The Texas Longhorns leaned on the Lithuanian big man in a big way to advance to the Sweet 16. They'll need more of the same in their matchup with No. 2 Purdue.
Matas Vokietaitis scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the No. 11 Texas Longhorns' 74-68 win over No. 3 Gonzaga in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament last week.
The seven-footer from Lithuania had some pointed remarks about his performance during the postgame press conference in Portland.
"First of all, I don't really care who I'm playing against, I'm just trying to play hard, confident," he said. "In my eyes I'm the best big man in the country."
Vokietaitis certainly has played like it, as he's guided the Horns through three March Madness victories thus far: a First-Four win over NC State, a win over Big 12 power BYU and taking down the Zags.
"Where we began and where we ended are two different places," Texas coach Sean Miller said. "I'm just incredibly proud of our group and the resiliency that we've shown and even just the resiliency in the last week with what we had to do to be here."
Over these contests, Vokietaitis is averaging 18.3 points and 11 rebounds per game while shooting 21-39 from the field (.538).
"He's really done an amazing job here," Miller said after Vokietaitis' comments.
This run leads the Longhorns - the only double-digit seed remaining in the bracket - to a meeting with No. 2 Purdue, who will present Vokietaitis with a worthy matchup in big men Trey Kaufman-Renn (8.5 rebounds per game), Oscar Cluff (standing 6-11) and Daniel Jacobsen (7-4).
Texas must keep that resilience that Miller referred to as they face the Boilermakers who are aiming to reach their third Elite Eight in the last seven years.
Purdue is led by the point guard Braden Smith, who made NCAA history in the tournament's opening round by surpassing Bobby Hurley for the most career assists (1,083) in men's college basketball history.
"You've just got to make it tough on him throughout the whole game, make sure none of his passes are just easy darts to his teammates for easy shots," said Longhorns guard Tramon Mark. "All that requires effort, and that's what we're going to do."
Miller added: "The best team doesn't always win in this tournament," Miller said. "It's the team that plays the very best on that particular day."
How to Watch & Betting Odds
WHO: No. 11 Texas Longhorns (21-14) vs. No. 2 Purdue Boilermakers (29-8)
WHERE: SAP Center | San Jose, California
WHEN: Thursday March 26 | 6:10 p.m. CT
TV: CBS (Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson, Allie LaForce)
Betting odds courtesty of DraftKings
SPREAD: Purdue -7.5, Texas +7.5
TOTAL: 147.5
MONEYLINE: Purdue -360, Texas +285
Matchup Predictor (ESPN Analytics): Purdue 75.6 percent, Texas 24.4 percent
