Tumbling to the finish line and nearly out of the bracket, Texas and North Carolina State are not yet in the NCAA Tournament field of 64.
But the chance for a revival is there for the Longhorns (18-14) and Wolfpack (20-13) when they meet for the second time this season in the First Four on Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.
The winner hops a plane as the West Region No. 11 seed, heading to Portland with No. 6 BYU (23-11) awaiting in the first-round matchup on Thursday.
Miller won this game last year as head coach at Xavier when he knocked out Texas. Then he was hired to lead the Longhorns two weeks later.
Texas knocked off NC State 102-97 in the Maui Invitational in November. Neither coach expects to spend much time revisiting that game considering the recent issues on both sides that brought them to the verge of being held out of the field entirely.
“Now it’s our time to see if we can do something with this opportunity, more than we’ve done during the regular season,” NC State coach Will Wade said.
Wade has openly questioned the discipline and effort of his team. NC State lost seven of its last nine games, going from comfortably in the field to playing on the first night of the tournament.
Texas enters the tournament with losses in five of its last six games. The two most recent losses were to teams who didn’t make the field, Oklahoma and Ole Miss.
“We had two full days of being able to take a deep breath, get away from each other, get our legs and mind right,” Miller said. “And then we also had an opportunity to have two really good days of practice and get back in the gym, where you learn where we’re at.”
Texas won the Nov. 26 meeting in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational. There were only 13 total turnovers in that game, with Texas’ 28-for-33 shooting on free throws making a difference.
“It was an up-and-down game, and it was a third game in three days for both of us,” Wade said.
Jordan Pope’s 28 points led Texas in the first meeting, with the Longhorns shooting 55.8% from the field — including 16 for 32 on 3-pointers. NC State had three players — Quadir Copeland (28 points), Ven-Allen Lubin (23) and Paul McNeil Jr. (20) — reach the 20-point mark in that game.
“When they play well, they have great firepower, great scoring punch,” Miller said. “They’re familiar with us, and we’re familiar with them. I don’t think that’s any advantage to us or them.”
There should be no lack of motivation from the Wolfpack.
“It’s a team that we lost to earlier in the year, certainly our guys will have their full attention,” Wade said. “It’s an NCAA Tournament game. We should have everybody’s full attention for an NCAA Tournament game.”
Since NC State lost to Virginia in Thursday’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals, the Wolfpack had two days off without practice. Wade said he chose for a regular type of practice Sunday because he felt there was about a 30% chance the Wolfpack might end up in the First Four.
NC State topped Pitt in Wednesday’s ACC tournament second round.
“We’ve got to clean up the details and the discipline to go with that, and that’s going to be the challenge to do that quickly before Tuesday,” Wade said.
Texas met three ACC teams across the first month of the season, losing to Duke and Virginia and topping NC State. NC State went 0-4 against those opponents, with two of the losses in March.
Junior Dailyn Swain, the SEC Newcomer of the Year, leads Texas in scoring (17.8 points per game), rebounding (7.5 rpg), assists (108), steals (55) and minutes (32.2 per game).
–Field Level Media
