While Texas basketball won’t be playing for a tournament title at the Maui Invitational Wednesday against No. 23 North Carolina State, it will be fighting for something equally important in an early-season game.
A quality win over a nonconference foe.
The Longhorns (5-2) didn’t get that while making light work of Chaminade Tuesday night in Hawaii. Texas topped 100 points for the first time this season with a 119-72 victory over the Silverswords, who serve as hosts for the annual tournament. Tramon Mark scored a team-high 19 points, Dailyn Swain added 18 points, and the Longhorns grabbed their largest rebounding advantage in school history while outworking Chaminade by 39 on the boards, 59-20.
The win over the Silverswords may have helped ease the sting of Monday’s 87-86 loss to Arizona State, it did nothing to help Texas when it comes to its RPI. The NCAA’s first NET rankings — a key component used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee in March — won’t come out until next week. Based on the current Kenpom ratings, however, Texas won’t get many opportunities to strengthen its metrics before the start of SEC play in January, which is why Wednesday’s matchup with North Carolina State carries particular weight.
Texas currently stands 43rd in the latest Kenpom rankings released Tuesday. The Longhorns’ nonconference schedule features just four teams — No. 3 Duke, No. 15 Connecticut, No. 26 North Carolina State and No. 42 Virginia — that rank in the top 50 of the Kenpom ratings. The Longhorns have already lost to Duke in the season-opener, they host Virginia next week, and they visit Connecticut in mid-December.
The NCAA places heavy value on “Quad 1” wins when determining its NET ratings. Such wins are defined by beating a team ranked in the top 30 at home, in the top 50 at a neutral site and top 75 on the road. Based on those metrics, Texas only has two more chances to pick up a Quad 1 win in nonconference play, including Wednesday’s fifth-place game at the Maui Invitational against North Carolina State.
By the way, Arizona State stands at No. 83 in the latest Kenpom ratings, but the Sun Devils will likely climb higher after reaching the Maui Invitational championship game against Seton Hall.
And the higher Arizona State climbs, the better the metrics for Texas, which may not get as big an SEC bump as it did last season. The Longhorns finished 6-12 in SEC play a year ago and still qualified for the SEC Tournament because the 2024-25 SEC ranked as one of the most competitive conferences in NCAA history. This season looks different, though; in the latest Kenpom ratings, only two SEC teams land in the top 10, and only five are in the top 30.