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No. 11 seed Texas upset No. 3 Gonzaga, 74-68, on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and head coach Sean Miller’s explosive halftime speech might have been the reason.
Miller, 57, challenged his team to maximize their efforts on the offensive glass and not wilt just because Gonzaga is a higher seed and a good basketball team.
“Here it is. The team that gets the most second shots in the second half is going to win. Again, I want to go back. You want to take it or you just want to say — we’re going to say, ‘Like, man, they always seem to go to the Sweet 16. The same thing happened to us.’ No, no. If you didn’t take it, if you have to be a team thank you, we have to get the ball more when we miss. It can’t be one of those like, ‘F—it, we could never get an offensive rebound against Gonzaga.’ Yes, we can, Miller told his team.
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Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller during the second half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during a second round game of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Tournament at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on March 21, 2026. (Troy Wayrynen/Imagn Images)
Miller impressed upon his team that if they couldn’t get it, they had to keep the ball alive in any way possible, and to win the game, they had to steal it from Gonzaga.
“You can’t get it, hit it, tip it, go back up, tip, dunk, up,” Miller said. “The most aggressive team in the second half. The team that wants to go to San Jose, the team that wants to steal it and take it from the other mom—–, that’s who’s going to win because it’s an even game.”
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Texas head coach Sean Miller reacts on the sideline during the second half of the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament against BYU in Portland, Oregon, on March 19, 2026. (Amanda Loman/AP Photo)
Texas took Miller’s advice literally as they stole the ball four times as Gonzaga had an 11-2 advantage in points off turnovers. While the Longhorns were outrebounded 34-29, they shot the ball better than the Bulldogs, draining 52% of their shots compared to 45% for Gonzaga.
For Miller, Texas’ trip to the Sweet 16 is his ninth trip in 21 seasons as a head coach and improved his overall tournament record to 25-13 in the NCAA Tournament. For Texas, this is their first Sweet 16 since 2023.
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Texas head coach Sean Miller reacts from the sideline during the first half of the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament against BYU in Portland, Ore., on March 19, 2026. (Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Photo)
The Longhorns will look to keep their Cinderella run going when they play No. 2 Purdue on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. ET.
