After big win in Lubbock, Longhorns turning up intensity in hopes of late-season surge

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Urgency is the keyword for the Texas Longhorns men's basketball team for the rest of the season.

After an 81-69 win on the road against Texas Tech on Tuesday, one the Longhorns needed to help their NCAA tournament chances, both senior guard Max Abmas and head coach Rodney Terry mentioned how much urgency the team played with against the Red Raiders. It's one thing to have that level of intensity and focus for one game — now the Longhorns have to stay consistent with it for the remaining three games of the Big 12 regular season, the Big 12 tournament, and March Madness if they're chosen for it.

Abmas said the team has the right mindset to push through the final part of the season and get into the tournament.

"Knowing what we have in the locker room, we're focused on getting better every day," Abmas said. "We had a great game on Tuesday, and we're going to build on that. It's the type of urgency we have to play with every game, and we understand that. It's about continuing to get better right now."

After lighting up West Virginia for 19 points on 6 of 13 shooting Feb. 10, Abmas hit a bit of a scoring slump and just seven shots over the next three games. He didn't make it into double figures in any of those games before snapping out of his funk to score 18 against the Red Raiders. Abmas will have to continue to score for the Longhorns to make it to the NCAA tournament and have a shot to win a game or two.

There's so much ball left to be played, however, that doesn't stop the bracket pundits from throwing out mock brackets for America to chat about. Joe Lunardi at ESPN still has the Longhorns in the tournament as a No. 8 seed, but he's since shifted them into yet another region. Now his projection is a matchup with 9-seed Michigan State in the East Region. Lunardi has been high on Texas making the tournament since the beginning of his projections, while NCAA.com's Andy Katz has the same matchup with the seeds swapped in his latest mock.

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm is not quite as high on the Longhorns, but he still has them in. Palm has Texas as the 10-seed in the West Region taking on Nevada to open the tournament with a potential second-round matchup against Marquette, coached by former Texas head coach Shaka Smart.

To get to that point, Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry said practices need to be fiercely competitive. His team showed that spirit against the Red Raiders, even if it may have come off a bit chippy with Brock Cunningham's ejection for a hard foul, and he said his guys have poured even more into practices now.

"We've had some highly competitive practices," Terry said. He said the practice following the loss at Kansas was particularly intense.

"We're going to fight at an incredible level to try to win games the rest of the way," he said. "Guys were on the floor and making plays similar to the one Brock had as far as contact goes. We were bone-on-bone."

Texas is 7-8 in Big 12 play, tied for eighth with Oklahoma and Kansas State. They have a golden opportunity to get back to .500 at home Saturday against Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are 4-11 in Big 12 games including 1-6 on the road, so it's there for the Longhorns to take. They just have to take it.

If the Longhorns beat the Cowboys, it'll be their first set of back-to-back wins since Jan. 20 and 23 when they beat Baylor and Oklahoma consecutively. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m from Moody Center.