In my weekly articles, I have been talking mostly about potential change heading to the 40 Acres, and rightfully so – it’s a very important topic for Longhorn fans across the world. The football season is coming to a close soon and with it, most likely comes change in some form. Â Over at the Drum on the hardwood, the season is just getting started.
To say there are tempered expectations for Texas men’s basketball would be an overstatement. There are no expectations. No TJ Ford. No LaMarcus Aldridge. Â Not even J’Covan Brown. Texas basketball has no big names, no superstars, no McDonald’s All-Americans. In fact, the first two games of the season were very bland. Texas was down 17 points to South Alabama at one point before charging back to beat the Jaguars 84-77.
Next, the Horns travel to Kansas City to play in the CBE Classic where they will face the BYU Cougars. Â BYU is a good college basketball program and will pose many challenges for the Longhorns. The Cougars are disciplined, they play smart basketball and they will make Texas earn a win. They won at Stanford and had a narrow loss at home to Iowa State. If by some miracle the Longhorns beat BYU and advance, their likely opponent will be Final Four “Cinderella” Wichita State. Â Rick Barnes’ guys can also look forward to playing top ranked Michigan State, North Carolina and Vanderbilt in the non-conference slate of games as the season progresses.
The Big 12 looks to be one of the better basketball conferences in the 2013-2014 season. Four Big 12 teams are currently ranked in the top 25. Iowa State just knocked off 2013 National Runner-Up Michigan at the Hilton Coliseum, Baylor is still very good, and Kansas and Oklahoma State look like national title contenders. And don’t sleep on Kansas State or West Virginia.  The conference has a number of very good teams that will be in consideration for the tournament when selection day rolls around. With an upset or two Texas could find a way in as one of the final 4 teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The road ahead looks very bumpy for the Texas Longhorns but the perception of the team can change on Monday night. If the Longhorns have a good showing in the CBE Classic, it might give them the confidence they need to make this a successful season.
