Can Texas MBB get back into the Top 25 by Feb 1

Texas Men’s Basketball finally beat a ranked team, No. 9 Baylor, at the buzzer. At the beginning of the season, No. 5 UConn handled Texas in New York at Madison Square Garden, and No. 8 Marquette dismantled them in Milwaukee.

In Big 12 Conference play, Texas fell to Texas Tech, barely beat Cincinnati in Ohio, lost a close one to West Virginia in Morgantown, and gave up another at home to UCF.

Texas regained their identify and played exceptional basketball against No. 9 Baylor at home in the Moody Center. What made the game different was the intensity for the entire game, defense, and the bench stepping up with 10 points from Kadin Shedrick and a game winning offensive deflection back to Abmas from Chendall Weaver.

Late in the second half, Texas looked as sharp as they did early in the first half. Everyone contributed, and players like Tyrese Hunter and Chendall Weaver were difference makers. Hunter is on the edge of becoming a consistent threat every game as he demonstrated against Baylor after scoring 21 points.

Texas fell from the Top 25 ranking, however can they make their way back into the top spots as February and March approach?

Texas plays three ranked teams for their next three games: No. 11 Oklahoma and No. 21 BYU away, and No. 4 Houston back in Austin on Jan. 29, a Monday.

Does Texas have the ‘right stuff’ to beat all three of these teams? Last season, though a different team, but not too different, Texas beat Oklahoma on the road by one point, then again in Big 12 play at home by two points in OT.

If Texas plays the way they did against, now No. 15 (the Texas loss pushed them down in the rankings), Baylor and beat OU, BYU on the road, Texas would certainly be deserving of being ranked back in the Top 25.

If Texas goes on a three game win streak, then makes it five at home against No. 4 Houston, Texas will be once again ranked in the Top 25.

Looking forward to the game tonight with Oklahoma with a 6 p.m. tipoff aired on ESPN. 

Texas’ remaining 13 game schedule, like last season, is as tough as you can imagine with only three of those games against unranked teams.

Watch For

• Tyrese Hunter to make history. Hunter needs nine points to break the 1,000 points scored in his collegiate career of 90 games.
  
• Max Abmas to move up in the all-time NCAA scoring leaders. Abmas is currently No. 17 all-time and needs 180 points to become No. 10 all-time scoring leader in NCAA D1 Men’s Basketball. We predict that Abmas will become the No. 7 all-time scoring leader before the regular season ends, and has a chance to become No. 3 all-time depending how deep into championship play Texas goes.
  
  Texas head coach Terry said of Abmas, “We can always count on him hitting his numbers.” When we pressed coach Terry on who sets Abmas’ number, Terry responded with, “Abmas does.”
  
• Dylan Disu, now appearing fully recovered, to flurish even more. Disu is capable of hitting long three-pointers, and dominating on the boards. We believe Disu has a 30-point game in him.
  
• Chendall Weaver will come out strong. After seeing his effort pay off for Texas in a big way against Baylor with the smart offensive top back to Abmas in the final seconds helped secure the win for Texas, Weaver will look for more ways to be a game changer.

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