Abilene Christian took down Texas.
The No. 14 seeded Wildcats forced 23 turnovers in Texas in a 53-52 victory to knock the Longhorns out of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive time.
Andrew Jones of Longhorns passed a lead try with 14.7 seconds to put it 52-51. But Abilene Christian’s Joe Pleasant crashed with an offensive 1.2-second rebound by Matt Coleman, Texas. Pleasant – a 58.5 percent shooter with free throws – hit both of his free throws for the win.
The ACU victory means that three teams ranked No. 13 or worse – ACU, Ohio, North Texas and Oral Roberts – played the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats will play in the Eastern Region in the second round at 11 UCLA on Monday.
If Abilene upsets Christian Texas, it will be the first time four teams have won a 13th or a lower place each in the 64th Round.
– Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) 21 March 2021
This is the first NCAA tournament in the history of the school for Abilene Christian. The school’s only other NCAA tournament appearance took place in 2019 when it was a 15-man squad and lost in the first round.
Texas has not played a tournament since 2014
The Longhorns now have an unbeaten streak of five tournaments, despite entering the tournament after winning the Big 12 tournament. Texas has been knocked out in the opening round in four consecutive tournament results since winning its first game in 2014.
Two of these losses came in a heartbreaking way. It appears Jones’ shot hit the Longhorns in the second round on Saturday night. And Texas lost in the first round in 2016 when Paul Jesperson shot halfway through Northern Iowa to upset the Longhorns.
The last victory in Texas in the NCAA Tournament occurred in 2014 when the Longhorns beat the state of Arizona 87-85. Rick Barnes was then the team’s coach. Current coach Shaka Smart has not played an NCAA tournament in his time in Austin. Is it satisfying for a school that has shown with its soccer team this fall that it is willing to make a prominent coaching change if good is not good enough?
Abilene Christian is one of five of the 32 teams in the second round of the NCAA Tournament from the state of Texas. And his players immediately knew they had the “horns down” hand gesture as soon as the game was over.
It was an ugly win for Abilene Christian
Abilene Christian entered the match and forced a match more than 20 times. And they really needed all the Texas turnover that forced them to win Saturday night. The score is awful.
The Wildcats were just 20 of 67 off the field on Saturday night and a porous 3-of-18 from three. An underdog usually gets upset with a hot three-point shot. But no ACU player hit more than one try, and Pleasant and Coryon Mason were the only two ACU players in double figures.
Texas was 18-of-40 off the field and shot 35 percent of three. But the Longhorns took 27 fewer shots than ACU did, and the two extra brands of the Wildcats, thanks to all the turnover in Texas, seem to be the difference.
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