the SEC in scoring but was on pins and needles about possibly leaving Texas without ever playing in an NCAA Tournament game.

Now he needn’t worry because the certain NBA lottery pick for the June 25 draft has some basketball left in his career.

“A lot of prayers were said,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a chance. I’m very grateful to be in the Tournament.”

He’s not alone.

He will join teammates Jordan Pope, Jayson Kent and Julian Larry as NCAA Tournament first-timers as the selection committee gave Texas a reprieve after it was knocked out of the SEC Tournament by Tennessee after two big-time upsets of Vanderbilt and Texas A&M.

Now that the Longhorns are in for the 39th time and the 23rd in the last 26 seasons — the sixth most in college basketball — the solid Musketeers pose a threat obviously after ending the regular season on a seven-game win streak.

However, Texas is playing its best basketball of the season and is finally completely healthy with the return of energizer Chendall Weaver. The three games the Longhorns played in Nashville were three of only five contests that head coach Rodney Terry has had a full contingent of players.

Texas was actually the first of the last four invitees to get a bid, meaning the committee valued not only the company it keeps — the mighty SEC, which pulled in an all-time record 14 teams into the NCAA field, breaking the Big East record of 11 — as well as the seven Quad 1 wins that dwarfed the performances of play-in mates North Carolina, Xavier and the others.

The Tar Heels, for instance, got in despite a 1-12 record against Quad 1 competition.

Almost certainly, Texas got in because of its own brand name. After all, the NCAA Tournament game is televised, and the Bevo brand stands above most, and the committee has shown it’s not above giving preference to teams that draw eyeballs.

It didn’t hurt that Rodney Terry has one of the most electric performers in all of college basketball in Johnson.

“When I saw North Carolina pop up, I figured we have to be in now, with their 1-12 record,” said Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, who declined to address the future of Terry. “I was not as pensive as some. I’m excited for the group of guys because now it’s a clean slate. We have a chance.”

That’s all Texas wanted.

A chance to show that it’s a better team than it showed down the stretch before Nashville.

The move of shooting guard Tramon Mark to point guard proved to be a pivotal piece of strategy by Terry although some wonder why the switch wasn’t done before. Terry claimed the absence of Weaver for 15 games precluded that move.

“We’re finally healthy now,” said forward Arthur Kaluma, who has battled knee problems the second half of the season. “We switched some things up and we are clicking right now. That’s working for us. So I think we’re a scary team right now for sure.”

Now that they made the field, this Texas team might play looser and more freely although Terry insists his club has never really played uptight in the pressure-packed SEC.

“I don’t know if we ever played tight,” Terry said. “This is my 13th year at Texas (including nine years as Rick Barnes’ assistant), and my 13th tournament. But everybody is 0-0 right now. I tell the team to live in the moment. There are a lot of teams not in the NCAA Tournament. But there are no bad teams in the NCAA Tournament.”

For a time the last couple of months, even Longhorn Nation might have disputed that, injuries notwithstanding. But the Longhorns stayed the course, as their coach said, and found a way into the bracket for the fifth consecutive year.

“Nothing beats the NCAA Tournament,” Shedrick said.

The announcement brought many sighs of relief among the Longhorns who can’t wait to get back onto the court to show their true worth.

“This is all we wanted,” said Mark, who played in the NCAA Tournament at Houston before transferring to Arkansas. “This is all we asked for.”

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