Longhorns Players on BYU Matchup, Hostile Crowd

0:00On March 19, the Texas Longhorns men's basketball team advanced to the first round of the NCAA tournament with a narrow 68-66 win over North Carolina State in the first four. Now, players Dalyne Swain, Trimone Mark, and Jordan Pope shared their thoughts ahead of facing sixth-seated Brigham Young University in Portland. Earlier this week, the emotional victory came amid booze directed at coach Sean Miller during warm-ups, which fired up the team. The players admitted to just five or six hours of broken sleep after the late-night game, but they brushed it off as part of the tournament grind. Fans and players alike felt the extra motivation from a hostile crowd, turning it into a chip on their shoulders. Swain, who played under Miller at Xavier, called hostile environments fun, while Mark and Pope said it pushed them to play harder for their coach. Following ahead, they scouted BYU as a fast-paced team with strong offense, elite point guard play from AJC, DeBonza, a potential number one NBA draft pick, and solid rebounding.

1:04Swain, with his own pro aspirations, relishes matching up against top talent like that. Jordan Pope, back on the West Coast after transferring from Oregon State, reflected on his journey, crediting his former coach for giving him a shot, amid the Pac-12 collapse. With a quick turnaround in travel, the group sees no excuses, just a privilege to compete and advance deeper into March madness.