While Texas wasn't able to get over the hump against Missouri in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, their win against Iowa State in the previous round appears to have been enough to extend coach Rick Barnes' streak of 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
SB Nation's own Bracketology expert Chris Dobbertean has the Longhorns in the field as a 10 seed, with CBS Sports' Jerry Palm agreeing and ESPN's Joe Lunardi slotting them in as a 13 seed.
Most importantly, none of the three have Texas as one of their "last four in", meaning that possible bubble-bursting wins in the C-USA championship or the semifinals of the Power Six conference tournaments Saturday won't necessarily have an effect on the Longhorns.
Texas has four victories over Top 50 opponents (Temple, Kansas State and Iowa State twice) as well as a 20-13 record and an out-of-conference schedule that included losses to North Carolina and NC State. Even their "bad" loss like Oregon State appears better now that the Beavers upset Pac-12 regular season champion Washington in the first round of their conference tournament.
However, their combined record of 0-8 against Baylor, Kansas and Missouri this season will prevent Rick Barnes and his staff from getting much sleep until Selection Sunday.