Texas ended its run for the Southeastern Conference Championship with a 72-83 loss to No. 4 seed Tennessee.
Texas looked like an entirely different team the past two days, and the trend only continued against Tennessee, ranked eighth in the nation. Offensively, the Longhorns kept up against the Volunteers. Defensively, they just couldn’t disrupt the Volunteers’ rhythm.
“I thought our offense was really good,” graduate forward Kadin Shedrick said, reaching his thousandth career point that afternoon. “They have the best defense in the country. We just couldn’t stop them. When you’re playing with Tennessee you have to be able to get stops.”
Just looking at the stats sheet, the Longhorns trailed the best defensive team in the country by five rebounds, three blocks and four steals. But against a defense like Tennessee’s, every possession counts and Texas just didn’t live up to that standard.
“We just kept reacting to what they were doing instead of putting our will on to them,” senior forward Arthur Kaluma said. “Our defensive energy definitely has to be better.”
The hectic energy in Bridgestone Arena didn’t help either. The stands were filled with Tennessee orange as fans traveled from Knoxville to the quarterfinals. For every successful Vols play, there was an ear-shattering cheer. For every Longhorn play, there was a deafening boo.
But Texas took that in stride.
“I think it’s good for our game when we have environments like that with some energy instead of just being dead,” Shedrick said. “It was a good, fun environment to play in.”
Despite the loss, the general mood in the locker room afterward wasn’t dejection. Instead, it was expectancy — and hope.
Selection Sunday is just 24 hours away, and Texas is still harboring the dream that its name will be on the list for March Madness. The team entered the SEC Tournament knowing that two wins were needed to even entertain the idea of NCAA eligibility. With those two wins recorded, that hope grew even stronger.
“I think that we showed that when we play the best of the best, we can compete with them,” Shedrick said. “I think we deserve a chance.”
Even Tennessee’s head coach, Rick Barnes, advocated for Texas’ ability to compete in the Madness. As head coach Rodney Terry’s former mentor at Texas, Barnes and his Tennessee team have played Texas twice this season so far.
“There’s no doubt Texas is an NCAA team. … There’s no doubt in my mind they did enough,” Barnes said. “I think they’ve done more than enough. I think (the SEC) should have 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament.”
Terry and his team feel the same exact way, especially considering the difficulty of conference play in the SEC. Teams playing in the SEC have faced more Top 25 teams than any team in another conference.
“I feel like we’re playing in the hardest conference to ever be created,” Kaluma said. “We’ve got seven Quad 1 wins. We’re a really good team, we’ve got a lot of offensive talent, and we’re gonna be fun to watch.”
Just going to the quarterfinals of the SEC Championship shows a level of play that Texas players hope the Selection Committee will keep in mind when seeding teams. Conference strength especially matters with teams such as North Carolina, which is 1-12 for Quad 1 wins but is ranked above the Longhorns in selection predictions.
Whatever the results on Sunday, the Longhorns have just one thing in mind — “ISO.”
“In spite of,” graduate guard Tramon Mark said. “Regardless, no matter what happens, we stay together, we keep playing, we fight hard. That’s what ISO means.”
Terry has been spreading this message in the locker room all year long. In spite of the narrative, in spite of what people might say, and in spite of this loss against Tennessee, the Longhorns will remain focused on their own journey — however long that journey may be.
