Ole Miss topples Texas, puts serious dent in Longhorns’ NCAA Tournament hopes
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Ole Miss effectively took Texas‘ already faint NCAA Tournament hopes and put them on life support following a 76-66 upset victory over the Longhorns in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday night in Nashville.
With a middling 9-9 record in the SEC during the regular season, 10th-seeded Texas tip-toed into the Music City with an 18-13 overall record that was in need of some serious improvement this week. Instead, the Longhorns went out and lost to the 15th-seeded Rebels, who had absolutely nothing to lose and played the spoiler role ridiculously well in sending Texas home early.
Now, with an 18-14 record and 0 SEC Tournament victories to show for it, the likelihood of the Longhorns sneaking into the NCAA Tournament this Sunday appear slim at best. Texas was behind the 8-ball all night in Nashville, falling behind 41-30 at halftime before making one last-ditch effort to overcome itself and get into the second round, after all.
The Longhorns trimmed Ole Miss‘s lead to 3 with a few minutes left, trailing 66-63 with their season pretty much hanging in the balance. But the Rebels answered with a vengeance, scoring the next 6 points to make it 72-63 and making the next 4 days until Selection Sunday very long for Texas.
Ole Miss suddenly has a new lease on life, knowing there’s an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament waiting for some SEC team on Sunday. The Rebels, who went just 4-14 in conference play this season, improved to 13-19 overall and earned a second-round date with No. 7 seed Georgia on Thursday night (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
The Rebels lost to the Longhorns by 11 points in Austin back in early February, but a month later on a neutral court they controlled things against their desperate opponent. Ole Miss only made 1 3-pointer all night, going 1 for 10 from long distance, but it didn’t matter, with the Rebels taking ultra care of the ball with only 3 turnovers.
That alone made scoring hard to come by for Texas, which compounded things by shooting just 35% from the field. The Longhorns only made 19 field goals all night, with Dailyn Swain’s 22-point, 12-rebound performance not being enough to drag Texas to victory. Jordan Pope (16 points) and Matas Vokietaitis (10) were the only other Longhorns in double figures.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss was everywhere on defense, clogging up lanes to the tune of 12 steals on the night. The Rebels suffocated Texas, and their own 47% shooting from the field worked just fine, with Malik Dia leading the way with 23 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
Ilias Kamardine stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, and AJ Storr provided a massive lift for Ole Miss off the bench, pouring in 18 points in 29 minutes.
All of it added up to some sweet payback for the Rebels and a sour taste for the Longhorns, who will find out their ultimate NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday after a very short week in Nashville.
With Texas gone and Ole Miss moving on, here are Kalshi’s current odds for the teams it believes have the best chance to win the SEC Tournament on Sunday:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
