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March delivered, and so did both Longhorn teams
FORT WORTH — March provides.
As always.
The madness that comes with one of the most majestic months on the sports calendars delivered once more.
Whether it's UConn's Braylon Mullins' last-second, desperation 3-pointer to beat Duke in yet another classic finish or Texas' women dominating three opponents to a fifth Elite Eight in six years or Texas' men finding their way to three straight dramatic victories as a No. 11 seed, March comes through.
And so have the Longhorns.
Vic Schaefer's team is on the precipice of a second consecutive Final Four berth. The Longhorns face a very sound, defensive-minded Michigan team Monday night at Dickies Arena with the makings of a home crowd to support them.
They won what were essentially three home games, two in the comforts of Moody Center and one at the Fort Worth arena chock full of burnt orange among the 11,197 in the gallery.
Sean Miller's team defied logic as one of the last three teams in the NCAA Tournament by riding the tremendous play of Tramon Mark, Jordan Pope, Dailyn Swain and Matas Vokietaitis into the Sweet 16.
They won virtually three road games, first at Dayton, Ohio, where Miller and former fellow Xavier player Dailyn Swain performed in front of a hostile Dayton crowd and two at Portland, Ore., where Western teams BYU and Gonzaga filled the stands.
That's the route each team has taken to establish Texas as two strong programs. Schaefer's knocking on the door of his first national championship. Miller's just laying the foundation of his new program and might have to rebuild with the loss of two starters and perhaps an NBA draft pick in Swain.
The women have more heroes than one team should be allowed, starting with three-time All-American Madison Booker.
The men didn't have an All-SEC first-teamer but a crew of talented players who put it all together at the right time.
The women haven't had a close game yet, winning by an average of 35 points through three games.
The men had Mark and Cam Heide. They both hit game-winners and clutch free throws to keep advancing until falling to Purdue at the end.
The long and short of it is Texas should be very proud of its basketball teams that have represented and will continue to do so.
 | Kirk Bohls, University of Texas Columnist |
Around the Horns
Give it up for Bob Bowman's men's swimming and diving team winning back-to-back NCAA championships Saturday at McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta for Texas' first crown on this school year. Is there a better coach on the Forty than the guy who replaced the king Eddie Reese and won his third straight title, including the 2024 event at Arizona State? I think not. The Longhorns scored a massive 445.5 points for their to secure their 17th title in program history. Florida came in second with 416 points. … No one was more impressive than Hubert Kós, who turned in a record-breaking performance in the 200-yard backstroke to break his own NCAA, U.S. Open, meet and program records. The Hungarian champion now holds back-to-back NCAA titles in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke. Texas has 69 national championship, 65 of them in the NCAA, and can claim 14 by eight different sports in the last six years alone. That, my friends, is dominance. …
Jim Schlossnagle's baseball team got back on track and not only won a Friday opener for the first time in three weeks, but captured its first three-game sweep of arch-rival Oklahoma since 2014. Dylan Volantis had a subpar game Sunday, but Brett Crossland and Hayden Leffew held down the Sooners and the Longhorns came through on nuclear-hot Casey Borba's two-out, bases-loaded RBI single in the 10th inning for another walk-off victory. No. 2 Texas (23-4) leads the SEC with a 7-2 record before going back on the road to South Carolina this week. The bad news is sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez will "miss time" because of his lingering hand injury after offseason surgery. He has started all 27 games but has been bothered by the issue all year and was scheduled to have a staple removed. Third baseman Temo Becerra will likely move to short, where he played at Stanford.
Quote of the Week
Stats of the week
Who's hot
Texas fifth-year senior Rori Harmon, who filled up the boxscore against Kentucky with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals, all with a jammed middle finger that was taped up Sunday.
Who's not
You tell me. Burnt orange rules right now, no matter the sport. I guess we could say the Texas football team hasn't won anything in spring football but every other sport is on a high.
Stat of the day
The Texas baseball team outscored Oklahoma 23-7 in three wins, two of them in 10 innings.
📬 Texas Mailbag
Q: What is the ceiling for Matas Vokietaitis? — Greg, Austin
KB: It's high. The Lithuanian has so much room to improve with better rebounding, better positioning, better footwork. He showed he is very capable, but he needs a quicker release on his shots and needs to get better at the free-throw line.
Q: Will Texas continue to excel in the so-called country club sports in the NIL era? Or can a smaller program put all its money in a few "smaller" sports and outbid the giants? — JoBeth in The Woodlands
KB: Excellent question. The revenue-sharing formula that gives the football programs at most Power 4 conference schools 75% of the $20.5 million and 15% to men's basketball leaves precious little for the other 19 sports at Texas. Volleyball got very little, the tennis programs even less. Some schools that might provide more financial resources to other non-revenue, Olympic sports like gymnastics (Oklahoma, LSU) and softball (OU, Texas Tech) will have a big advantage. Many of those sports will feel the financial pinch and could suffer and even at some schools be disbanded.
Q: How concerned should UT fans be by the spring absence, thus far, of Arch Manning? — Buddy in Houston
KB: Very little if at all. He's been very, very limited in spring ball after having foot surgery and has been unable to develop the necessary chemistry with new wideout Cam Coleman and tight end Michael Masunas, to name a couple, that he'll need this fall. But I wouldn't be worried about it.
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🤘 Longhorns Trivia
This week's question: The Texas men's game with Purdue in the Sweet 16 was the Longhorns' 86th in NCAA Tournament play. What's their record?
Hit reply and let me know your guess for a chance to win.
Last week's question: Madison Booker's 40 points in the Longhorns' win over Oregon were a school record in an NCAA Tournament game. Who held the previous mark?
Answer: The previous mark was 32 points by Heather Schreiber (vs LSU in 2003) and Clarissa Davis (vs. Western Kentucky in 1986).
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