WATCH: Arterio Morris Emphatically Throws Down vs. Kansas in Big 12 Championship
‘Send it in, big fella,’ is a well-known phrase by the legendary commentator Bill Raftery. Well, with 4:39 to play, Texas guard Arterio Morris took to those very words with the most emphatic of emphatic slams in an emphatic 76-56 Big 12 Tournament Championship victory over Kansas.
Morris took a pass high above the rim from guard Sir’Jabari Rice and did the rest with his outstretched right hand. Take a look.
The slam staked the Longhorns to a 70-50 lead at the time. As mentioned, they would carry that margin to the finish line in their second consecutive rout of the Jayhawks within the last week.
Morris didn’t exactly explode in the scoring column in the contest, but he was productive in his 16 minutes off the bench. He scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, including 1-for-3 from beyond the arc, to go along with two steals and a rebound.
Meanwhile, his Longhorns began the day as a No. 2 seed in the South Regional, according to Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology. There’s not much of a path for Texas to land a No. 2 seed, but the question is can they move up to a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional, which would make their potential Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games back here in Kansas City.
Now, the other factor in that is whether or not Kansas remains the No. 1 overall seed in the Tournament, which would have them in the Midwest Regional. Typically, the Selection Committee would prefer to not to put two teams from the same conference as the top two seeds in the same regional, so we will see how Saturday night’s result factors into the equation.
