For years, Texas basketball coaches kept tabs on the latest hamburger All-Americans Kansas landed and the ongoing changes at Baylor, Texas Tech and the Oklahoma schools.
Now, UT coach Rodney Terry is thinking about Kentucky’s Big Blue Nation, Arkansas and his mentor Rick Barnes at Tennessee.
The Longhorns now have the ubiquitous SEC logo pained onto the Moody Center court. While most sports are excited about moving to the new league, the SEC might be a competitive downtick from the Big 12.
“I really don’t think that,” Terry said. “I think the SEC obviously has great leadership with (commissioner) Greg Sankey. He’s done a great job really building up the profile of the other SEC teams from top to bottom. No nights off. Great coaches. Really good venues to play in, and really good players in the SEC.”
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Last season, the Big 12 had the highest overall conference NET ratings, followed by the Big Ten and then the SEC. The Big 12 and SEC ranked 1-2 overall in conference RPI rankings. The Big 12 and SEC also both had eight teams make the NCAA Tournament.
Baylor (2021) and Kansas (2022) are recent NCAA national champions. The SEC hasn't had a league member win it all since Kentucky in 2012.
So while the Big 12 may have the statistical edge, it may simply come down to subjective opinion.
“There’s no drop-off in the SEC,” Terry said. “Man, we’re right at the top. We’re one of the best leagues in the country from a basketball standpoint.”
Terry assembled a roster that has more length. It has 10 new players, including six transfers. He took the same approach football coach Steve Sarkisian did.
When it was announced Texas was moving to the SEC, Sarkisian started building a roster that he felt would be competitive enough to beat the SEC champion. After all, you likely had to beat the SEC champ to win the national title, conceptually.
Related: Texas basketball building backcourt chemistry with two veterans alongside 5-star freshman Tre Johnson
As far as roster building, Terry said he’s ultimately looking at how to win games in the NCAA Tournament.
“If you really get down to it, now you’re talking about what translates in the NCAA Tournament,” Terry said. “Is the Big 12 more physical than the SEC? Who fouls the most? When you get to the NCAA tournament, I think you start looking at those kinds of things.
“But I think there are teams in the SEC that play extremely physical. I mean, we played Tennessee the last three years and it has been easily, probably, the most physical team we played on our schedule
“On any given night, you’re going to have to deal with some physicality,” Terry added. “You’ve got to deal with teams that could push the ball really fast in transition, and teams that can really score the ball.”
Texas will be sent to Texas A&M for the SEC opener on Jan. 4 and then return home to face Auburn (Jan. 7) and Tennessee (Jan. 11). UT also has other key games against Arkansas (home Feb. 5, road Feb. 26) and a date with Kentucky (Feb. 15).
Texas opens the season on Nov. 4 in the Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas Opening Night event against Ohio State.
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