Texas Longhorns claw past TCU, setting up unique Big 12 final vs. Kansas

Texas moves into the Big 12 Tournament championship game after defeating TCU 66-60 in a semifinal game on Friday.

The Longhorns are in the title game for the eighth time in the event’s 26 years, and they’re looking for their second championship. They had dropped their first six championship game appearances before beating Oklahoma State in the 2021 final.

The opponent on Saturday in T-Mobile Center is Kansas, who defeated Iowa State in the other semifinal.

The Jayhawks are the top seed; Texas is No. 2. This is the first time since 2016, when KU topped West Virginia, that the top two seeds have met for the Big 12 championship.

Tipoff is 5 p.m. and will be broadcast by ESPN.

Kansas and Texas split their regular-season meetings with each winning on their home floor. Both teams are dealing with injuries. KU forward Kevin McCullar didn’t play in the second half on Friday because of a back injury. Texas forward Timmy Allen hasn’t played in the first games in Kansas City with a leg injury.

Unique to this encounter are the interim head coaches. Texas’ Rodney Terry replace Chris Beard after Texas fired him on Dec. 12. At Kansas, Norm Roberts replaced Bill Self due to a health issue with the KU coach.

Here are three takeaways from Texas’ triumph over the Horned Frogs:

Never comfortable for Longhorns

Texas never trailed but couldn’t stretch the lead. TCU cut the deficit to 46-44 with 11 1/2 minutes remaining but couldn’t get closer.

The Longhorns got 15 points and eight rebounds from Dylan Disu, whose minutes have increased with the injury to Timmy Allen. In the quarterfinal victory over Oklahoma State, Disu had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“Coach (Terry) said before the game we’d have a heavy dose of putting the ball inside,” Disu said. “He said he trusted us and believed in us to go and score, so that’s exactly what we did.”

Not a shooting clinic

Texas won despite making 14.3% (2 for 14) of its threes. The Longhorns entered the game shooting 34.5% on threes. Sir’Jabari Rice, a 37.5% three-point shooter, missed all seven attempts.

Sixth-seeded TCU couldn’t match its effort from Thursday when it handled Kansas State. The Horned Frogs cranked up the offense in an 80-67 triumph over the Wildcats. But Texas made things difficult as TCU shot 35.6% from the floor.

Fun homecoming for Christian Bishop

For Texas forward Christian Bishop, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, a championship game meeting against Kansas is about as good as it gets.

Bishop is a senior who played at Lee’s Summit West. He said there were up to 18 family and friends cheering for him and the Longhorns on Friday.

“You have to put on for the city,” Bishop said, “when we’re in town.”