One of the workers at UFCU Disch-Falk Field told me before Saturday’s completion of a sweep of Kansas that he believes the Texas Longhorns will host the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

So Disch-Falk isn’t closed for college baseball business just yet, you say?

Well, the current math says that's unlikely, but the Horns can still make an impassioned run at one of those coveted 16 home bids. First they need reverse some recent bad luck in the Big 12 Tournament.

The KU sweep — the first of a conference opponent this season and only the third dating back to last season — moved the Horns up to No. 39 in the D1baseball.com's latest RPI rankings, up five spots from last week.

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At 35-20 — with a respectable 12-9 record against Quad 1 teams — the Horns would have to catch some real fire to sneak in there and steal a regional bid.

The road will be much tougher away from the house if that doesn’t happen. One thing the Horns have going for them is they have figured out how to win games in different ways. They rallied late to win the first two games via walk-off against Kansas and then roared out to an 8-1 lead in the finale before hanging on for dear life to secure the sweep.

They aren’t always pretty, but somehow with the struggles on the mound, the Horns have carved out a 13-3 record over their last 16 games and finished the season with a 9-1 record in Big 12 series.

“We’ve talked about trying to win games in different ways and not trying to be a one- or two-dimensional team,” said third baseman Peyton Powell. "Different guys step up. You have different roles that you put in. It speaks volumes to the culture that we’ve built.”

It will be a tough road to Omaha

Home vs. away is no contest: In the last 25 seasons, the Horns have hosted a regional on 12 occasions and won 10. One of the two losses came to Cal Irvine in 2007 when the tournament was held at Dell Diamond as Disch-Falk Field was undergoing a renovation.

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In short, when the Horns have hosted, they have taken care of business. Of those 10 regional winners, nine went on to win the ensuing super regional and advance to the College World Series. The Horns captured national titles in 2002 and 2005 under the late, great Augie Garrido, the latter coming with a super regional win at powerful Ole Miss.

But it hasn’t gone as well when the Horns began regional play away from the friendly confines.

More: No. 25 Texas preps for the Big 12 baseball tournament by completing a sweep of Kansas

Since 1999, the Horns are 3-5 in regionals away from home.

Of those three wins, the 2000 and 2014 teams made it to Omaha. It should be noted that both advanced to the CWS after returning home to host a super regional.

To make a home bid more of a reality, they have to solve the Metroplex jinx. The Horns are 8-10 at the conference tournament under Pierce and 3-4 at Arlington’s Globe Life Field, the site of this week’s event.

(About that bad luck I mentioned earlier: Globe Life has been a veritable house of horrors for the Horns, who went 0-3 there to open the 2021 and 2023 seasons. The 2021 losses were notable because they all came to future SEC opponents Mississippi State, Arkansas and Ole Miss. Texas also went 0-2 in last season’s tourney there, with losses to Kansas and Kansas State.)

With that said, history is just that: history. The Horns can make some new memories starting with a win over Texas Tech on Tuesday in their final Big 12 tourney before departing for the SEC.

While regional host dreams appear remote at this point, the program’s first Big 12 Tournament win since 2015 would make Selection Sunday very interesting.

Softball aims for a historic double

Texas eyes a softball title: We talk about the golden era of Texas sports and this feels like the first one since the initial decade of the 2000s, highlighted by men’s teams winning two College World Series titles and a BCS national football championship.

Well, the ladies have taken center stage in the third decade and the softball team is looking to join an exclusive club.

More: Texas softball slugger Reese Atwood named one of three finalists for national player of year

With Jerritt Elliott’s volleyball team having captured the 2023 national title — its second straight — Mike White’s top-ranked team can make Texas the second school to win NCAA volleyball and softball titles in the same school year. UCLA did it twice, in 1984-85 and 1991-92.

Entering Friday’s super regional opener against Texas A&M, the 50-7 Horns check a lot of boxes in pursuit of the program’s first title and are carrying themselves with a level of confidence that appears unflappable after stubbing their toes in the Big 12 Tournament title game against No. 2 Oklahoma.

They’re proficient in all three areas — hitting, pitching and defense — and most important, they believe they’re as good as the ranking suggests.

“We’re on a roll now,” said shortstop Vivi Martinez.

She gets no argument from Northwestern coach Kate Drohan, whose team was just outscored 21-2 by Texas in two meetings.

“You can’t give them an extra out and you can’t give them an extra base,” Drohan said. “That’s what makes this lineup tough and why they were able to capitalize over the last couple of days.”

History can be made over these next few weeks, but the Horns first must get past a familiar foe.

New NBA stars are emerging, but I’m picking the vets

Looking at you, Boston: If you put money on the Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Indiana Pacers to join the title favorite Boston Celtics in the conference finals, then drinks are on you, I suppose.

The NBA playoffs have been scintillating with the introduction of future stars like Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but I’m taking the older teams to make the Finals, with the Celtics taking out the Mavs in six.

Boston’s duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are long overdue to win this thing while Dallas has the chemistry and depth to turn back the upstart Wolves. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are leading a Mavericks team that has enough big bodies to give the Wolves plenty of trouble.

Meanwhile, Charles Barkley unleashed the line of the weekend after "Inside the NBA" host Ernie Johnson informed him the crew was taking off Monday and Tuesday.

“I’ll be on LinkedIn,” quipped Charles, an obvious response to NBC reportedly outbidding Turner and ESPN for the NBA television contract, bringing an end to a broadcasting relationship that started in 1989. That means the likely cancellation of Inside the NBA after the 2025 season and the end of Barkley’s two decades on it since he has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave if Turner ever loses the NBA.

It was a funny line, but won’t it be sad to have an NBA season without the best sports show in the business?

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Golden: Horns must win Big 12 baseball tourney to host a regional