Is Texas The New Cinderella? Longhorns Shocking Gonzaga Has Us Confused On How To Describe NCAA Tourney Upset

Texas might not love the term "Cinderella," but college basketball fans starving for some more real March Madness drama will gladly take it. 

The Longhorns delivered exactly that Saturday night, knocking off No. 3 Gonzaga 74-68 in a late-game thriller that finally injected some life into this NCAA Tournament this weekend. 

Through the first few days, the lack of chaos had been noticeable. Aside from a handful of games, the usual Cinderella moments and bracket-busting surprises were hard to find. Maybe it just took a team like Texas to light the fuse.

While there has certainly been a lack of perceived "upsets" by Cinderella-type teams over the previous two days, with Miami (OH) being destroyed by Tennessee on Friday night, I don't think there were many folks who believed Texas could turn into the belle of the ball.

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What makes it even more impressive? This was Texas’ third game of the week. The Longhorns fought through NC State in the First Four, beat BYU on Thursday, and then turned around to take down one of the sport’s most consistent powers (at least in the regular season).

So, I think we can look past the name of their jerseys and straight to No. 11 by their name as we watched Texas run it out on Gonzaga. 

If you were wondering, this is why the Longhorns decided to hire Sean Miller, and taking a trip to the West Coast from Gonzaga is just the latest example of the potential this program has behind its outspoken coach. 

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The bigger question coming out of Portland is how do we actually classify the SEC shocking Gonzaga as an upset? You'll just have to roll with this one, with the Longhorns being rewarded with a trip to San Jose for the Sweet Sixteen. 

For a large part of the regular season, we wondered how long it would take for Sean Miller to get things rolling in Austin. Now, three games into the NCAA Tournament, I think folks like AD Chris Del Conte are satisfied enough with their choice to bring in the fiery coach. 

Texas came into the tournament having lost five of its previous six games. Sean Miller also became the first coach in Longhorns history to take his team to the Sweet Sixteen in their first season. 

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Maybe we are seeing the resurrection of a program that has been in this spot before, most notably during the awkward year with Chris Beard and Rodney Terry coaching the same team, or during the Rick Barnes era. 

"It's time to give the SEC a little bit of love. This team finished 10th in the SEC. The reason why they lost five of their last six games is because they play in the SEC," Bruce Pearl said post-game about the Longhorns.  

Okay, maybe that's a little bit of home-cooking by the former Auburn coach, but I don't imagine Texas fans will be complaining, or SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. 

Head coach Sean Miller of the Texas Longhorns. (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Knocking off Gonzaga, who has certainly become a "blue-blood" type team in college basketball, is one way for Texas to turn into Cinderella this postseason. 

But, the job of Sean Miller is to get these Longhorns back to a position where we are no longer contemplating their description of wins during the NCAA Tournament. 

Tonight, they took another step in reclaiming some of that lost mojo in Austin. 

We'll see the Longhorns in San Jose, where we'll find out if the slipper still fits.