KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Texas forward Dylan Disu, one of the bright stars of the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, was ruled out of the Longhorns’ game against Miami for a spot in the Final Four on Sunday with a left foot injury.
The 6-foot-9 Disu was the MVP of the Longhorns’ run to the Big 12 Tournament title on the same T-Mobile Center floor two weeks ago, then helped them reach the Sweet 16 with 17 points in a win over Colgate and 28 points in a win over Penn State.
Disu hurt his foot during the second-round game against the Nittany Lions. He made progress with the injury throughout the week, and there was some hope he’d be available for a Midwest Region semifinal against Xavier. But after a setback, Disu played just 94 seconds for No. 2 seed Texas before watching the rest of the game in a walking boot.
“Dylan obviously worked really hard to get to this point of the season right now,” said interim Texas coach Rodney Terry, who was trying to get the Longhorns past the Hurricanes and into the Final Four for the first time in 20 years.
“We went through the Big 12 Tournament without Timmy Allen, a guy that had become a real focal point of our offense down the stretch in Big 12 play. Next man up had to step in and do the job for us,” Terry said. “No different type of mentality we will have going into the contest against Miami — next man up, and that will be by committee.”
Christian Bishop got the first opportunity, sliding into the starting lineup when it was released about an hour before tipoff in Kansas City. The native of nearby Lee’s Summit, Missouri, scored 18 points in Friday night’s win over the Musketeers.
Fifth-seeded Miami advanced to the regional final with a whipping of No. 1 seed Houston.
“I always say to our guys, ‘We’re all we need. We’re all we got.’ You know what I mean?” Terry said. “We’ll find somebody ready to go, and we’ll band together like brothers, and we’ll go out and compete against a really, really good Miami team.”
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AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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