The Texas Longhorns and North Carolina Wolfpack will meet for the second time this season in the Final Four in Dayton on Tuesday, with the teams as No. 11 seeds vying for the right to advance to the West Region against the No. 6 seed BYU Cougars.
Tuesday’s first game at UD Arena will air on truTV at 5:40 PM Central Time, with Game 2 starting around 8:10 PM Central Time.
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This is the second straight year Texas has reached the Final Four, last year when Rodney Terry’s Longhorns lost to Xavier in their final game and Sean Miller’s Musketeers lost to Xavier in their last game before taking the job in Austin.
The Horns endured an up-and-down campaign during Miller’s first season at Forty Acres, with Texas winning five straight conference games from late January through mid-February but losing five of its past six games, including Wednesday’s first-round loss to Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament, to enter Sunday’s Selection Sunday with an 18-14 overall record and a 9-9 record in conference play.
A string of poor results has pushed the Longhorns from a comfortable spot in the NCAA Tournament and back to the bubble, with ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi tabling Texas as the last regular-season team left standing Sunday afternoon.
NC State is a familiar rival for Texas — Terry’s Longhorns beat the Wolfpack 63-59 in non-conference play in 2024-25 — and then met at the Maui Invitational last November, where Texas won 102-97 to add to Miller’s team’s resume.
Under first-year head coach Will Wade, NC State went 20-13 and 10-8 in the ACC, including a win over Pitt in the conference championship before losing to Virginia.