Sean Miller and the Texas Longhorns Are the Underdog Story of This Year's Dance

Chalk was beginning to reign supreme over the 2026 men's NCAA tournament.

After a Friday slate in which the biggest "upsets" were a pair of No. 9 seeds taking care of business against No. 8 seeds, the second round Saturday began with two No. 1 seeds, a No. 2 seed, and a No. 3 seed advancing to the Sweet 16, each in relatively convincing fashion.

At long last, though, we were treated to a big upset when No. 11 seed Texas toppled No. 3 seed Gonzaga by a score of 74-68.

Before we venture any further here, a request: Whatever you do, don't call this a Cinderella story.

Surprise, stunner, sleeper, and underdog are all on the table as viable options for the verbiage. However, an SEC school playing at a mediocre level for most of the year before pulling a fast one on a WCC school is the furthest thing from a Cinderella story.

Cinderella's dress was stitched by birds and mice, not by big boosters flush with oil money.

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Now that we've cleared up that peccadillo, though, what an astounding run this has been from Sean Miller's Longhorns.

It hasn't even been a full week since I was complaining that Texas should have been left out of the NCAA tournament in favor of 16-loss Auburn. After all, in the newly all-important Wins Above Bubble metric on the team sheets, the Longhorns weren't even above bubble, ending up with a WAB of -0.26.

Despite losing five of their final six games, though, they were deemed worthy of the third-to-last spot in the at-large field, drawing NC State in Dayton for the right to take on BYU in Portland less than 48 hours later. And Texas won both of those games—the latter in spite of AJ Dybantsa going for 35 points and 10 rebounds—to set up Saturday night's showdown with Gonzaga.

The style of the game really ought to have played right into the Zags' wheelhouse. Yes, it was physical, but it was free-flowing with a combined total of just 20 fouls called and 21 free throws awarded. By contrast, Texas' first two tournament games averaged 38 and 44.5, respectively.

Nevertheless, Jordan Pope hit several huge triples for the Longhorns while Matas Vokietaitis continued his rampage through this tournament, now up to 55 points and 33 rebounds through the first weekend.

Much like when Gonzaga lost at Saint Mary's a few weeks ago, it could not generate turnovers (Texas committed just five), could not hit threes (4-for-16), and just never looked much like the Vintage Zags.

Against a Texas team playing its third game in fewer than 100 hours—with a cross-country, red-eye flight in between games one and two, no less—it was Gonzaga who looked exhausted, rather than the team that had every excuse to be running on fumes.

Going from First Four to second weekend isn't a brand new phenomenon, though.

VCU did it back in 2011, even going from First Four to Final Four in the first year of the 68-team bracket.

UCLA went First Four to Final Four in 2021, too, and might have won it all were it not for Jalen Suggs hitting that half-court miracle for Gonzaga.

There was also La Salle in 2013, Tennessee in 2014, and Syracuse in 2018, each winning three games in under 100 hours.

But while this isn't (yet?) the greatest tournament run of all-time by a "play-in" team, we may have already reached the point where it is the greatest tournament run of Sean Miller's coaching career.

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Miller has 25 tournament wins, reaching an Elite Eight with Xavier back in 2008, as well as three of them with Arizona in 2011, 2014, and 2015.

However, repeatedly failing to win the big one—with the exception of crushing No. 1 seed Duke in the 2011 Sweet 16—was an inescapable narrative throughout his first two decades of coaching.

Prior to Thursday, Miller was 1-7 all-time in the dance when facing a team at least two seed lines better than his team.

Now, he's 2-0 in that department this year.

And, now, we can start peeking ahead to a possible Elite Eight showdown that would be unbelievable theatre: Sean Miller vs. Arizona.

Could you even imagine?

Either Miller would be going to his first Final Four at the expense of the team that fired him five years ago, or Arizona would finally snap its 25-year drought and make it back to a national semifinal.

But we know better than to start writing those future-round narratives before they actually formulate, particularly when Arizona is involved. It's still a bummer that we never got that "Caleb Love Bowl" two years ago when both Arizona and North Carolina lost in the Sweet 16.

Nevertheless, the Wildcats really ought to be waiting on that half of the West Region. And assuming it's Purdue that Texas draws in the Sweet 16, that's another Gonzaga-like team that both commits and draws fouls at some of the lowest rates in the nation.

If the Longhorns can impose their will and turn that basketball game into more of a rugby scrum, the Boilermakers are going to struggle to get into their usual offensive rhythm and could be ripe for an upset.

One step at a time, though. And the Longhorns have to be thrilled that the next step is a wee bit of R&R before that next game on Friday in San Diego.