NCAA March Madness Round 1: Texas Men’s Basketball jumps over Colgate 81-61

The first round of the NCAA Tournament starred leading man Sir'Jabari Rice who scored 23 points with seven three-pointers and one layup.

Again, the Texas defense proved wiser as they stopped Colgate from scoring from three point range. Colgate is the best team in college basketball from three point range averaging 40.78% on the season. Texas stopped Colgate who shot just 20% from three-point land hitting 3-13. Texas is not even ranked in the Top 50 for three-pointers, yet they hit 13-23 for 57%.

This was all game planning, coaching, and execution by Texas. They outsmarted their opponent. It is like Texas took way ALL Colgate's three point shots and gave them to Rice.

Marcus Carr hit 17 points, Dylan Disu put down 17 points, and Tyrese Hunter got to double digits with 10 points.

Colgate had the lead early in the game, then Texas went up and never looked back with leads as much as 17 points at one point, though Colgate made runs several times to bring the lead down to nine points. Texas caught their breath and finished the game with a 20 point lead.

After the game Charles Barkley commented on how efficient Texas was and that being the reason for their success. Rice had a game-high efficiency rating of 26 followed by Disu with an efficiency of 25, the second best between the teams. As a reminder, efficiency is calculated using the Manley's formula ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - Missed Shots - Turnovers)

Texas may need to deploy this same strategy if they play Xavier in the Sweet 16. Xavier has the 2nd best three point shooting in college basketball, but first...

Texas plays next on Mar. 18 (Sat) against Penn St. who took down Texas A&M in Round 1 after the Texas game.