Texas Longhorns Earn No. 6 Seed in NCAA Tournament, will face Northern Iowa Panthers

For the 17th time in the past 18 seasons, the Texas Longhorns are in the NCAA Tournament.

The Longhorns (20-12, 11-7) were slotted as the No. 6 seed in the West Regional, where they were paired with the No. 11 seeded Northern Iowa Panthers, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament after winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and going 22-12, including 11-7 in the MVC.

Should Texas advance, they will face the winner of the match up between No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 14 Green Bay, affording the 'Horns the possibility of a rematch from the early-season loss to the Aggies in the Bahamas.

Texas got off to a sluggish start to head coach Shaka Smart's first season, but following a loss to Michigan in the Bahamas that dropped the Horns to 2-3 on the year, they ripped off six straight wins, including a home win over the class of the ACC, North Carolina, who earned a No. 1 seed in the Tournament.  The outlook got gloomy again after center Cam Ridley was lost to injury and Texas dropped three of its next four, including a bad loss at TCU, but the team proved its resiliency by rattling off victories in 7 of its next 8, with 5 of those wins coming against teams that are in the NCAA Tournament field (Iowa State, at West Virginia, Vanderbilt, at Baylor, Texas Tech).

Check back in the hours ahead for in depth analysis of Texas' draw in the NCAA Tournament, including an in depth scouting report of Northern Iowa and keys to the game.