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No. 11 seed Texas defeated 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 expletive-laden halftime speech might have been the reason.
Miller, 57, challenged his team to maximize its effort on the offensive glass and not get discouraged 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. Do you want to take it or are you just going to say – we’re going to say, ‘They always seem to go to the Sweet 16. Same thing happened to us.’ Yes, we can,” Miller told his team.
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Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller in 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/Image Images)
Miller stressed to his team that if they couldn’t grab it, they needed to keep the ball alive by any means possible, and to win the game, they had to steal it from Gonzaga.
“You can’t catch it, hit it, tip it, put it back, tip it, dunk it, up,” Miller said. “The most aggressive team in the second half. The team that wants to go to San José, the team that is going to steal it and take it from the other son of a bitch—–, that is the one that is going to win because it is 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 Lomán/AP Photo)
Texas took Miller’s advice literally, as they stole the ball four times from Gonzaga and held an 11-2 advantage in points off turnovers. While the Longhorns outrebounded 34-29, they shot the ball better than the Bulldogs, making 52% of their shots compared to Gonzaga’s 45%.
For Miller, Texas’ trip to the Sweet 16 is his ninth trip in 21 seasons as head coach and improved his overall tournament record to 25-13 in the NCAA Tournament. For Texas, this is its 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, Oregon, on March 19, 2026. (Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Photo)
The Longhorns will look to maintain their Cinderella run when they play No. 2 Purdue on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. ET.
