There is clearly no quit in this year’s Texas men’s basketball team.
Though they’ve been knocked around and even knocked down several times this season, the Longhorns lifted themselves up time and again with an enthusiasm that showed how much love they have for hoops. And for playing together.
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As this Texas team stands on the precipice of playing for the NIT title, though it may not be where they (and fans) thought they would be back in November, the Horns have a hunger to play and keep playing until there are absolutely no more games to be played.
That final game of the season comes tonight as Texas takes on Lipscomb in the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
What tomorrow, and the days after, may bring are of no worry to the Longhorns, who are locked in on celebrating a championship tonight.
The highs of toppling one of the nation’s top teams, North Carolina, in the fall, and the lows of not making it deep in the Big 12 Tournament or into the NCAA tourney, all culminate in a chance only one other team has, to claim they won their last meaningful game of the season and got to hoist some hardware while smiling with teammates.
The highs, the lows, the in-between, all along head coach Shaka Smart has been a calm, steadying presence in the face of adversity. Not every team is meant to be No. 1, even on the Forty Acres were some consider that blasphemy.
“He tries to remind us that we’re a good team and don’t ever second guess ourselves,” Elijah Mitrou-Long said of Smart’s approach and influence. “I think we do that a lot — not even us but everybody that plays basketball at our age at our level. … He always reminds us don’t second guess yourself.”
That moment of embracing a squad that will never come again is at the forefront of the Longhorns’ minds, and nobody can take that away from them.
The fight has been in the team all season, despite falling short of lofty goals to reach and advance deep in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s about how you bounce back,” sophomore Jase Febres said earlier this season. “I think last year there was a lot of attitudes, different emotions on the team, we weren’t able to talk to each other that way. But this year we have a lot of guys who are open-minded and able to take in criticism and to be humiliated for the better of the team, including myself.”
The identity of this team has long been its defense, and it came in waves this season, peaking with the drubbing of Big 12 foe TCU in the NIT semifinals, in which Texas held the Horned Frogs to just 17 points in the first half.
“I think defense is one of the things that makes us the team that we are when we win big time games bc we can all strap up and just sit down on people,” said Courtney Ramey.
Texas plays Lipscomb at 6 p.m. tonight on ESPN.
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