The Longhorns have never won a Big 12 tournament title, but Sunday's final, after a 77-49 demolishing of Oklahoma on Saturday, doesn't seem to figure in the big scheme of things.
What the Longhorns accomplished Saturday was getting A.J. Abrams out of his shooting slump (he hit 7 3 pointers and had 24 points besides his solid defense), finding more depth inside (Alexis Wangmene and Dexter Pittman each drew praise from Texas coaches postgame) and continuing to see Damion James (13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) and Justin Mason (four more assists) raise their games. Mason's ability to ease the ballhandling load on D.J. Augustin has been huge for the Longhorns. The fresh-looking Augustin had 17 points and four assists Saturday.
Texas has lost the last two Big 12 tournament title games to Kansas, so the Longhorns will have incentive there, if they need that and if Kansas gets past Texas A&M in today's other semifinal.
-- Vince Langford
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