DALLAS — May they have this dance?
Maybe a Texas ten-step is in order, as from DFW down to H-Town and quite a few areas in between, the state will have many schools to root for in both the upcoming Men’s and Women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. Both tournaments announced their full 68-team group of entrants Sunday night.
As celebrations kicked off in campuses across the country, our state got good news from a total of seven men’s teams and three women’s teams. In DFW, TCU makes history with both its men’s and women’s teams qualifying in the same season for the first time ever.
TCU
The TCU women, winners of a second straight Big 12 Championship this season, have the pleasure of hosting first and second round games for a second straight season in their tourney while the university hosts one of the two regionals leading up to this year’s Final Four in Phoenix. A No. 3 seed in the Sacramento 4 bracket, the Lady Horned Frogs begin their tourney run against No. 14 UC San Diego.
Meanwhile, the men will be fighting it out for one of the Final Four spots this year in Indianapolis as a No. 9 seed in the East region. The Horned Frogs are matched with No. 8 Ohio State in that traditional toss-up match between two teams in the middle of their bracket. The winner faces No. 1 seed Duke, the overall top seed of the tournament.
Intrigue surrounded several of the Texas schools’ men’s teams. Eventually, four of the state’s seven berths came in the lower half of their respective regionals.
SMU
SMU’s men came into Sunday a bubble team and left it as a qualifier with work to do to make the final 64. But they’re shaking the doubters off who aren’t convinced they are tournament material, including former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.
The Mustangs are slated to face Miami of Ohio in one of the four play-in games Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, fighting for the 11th seed in the Midwest Region. One of the most fascinating teams in all the tournament, Miami of Ohio was the only team in the nation to enter its conference tournament with an undefeated record. But after losing in the Mid-American Conference semifinals to Massachusetts, the RedHawks were suddenly in danger of missing the tournament entirely.
Men’s basketball selection committee chair Keith Gill provided clarity after the selections were announced and said Miami of Ohio, while being one of the last teams to secure an at-large spot, actually came in before both Texas and SMU. Expect this to be a spirited contest between two teams with something to prove. The winner faces No. 6 Tennessee.
Statewide
As an 11th seed also, the Texas Longhorn men will play in Dayton against North Carolina State for an 11th seed in the West Region with the winner taking on No. 6 BYU. Prairie View A&M’s men round out the Texas contingent in the play-in, they will fight for a 16th seed against Lehigh. The winner faces No. 1 seed Florida later in the week.
The Lady Longhorns are the only No. 1 seed in the state. Coming out of their thrilling upset of South Carolina in the SEC Tournament, UT’s women are atop the Fort Worth 3 region and have a chance to have a very friendly homecourt advantage should they make the tournament’s second weekend. They await the winner of the Southern University-Samford play-in for No. 16.
Houston’s men are No. 2 seeds in the South region, one spot below those Gators, they’ll face No. 15 Idaho in the first round and a potential battle with No. 10-seed Texas A&M awaits in the second round, but first the Aggies have to take on No. 7 Saint Mary’s. The Texas Tech men, back in the tournament for a third-straight year, are No. 5 in the Midwest with SMU and await No. 12 Akron in the first round.
The remaining dancing Texas team is the Stephen F. Austin women, who will face Missouri State in a play-in to secure a No. 16 seed and a chance to play the Lady Gamecocks, who are looking to return to the Final Four for the sixth straight season.
