If Texas misses the NCAA tournament it will have no shortage of mistakes to lament from the past two months, but those it made down the stretch in its 69-67 loss to Iowa State on Thursday in the Big 12 tournament might sting the most.
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The Longhorns led by 10 with less than 4 minutes remaining but failed to score again. They missed five shots and committed four turnovers, inviting the Cyclones back into it.
Maybe the biggest mistake of all came in the final 10 seconds Connor Lammert grabbed a huge offensive rebound off an Isaiah Taylor miss. Taylor got the ball back but instead of letting more time drain away to assure Texas of the last shot, he passed early to Javan Felix who was open for a 3-pointer. Felix chose to take the shot with 9 seconds remaining. Iowa State grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 5.8 seconds to set up the winning play.
Cyclones guard Monte Morris drove the length of the floor to hit a fade-away 17-footer at the buzzer right in front of the Iowa State bench. The sophomore from Flint, Michigan, led the Cyclones with 24 points.
Texas had the win it needed to stay off the NCAA tournament bubble all but secured but managed to let it slip away and now must endure a long wait until Sunday evening to find out if the selection committee is willing to overlook some of its blunders or whether those poor decisions and off nights will cost it.
Texas only has one win that really helps its cause since mid-January. It beat a ranked Baylor team at home by two points in overtime two weeks ago. Otherwise, there isn't a lot the selection committee can point to of late to make a strong case for the Longhorns. The overall strength of schedule is the one thing still working in favor of the Longhorns but the committee is sure to put significant value on how Texas handled that schedule.
Bottom line, is coach Rick Barnes and his players won't be getting much sleep the next few nights.
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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
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