In the second game of the 2025 Men’s SEC Tournament, the Texas Longhorns blitzed Vanderbilt early and held on late to secure a 79-72 victory.

The victory redeemed a loss from early February in which the Longhorns suffered an eight-point loss, also in Nashville.

A win over the Commodores was a must for a Texas squad that still has NCAA Tournament ambitions despite floating on the bubble for much of the season and often on the wrong side of it at that.

“Yeah, I think this time of year you really have to start playing March basketball really mid-February,” Texas Head Coach Rodney Terry said. “By the end of February, you should be playing March basketball already because the urgency you have to play with. In this league, this year, you’ve had to play NCAA Tournament basketball every night. Every night you have an NCAA Tournament game, NCAA Tournament opponent. Every possession really mattered in terms of how hard you had to play, the urgency you have to play with.”

With the SEC Tournament taking place in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, most games within the event will count as Quadrant-1 victories or losses for the teams that take them. The win over the Commodores gave Texas its sixth Quad-1 win of the season to improve to 6-10.

Despite that, Texas still likely has an uphill battle ahead of it to feel comfortable in its ability to hear its name called on Selection Sunday.

CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm doesn’t even consider the Longhorns worthy of being “on the bubble” while ESPN’s Joe Lunardi most recently had them in the “First Four Out,” still outside of the field.

As for Terry, he emphasized the importance of not focusing too much on the big picture and simply trying to take it one game or even one possession at a time.

“Well, I think the thing we try to focus on over the last two weeks, give or take, three weeks, is just live in the moment, live where your feet are,” he said. “Every possession is really important. I think if you start worrying too much about the big picture, you lose focus on what you have to do that’s right in front of you right now. That’s the thing I really try to instill in our guys over the last couple weeks. Control what you can control. But more importantly, live in the moment. It’s about every possession.”

Terry dodged a question regarding how he felt the win over the Commodores increased his squad’s chances of making the dance, despite a deep March Madness run being perhaps one of the only things that can ensure his job security.

“We’re just happy to still be playing right now,” he said. “A lot of respect for Texas A&M team we’re about to play right now. Coach (Buzz) Williams has had a great season. His team is extremely well-coached. They play really hard. They’re a physical team. We’re just excited about another day and another opportunity. Again, just controlling what we can control at this moment right now.”

Texas has struggled immensely in its first SEC season, finishing the regular season 6-12 in the conference and 17-14 overall.

With a losing record in Quad-2 games, the fact that Texas is even remotely considered an NCAA Tournament team is a testament to the quality of play in the SEC, which is trending toward breaking the all-time record for most teams from any conference to get into the big dance (11).

“I’ve been blessed enough to do this for almost 30 years. We’ve had some really good Big 12 Conference races and things of that nature there. This has been easily the hardest and most challenging conference race of my coaching career,” Terry said. “Every assistant, every head coach, will tell you the same thing in terms of just the level of play in this league. We could have a couple No. 1 seeds. We’ve got a couple teams that are good enough to win a national championship in this league. It was very unforgiving if you didn’t have a short memory.”

In the SEC, Texas’ wins over Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Missouri, Kentucky and Mississippi State accounted for every Quad-1 victory the Longhorns secured. On the flip side, eight of the Longhorns’ 12 conference losses came in the first quadrant.

In fact, only losses to Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma (all but South Carolina was at home) were outside of the first quadrant, and all of those only went down as Quad-2 losses while a win over LSU provided a Quad-2 victory.

The SEC is so stacked, in fact, that Terry agreed with the sentiment that it might just be harder to win the SEC Tournament than make an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight this year.

“I would agree with them on that,” Terry laughed. “Every night you’re going to get a Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight-caliber, Final Four-caliber opponent in this tournament right now. The farther you advance, that’s what you’re going to face every night, a team that has a chance to win the whole thing. I say this time of year if you’re a college basketball player, you’re a college basketball coach, it doesn’t get any bigger or better (than) March. It’s like Christmas.”

As exciting a time of year as March can be, similar to Christmas, it can also be rather stressful if one finds itself in a pinch.

Because of the quality of the resume, Texas still likely won’t make the tournament without beating No. 5 Texas A&M tomorrow, which is sure to be a big ask even if the Longhorns have a victory over the Aggies once this season.

To the credit of the Longhorns, Vanderbilt Head Coach Mark Byington seemed to believe in the viability of Texas in the big dance, but it must be said that he also has a vested interest in doing so.

“You just look at some of these teams and you look at how talented they are. The coaching staffing, the players,” Byington said. “Going through this gauntlet, other leagues don’t even have a chance to experience. It’s Quad-1 games, the gyms are sold out. The mental part of this league is probably the most difficult. You can play really good basketball and lose. Maybe you do that two times in a row or three times in a row. Other leagues kind of got a benefit. They got a Quad-2, Quad-3, Quad-4 game in there. They can kind of gain their confidence, resettle themselves. This really tests your resiliency in this league. You can’t get down.”

Whether or not the selection committee agrees with rewarding the gauntlet of SEC play or not is to be determined, but, for the sake of Terry and the Longhorns, tomorrow’s contest against Texas A&M is a must-win.

Tipoff between the Longhorns and Aggies is scheduled for 25 minutes after the conclusion of game five (1 p.m. ET tip) and will air live on the SEC Network.