Texas was one rebound away. That's what makes this one sting. And according to Charles Barkley, it never should've come down to that.
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Barkley didn't hold back after Texas' 79-77 Sweet 16 loss to Purdue, calling out Longhorns coach Sean Miller for benching one of his best rebounders on the final possession.
"I think Sean Miller, who I love, he made a mistake," Barkley said on CBS. "You gotta have a big guy in there... You can't give up an offensive rebound in that situation. That's a screw up."
Hard to argue with the result. Texas tied the game with 11 seconds left and got the stop it needed. Purdue's first shot missed. That should've been it.
Instead, Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn slipped inside, grabbed the rebound, and tipped it in with 0.7 seconds remaining. Game over. The problem? Texas didn't have 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis on the floor.
TREY KAUFMAN-RENN WINS IT!
PURDUE IS MOVING ON! pic.twitter.com/8Bsd4uxvtj
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 27, 2026
Miller pulled him due to foul trouble and matchup concerns, worried about a switch or a potential fifth foul if the game went to overtime. But Texas never got there.
"We did get the stop," Miller said afterward. "They got us with their size on the offensive rebound."
That's the part Barkley zeroed in on. Because sometimes the first stop isn't the play. The rebound is.
Texas made a surprising run as an 11-seed, knocking off higher-ranked teams along the way. But it ended the way a lot of tournament games do — one possession, one mistake.
And one decision that's going to sit with Miller for a while.
