The question came up Thursday inside a victorious Texas locker room following the No. 13 seed Longhorns' wild 94-89 double-overtime victory over No. 5 seed Texas A&M in the second round of the SEC Tournament.

The wait until Sunday surely will feel like forever for the Texas Longhorns, who left their home court just last week to Oklahoma fans chanting “NIT! NIT!” Now here they sit, a legitimate NCAA Tournament hopeful because of what they did in the SEC Tournament.

Aside from the COVID year, the Texas Longhorns will more than likely be missing their first NCAA Tournament since the 2018-19 season. ESPN's Joe Lunardi released his final bracketology update ahead of Selection Sunday and has Texas as the second team out of the field.

Tennessee basketball won its opening game in the SEC Tournament against Texas on Friday to advance to face No. 1 seed Auburn on Saturday.

In the SEC preseason poll, Texas (14-1) was picked to finish eighth. Mississippi State (13-4) was picked to finish ninth.