2022 NCAA Tournament: Day One Preview
The moment everyone has been waiting for, March Madness. Today, Texas Longhorns fans around the world will be watching No. 6 seed Texas Men’s Basketball take on No. 11 seed Virginia Tech in Milwaukee for a 3:30 p.m. (CST) followed by No. 2 seed Texas Women’s Basketball against No. 15 seed Fairfield in Austin at 7 p.m.
No. 25 Nationally Ranked Texas Men’s Basketball
For the men, this is their 36th trip to the NCAA Tournament. For coach Beard, he is 10-4 in his last four NCAA Tournaments and 4-0 in the first round. This is great news for Texas who are the sixth ranked scoring defense in the nation (59.6 ppg). Texas also has a perfect 17-0 record when they have held teams to under 60 points.
Players to watch
- Senior Courtney Ramey — over the past two games he has averaged 16.5 ppg and 6-12 (50%) from three-point range.
- Senior Timmy Allen — averaged 12.3 ppg, 6.5 rebounds, scored a team high 394 total points this season.
- Senior Marcus Carr — look for him to break out of a two-game scoring slump.
- Senior Andrew Jones — always a threat especially from three-point land with 44% of his total points scored this season (333) coming from three-pointers.
- Junior Brock Cunningham — Watch for Beard to inject Cunningham at key moments in the game to swing the momentum. Cunningham is known as ‘the glue.’
No. 6 Nationally Ranked Texas Women’s Basketball
For the women, this is their 34th time in the NCAA Tournament. They are on an 11 game winning streak and just won the Big 12 Tournament Championship against Baylor allowing them to host round one and two in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. This will be the absolutely final game(s) at the Frank Erwin Center.
Look for another fight at The Drum. One of the reasons for the team’s success is the relentless pressure they put on opponents until the last second of the game. Texas ranks No. 12 nationally in turnovers forced on their opponents with 21.2 per game.
We asked Joanne Allen-Taylor how the are able to keep the relentless pressure the entire game during a postgame conference. Allen-Taylor responded with, “It is muscle memory. We play the way we practice.”
Players to watch
All Of Them! Every player who comes into the game will be plugged into a unified belief that they are going all the way. Count on Rori Harmon being a force of nature, Lauren Ebo controlling (dominating), Audrey Warren establishing who is boss, Joanne Allen-Taylor to demonstrate what championship level play looks like, and Aliyah Matharu to bring the rain.
Aliyah Matharu is the teams overall high scorer with 400 points on the season with 210 points coming from sinking three-pointers. Matharu averages 12.5 points a game.
Freshman Rori Harmon has taken the national stage with her level of play. Collectively the team is playing in such a cohesive unified way, they are a force to be reckoned with.
“Tournament Wishes and Championship Dreams”
