Big 12 Tournament 2012: Texas Must Win Multiple Games to Ensure NCAA Bid

The Texas Longhorns are the definition of a bubble team in 2012.

At 19-12 (9-9 Big-12) with a RPI currently ranked at 52, the Longhorns are by no means a lock for the tournament. In fact, if the season ended today they are one of the last four teams to make it in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s projected bracket.

They are only 4-10 against the RPI top 100, with all of the wins coming at home. Aside from a win against Temple, there are no big W’s on their resume. Factor in six wins against competition with an RPI of 200 or worse and you see a mediocre team that can beat the bad teams and lose to the talented one.

In most years this sort of resume would be rejected by the NCAA committee regardless of how far they go in the conference tournament.

But not this year.

With such a weak bubble, the Longhorns still have a prayer without being forced to win the Big 12 Tournament (full bracket here).

They get to skip Wednesday’s first round and watch the bottom four teams of the conference duke it out. They’ll be kicking off the week as the No. 6 seed against No. 3 Iowa State on Thursday night. The two split their regular season meetings.

The Cyclones are another bubble team, but they have wins over Kansas and Baylor, two teams in the RPI top 10. They are a shoo-in to go dancing if they win.

Not only will Texas need to beat a team with the 30th-ranked RPI, but they must win yet another game to ensure a bid. The Cyclones aren’t good enough to be the win that gets UT in.

That game will be on Friday, presumably against No. 2 seed Missouri. The Tigers have the 16th-best RPI and already own two wins over the Longhorns. This would be the signature win to put Texas over the hump. It’s not the ideal matchup for Texas, but beggars can’t be choosers. They must advance to the semifinals to secure a bid. Everything from there would be gravy.

So the formula is simple: win zero games this week and it's NIT city. Win one and Texas is one of the last four in or out. Win two and they can bust out the dancing shoes.

The stakes are incredibly high this week in Kansas City as Texas’ entire season rests on their performance.

No pressure.  

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