While it was a lower-scoring affair than their first matchup, the Texas Longhorns’ First Four win over the NC State Wolfpack still had plenty of drama, setting up a Round of 64 matchup against the BYU Cougars.
The Cougars entered Big 12 play with just one loss, a two-point loss to the UConn Huskies, but the grind of one of the toughest conferences in the country and an injury to a key contributor derailed their momentum. They dropped games to the top teams in the conference — Arizona, Houston, Kansas,
and Texas Tech — but the floor truly dropped out when guard Richie Saunders, who was averaging 18 points per game, went down with a torn ACL in the first minute of their game against the Colorado Buffaloes on February 14.
In the nine games following his injury, the Cougars went 4-5, including double-digit losses to West Virginia and Cincinnati, both teams that missed the NCAA Tournament. They did, however, get revenge on Texas Tech in the regular season and against West Virginia in the Big 12 Tournament.
Leading the charge through it all for the Cougars is Big 12 Freshman of the Year AJ Dybantsa, who will hear his name called early in the NBA Draft.
The consensus All-American has the ability to take games over for BYU, with two 40-point games under his belt, in which he shot a combined 70.5 percent from the floor and hit six three-pointers. Dybansta is a highly effective scorer, leading the nation in points per game and shooting 56.8 percent from inside the arc.
If Texas can harness some of the defensive performance it put together against NC State, one of its most efficient defensive games of the year according to advanced statistics, it may be able to squeak out another unlikely win and advance to the Round of 32 for the fourth time in the last five years. Texas currently sits as a 2.5-point underdog according to FanDuel, with ESPN’s matchup predictor showing the Cougars with a 63-percent chance to pull out a win.
Tip is at 6:25 p.m. Central on TBS.
