KANSAS CITY, Mo. — West Virginia players popped in for the first half of Wednesday night’s Texas Tech-Texas at Sprint Center before heading back to their hotel.
Turns out, they missed the most crucial part.
Trailing by 11 inside the 11-minute mark, the Longhorns forged a stunning comeback to win 61-52, setting up a Thursday night quarterfinal few — including the Mountaineers — saw coming. After all, Texas Tech twice pushed WVU to overtime and seemed capable of putting together a Kansas City surge, while Texas appeared dead in the water after losing its final seven regular-season games.
Earlier in the day, for the umpteenth time since joining the Big 12, Bob Huggins validated the league’s strength by claiming “it has no bottom,” and then the bottom-feeding Horns went out and stunned Texas Tech with a 30-11 closing run.
Kerwin Roach scored 12 of his 13 points in the second half, when Andrew Jones produced 10 of his 15, but this upset was mostly authored by UT’s defense. Texas Tech shot only 36 percent overall and 5-of-19 from 3-point range.
“I thought the second half our guys really made a decision in the last 10 minutes or so just to be aggressive and attack and did a great job playing together,” UT coach Shaka Smart said. “Really proud of the way our guys hung in there and stayed together even though the game didn’t start off great and we had some adversity.”
Texas has endured a season-long bout of adversity, including two losses to West Virginia (24-7) with meeting No. 3 on deck.
Though there’s justified concern on the Mountaineers’ side about Jarrett Allen, the potential one-and-done center made only 2-of-9 shots Thursday and snared just four rebounds. Such minimal contributions probably won’t keep Texas afloat in the quarterfinals.
Then again, we’ve reached the nothing-to-lose stage of March where the Longhorns might temporarily elevate their performance.
“Excited. Excited about the opportunity to play them,” Smart said of the Mountaineers. “I thought we had some stretches where we really played well (in the regular season). They keep coming at you in waves. They’ve got a toughness about them. That obviously comes from Coach Huggins and his staff and the players they recruit, and I think for us it’s about turning the page quickly from this game, and letting our hair down and being aggressive and playing with nothing to lose.”
West Virginia could be hard to topple if guard Daxter Miles — coming off a career-matching 23 points against Iowa State — has found his sweet spot.
“No plays off,” he said. “One play can determine the game.”
Texas (11-21) vs. West Virginia (24-7)
Tipoff: Thursday 7 p.m. Eastern at Sprint Center (ESPNU)
Regular season: West Virginia won 74-72 in Austin on Jan. 14 and capped the sweep 77-62 in Morgantown on Feb. 20.
Numbers: While WVU is paced by Carter (12.9 points, 4.0 assists), any given night provides outbreak opportunities for players like Nathan Adrian (10.3 points, 6.3 rebounds) or Big 12 sixth man of the year Tarik Phillip (9.3 points, 3.2 assists) or the recovering Esa Ahmad (11.4 points, 4.1 rebounds). … Allen gave the Mountaineers two decent efforts, resulting in 13-of-16 shooting and 14 rebounds. Jones (11.3 points) is streaky from deep but some NBA scouts think the freshman is a future pro.
RPIs: Texas 154, West Virginia 22
Prediction: West Virginia 75-64
