No. 4 seed Texas to face No. 5 seed Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament

Following a disastrous performance on Saturday against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in an 81-59 loss at the Erwin Center, the Texas Longhorns will face a much more perilous path in the Big 12 Tournament after the bracket was announced on Saturday evening.

As the No. 4 seed, Texas will play No. 5 seed Texas Tech on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Central on ESPN2 with a potential matchup against No. 1 seed Kansas looming on Friday with a victory.

A last-second win by Oklahoma over TCU afforded the Sooners a matchup against the Mountaineers as the No. 3 seed. Why does that matter? Not only did West Virginia lose six of seven games in Big 12 play before ending the regular season on a two-game winning streak, but Baylor is currently dealing with knee injuries to key contributors Mark Vital and Tristan Clark.

So the path to the Big 12 finals and an NCAA Tournament bid became much more difficult for the Longhorns on Saturday, even though Texas just beat Texas Tech on the road and played two competitive games against Kansas during the regular season — the most favorable matchups are on the other side of the bracket.

And that wouldn’t necessarily be a huge problem except two wins may be necessary to make the Big Dance as Texas dropped in the brackets due to Saturday’s loss and Utah State stole an automatic bid from San Diego State in the MWC Tournament final.