Rodney Terry and the Texas men’s basketball coaching staff didn’t exactly come bearing gifts during the holiday break. In preparation for the upcoming Big 12 schedule, the pads came off and the bruises went up, especially in the rebounding drills.

“We started going bone on bone,” Terry said Thursday. “You know, you're not going to have a pad in a game. You have a man you have to hit, so we had to start developing that mindset that we're going to put our bodies on somebody. We need to have a physical mindset for the 12, because the 12 is a physical league and I think we've been getting better and better with that.”

That’s been especially true the past two games, when Texas (14-5, 3-3 Big 12) knocked off ranked teams in Baylor and Oklahoma while thrusting itself back into the always-raging conversation about NCAA Tournament worthiness. After being outrebounded for the first time in four Big 12 games during a disheartening loss to Central Florida on Jan. 17, the Longhorns battled Baylor almost even on the boards before dominating Oklahoma with a 32-19 margin.

More: Texas men's basketball recruit Tre Johnson selected to McDonald's All-American team

Dillon Mitchell, a 6-foot-8 sophomore who ranks second in the conference with 8.8 rebounds a game, matched a season-high with 13 boards against OU while reaching double-digit rebounds for the ninth time this season. And 6-9 Dylan Disu grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with 19 points, his first game with double-figure rebounds this season.

“It's about having the want-to, going out there and playing hard,” Mitchell said. “We're going to make mistakes, nobody's perfect. To win games, you don't have to play perfect, but you got to play with effort, you got to play with heart, and you got to go out there and be physical.”

Rodney Terry: Easy practices for early in the season

Like many coaches, Terry has paced his squad through the first three months of the season, especially with big men Kadin Shedrick and Disu recovering from offseason surgeries. But Terry says the Big 12 schedule is like a home stretch, especially in a conference with a dozen teams ranked in the top 70 of the NET ratings that’s used by the NCAA selection committee to determine its tournament field. The Longhorns are healthy entering Saturday’s game at No. 21 BYU aside from some nagging back pain for Shedrick that has limited his minutes in recent games, and Terry said his team has ratcheted up the intensity in practice.

“Early in the year, you want to try to get everybody on the floor,” Terry said. “You still want everybody out there and things of that nature, but there comes a time where if you're going to play a certain way, then you’ve got to practice that way.

“We got to a point where we were not afraid to get on the floor. We know the floor’s our friend. You know we're not afraid to hit somebody. Because at the end of the day, if I don't hit him, they're going to hit me. That’s what this league’s about. And if you don't want to get hit, then then you probably need to come and sit over on the side with us.”

More: Will Texas basketball team play Baylor again after this season? Both coaches hope so.

Dillon Mitchell: Two-year starter knows nature of Big 12

That’s a message Mitchell passes along to his teammates, especially the ones who are experiencing the game-by-game grind of the Big 12 for the first time — Shedrick, Max Abmas, Ithiel Horton, Chendall Weaver, Ze’Rik Onyema and Chris Johnson.

“I learned that last year being a freshman, it's a really physical conference,” said Mitchell, who has started all 57 of his games at Texas. “Even when we're in the weight room, I tell guys, like, ‘Yo, we’ve got to take this serious because the Big 12 is really physical.’ I learned that just from my experience last year, and I've been able to help the new guys who weren’t here to get used to it.”

Six games into the 18-game Big 12 schedule, Terry says all the players are now used to that reality.

“We have multiple-effort players in this league,” he said. “That’s why rebounding is such a big difference. If my man comes, I've got to hit him maybe one time, I may hit him a second time, I may have to hit him a third time. You’re going to get hit one way or the other. So if I'm going to get hit, I'm going to deliver the first blow and keep delivering the blows.”

Texas moves up NET rankings

How much have back-to-back wins for Texas over ranked teams meant when it comes to the computer rankings that determine the bulk of the NCAA Tournament?

Plenty, based on the Longhorns' rapid rise in the latest NET rankings.

Entering Saturday’s game at BYU, Texas is No. 44 as one of a dozen Big 12 teams in the top 70. The Longhorns have knocked off Baylor (No. 15 in NET rankings) and Oklahoma (No. 33) in their past two games.

The NET ranking is the primary metric used by the NCAA selection committee, which must wade through the 362 Division I college basketball programs when determining the 68-team field in March. The system leans heavily on a quadrant system to determine quality wins and losses, with “Quad 1” wins especially valued.

A game qualifies as Quad 1 if it’s played at home against a team ranked between Nos. 1 and 30 in the NET, or between 1-50 at a neutral site, or between 1-75 on the road. By that metric, Texas has gone 3-2 in five Quad 1 games, with a neutral-site loss to UConn, a neutral-site win over LSU, a road loss at Marquette, a home win over Baylor and road wins over Cincinnati and Oklahoma.

NET ratings also lean heavily on a team’s strength of schedule, which shouldn’t be an issue in the Big 12. Houston (No. 1 NET ranking), BYU (5), Iowa State (10), Baylor (15), Kansas (16), Oklahoma (33),Texas Tech (34) and Kansas State (69) all remain on Texas’ schedule.

Saturday's game

Texas (14-5, 3-3 Big 12) at No. 21 BYU (14-5, 2-4), 1 p.m., ESPN2, 1300

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball hitting the boards during a 2-game win streak