Are the Texas Longhorns a Cinderella? Gonzaga Head Coach Gives His Take

The Texas Longhorns are headed back to the Sweet 16 in their first year under head coach Sean Miller, the ninth appearance in the round across Miller's career.

No. 11-seeded Texas pulled off a second straight upset — and again in an environment similar to an away game — with a 74-68 win over the No. 3-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday night. The winning performance was led by 17-point showings from sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis and senior guard Jordan Pope and was clinched on a dramatic corner three from junior forward Camden Heide with just 14 seconds remaining.

Texas took care of the ball, committing just five turnovers, and turned defensive stops into offensive opportunities to shoot 52% from the field, overcome a first-half deficit and hold on late.

As a result, the Longhorns are now the only double-digit seed to advance to the second weekend. Starting in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, Texas has surpassed the odds to keep its season going to this point.

This reality raises an interesting question: Are the Longhorns a Cinderella team? Well, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few does not seem to think so.

Mark Few on the Texas Longhorns' "Cinderella" status

"Some of these monikers we put on everybody from Cinderella to Blue Bloods and all that, I have a hell of a time understanding it," Few said postgame. "I mean, they make literally no sense. So (Texas) is not a Cinderella team. That's a really talented basketball team with a really, really, really good coach, that has incredible resources and has a great history of doing great things in the tournament."

In its second season in the Southeastern Conference, the Longhorns went 9-9 across conference play, accumulating a five-game win streak at a point last month. But much of the momentum was lost as March's madness got underway, as Texas entered the NCAA Tournament after losing five of its last six.

Still, the dangerousness of the Longhorns has resurfaced over the past week, culminating in three straight, season-elongating wins. Now, after being unranked for the totality of the regular season, Texas finds itself as one of the top 16 teams in the country at the most important time.

"That's just (an) 11 seed that had some tough losses during the year," Few went on to say. "But definitely more than enough talent to win another game after this."

The 2026 tournament marks the 12th time that Texas has advanced to the Sweet 16 — and as Few mentioned, that is a figure that pushes back against the program's Cinderella status in this case. The well-known, high-end athletic department budget Texas boasts further develops that case.

And postgame, Miller added that he does not believe his team wants to identify with the Cinderella moniker.

"I don't think we ever want to sign up to be the Cinderella story, because we are the University of Texas and we represent the SEC as well," Miller said. "(In) the long regular season, you can learn a lot of lessons, you can grow, and you can really redefine yourself as time moves on. We played at UConn, we played Duke in Charlotte, we went to Maui. None of us truly knew each other, other than Dailyn and I. And in some ways, the first couple of months of our season were very much a work in progress, in fairness to us. But we kept working and going."

Texas' battle-testedness came through both the SEC schedule and a difficult non-conference campaign, which Miller discussed. The Longhorns showed the capability to compete with the best, yet didn't put it all together consistently until March.

Does this create a new era or ideology of Cinderella-type teams due to the changes in the college sports landscape? Who knows — time will tell.

But the Longhorns have sure capitalized on the committee's decision to give them a shot in the First Four and have demonstrated how quickly things can turn around when good coaching and talent collide.

"We're a much better team right now than we would have been a month ago," Miller said. "I think we're playing our best — everybody wants to play their best in March, and we just so happen to do it ... Hopefully we can keep going."

Texas is now set to face off against No. 2-seeded Purdue after the Boilermakers defeated No. 7-seeded Miami on Sunday morning. While they will enter the underdogs once again, there is nothing to say that the Longhorns cannot challenge another high-quality opponent for a spot in the Elite Eight.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.