NCAA Tournament thin on Texas teams, but two have Cinderella look
March Madness?
How about just mad.
The state of Texas will only have five teams in the NCAA Tournament, two less than a year ago.
Bubble teams TCU and the University of Texas came up empty after both earned bids in 2018. It could be worse. Two years ago, only three Texas teams earned bids (Baylor, SMU and Texas Southern).
The top-seated Texas teams are Texas Tech and the University of Houston. Both are No. 3 seeds. The Red Raiders open against Northern Kentucky in the West Region. The Cougars open against Georgia State on Friday in the Midwest Region.
Abilene Christian, which earned its first NCAA tournament berth, is the 15th seed in the Midwest Regional. They open against No. 2 Kentucky on Thursday. ACU was competing in Division II just six years ago. The Wildcats (27-6) beat New Orleans in for the Southland Conference tournament championship on Saturday.
Prairie View A&M (21-13) earned its first berth since 1998. The Panthers, who won the Southwestern Athletic Conference by beating Texas Southern, meet Fairleigh-Dickinson on Tuesday in on of the four First Four play-in games in Dayton, Ohio.
The Red Raiders (26-6) lost to West Virginia in the Big 12 tournament title game after sharing the regular-season title with Kansas State. The Bears (19-13) finished fourth in the regular season and open as the No. 9 seed against Syracuse on Thursday in the West Region.
Texas contingent
The five teams competing in the 2019 NCAA men’s basketball tournament:
No. 3 Houston (Midwest Region)
No. 15 Abilene Christian (Midwest)
No. 3 Texas Tech (West)
No. 9 Baylor (West)
Prairie View A&M (First four)
This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 6:34 PM.
