After an abysmal close to the regular season, the No. 10 seed Texas Longhorns are in need of at least one win in the SEC Tournament to secure their bid for the NCAA Tournament. That journey starts against the No. 15 seed Ole Miss Rebels in the opening round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday at approximately 6 p.m. Central on SEC Network.
The Longhorns go into the game as a 5.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel, a matchup that pits two of the coldest teams in the conference. Texas lost four of its last
five, including two embarrassing outings to close the year against Arkansas and Oklahoma. Ole Miss lost 12 of their last 13 games and would have gone winless in February if not for a win over Auburn on the final day of the month.
One of the losses in that epic skid for Chris Beard’s squad was an 11-point defeat in Austin, where Texas jumped all over them in the first half and rode that momentum to a win. The Horns doubled up the Rebels in the paint, scoring 32 points to Ole Miss’s 16, and also notched 20 second-chance points off of just nine offensive rebounds.
If Texas manages to knock off Mississippi in the opening game of the tournament, it sets up a potential rubber match against No. 7 seed Georgia. Texas pulled off a double-digit upset of the Bulldogs in Austin early in conference play, but UGA got its revenge with an 11-point win in Athens a month later.
The SEC Tournament tips off Wednesday in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena with LSU taking on Kentucky, the first of four games on Wednesday.
Texas is +10,000 to win the tournament, according to FanDuel with Florida the favorite at -180.
