KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Dylan Disu, the Texas big man who averaged 22.5 points in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, is still day-to-day with a foot injury that forced him to miss all but two minutes of his team's 83-71 win over Xavier in the Sweet 16 on Friday, Longhorns acting head coach Rodney Terry said Saturday.
Players and coaches talked, however, as if they expect Disu to miss the matchup against Miami in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Disu suffered the injury against Penn State in the second round. Per Terry, he knew he wouldn't play Disu more than a few minutes against Xavier but wanted to give the senior a chance to participate in the regional. Against the Hurricanes, however, Terry said Texas will have a "next man up" attitude.
"No different type of mentality we'll have going into [Sunday's] contest against Miami: 'next man up,' and that will be by committee," he said Saturday. "It could be [Brock Cunningham]. It could be, obviously, [Christian Bishop]; [he] played really well for us. Timmy Allen had to play a little more inside for us, as well. I always say to our guys, 'We're all we need. We're all we got.' You know what I mean? 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."
Disu has made an impact on a Texas team that has connected on 54% of its shots inside the arc this season with Disu on the floor, per hooplens.com. But Texas has had to weather challenges with injuries as recently as the Big 12 tournament, which the Longhorns won without Allen.
If Disu is unavailable, Bishop (18 points, nine rebounds against Xavier) will step up, Allen said.
"He's a guy who has always been prepared," he said of Bishop on Saturday. "He's a guy who's always accepted his role. He was one of the more dominant, forceful guys for us last year [that came back]. When he came off the bench ... he wasn't worried about himself. So for him to come in and be prepared is no surprise for me. He's a guy who is always ready. He's always paid his dues. So I know he's going to come in and be impactful and play defense and rebound at a high level when Dylan's not there."
On Friday, Texas guard Marcus Carr said the Xavier game had been emotional for the Longhorns because they understood Disu's limitations.
"We really wanted to play for him," said Carr, who scored 18 points in the win. "We knew how much this would mean for him. We all got emotional in there just knowing he wouldn't be out there. We all knew the job we had to do for him."