Tramon Mark hit the shot with one second on the clock.
Texas had been up nine points with two minutes remaining against NC State in the First Four on Tuesday night in Dayton. Then Matas Vokietaitis — the 7-foot Lithuanian center who had scored 15 of his team's first 40 points — picked up his fifth foul. The bench went cold. NC State scored eight straight. Suddenly, the Longhorns were clinging to a two-point lead with the game slipping, and their best interior player was watching from the sideline in his street clothes.
Mark's jumper ended it. Texas 68, NC State 66.
Now the Longhorns travel from Dayton to Portland, Oregon, where they face No. 6 seed BYU at the Moda Center on Thursday, March 19, at 7:25 p.m. ET on truTV. KenPom gives BYU a 60 percent chance to win, projecting a final score of 84-81. The margin is thin. And the central question of the game — the same question that has followed Texas all season — is whether Vokietaitis can stay on the floor long enough to matter.
That question did not originate in Dayton. It was born in Marijampole, Lithuania, and refined through eleven years of European basketball before it arrived in the SEC.
The Lithuanian Basketball Pipeline That Built Matas Vokietaitis
Marijampole sits in southern Lithuania, near the Polish and Russian borders, about 90 miles from Vilnius. The city has been producing serious basketball players for decades, not because of any single academy or famous coach, but because the sport runs through the culture at a level that is difficult to explain to someone who grew up watching it treated as a secondary sport.
Matas Vokietaitis was born there on November 5, 2004. His mother, Neringa, played basketball for the Lithuanian National Team at the youth level. His father Algirdas understood the game well enough to recognize what his son had. The jersey number 8 Vokietaitis wears at Texas honors his father — July 8 is his birthday. His older sister Domante grew up in the same household, watching a younger brother develop into something neither of them fully predicted.
He attended Kauno Varpas Gymnasium and competed for Zalgiris Kaunas II in Lithuania's NKL second division, the same club whose first team competes in EuroLeague. In January 2024, in a single NKL game, he grabbed 18 rebounds and scored 24 points. At 19. He represented the Lithuanian Under-18 National Team at the 2022 FIBA U18 European Championship and the Under-20 team at the 2024 FIBA U20 EuroBasket Championship in Poland. He is fluent in Lithuanian, Russian, and English. In Texas, he is studying Physical Culture and Sports — the academic track that trains future coaches and PE teachers, which says something about how seriously he takes the game beyond his own playing days.
Why Matas Vokietaitis Chose Florida Atlantic Before Texas Came Calling
The 7-foot, 255-pound center could have aimed for a Power Four program straight out of Lithuania, but he chose Florida Atlantic — and the reason was more deliberate than it appeared. FAU head coach John Jakus recruited him directly; the Owls had an existing Lithuanian presence on the roster, and the program offered him something a bigger school might not have: immediate meaningful minutes and the chance to develop without the weight of a national fanbase deciding his value before he'd played a game.
In his freshman season at FAU, he was named American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year. Across 34 games with 20 starts, he averaged 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in just 17.7 minutes per game while finishing third on the team in blocks. Those numbers from someone playing under 18 minutes told scouts everything they needed to know about his ceiling.
When Sean Miller took the Texas head coaching job and built his roster through the portal, he was explicit about the program's international recruiting direction. Vokietaitis became the first European-born player to suit up for the Longhorns since Ioannis Papapetrou's single season in 2012-13. He also became the most immediate justification for that philosophy.
Matas Vokietaitis Foul Trouble at Texas — Seven Straight Games, One Big Question
Matas Vokietaitis draws fouls at the third-highest rate nationally per 40 minutes, getting to the line nearly eight times per game. He averages 5.4 fouls per 40 minutes himself. That second number is the one that has caused more genuine anxiety in Austin than any other statistic on the Texas roster.
Sports Illustrated documented what became a painful pattern during the middle of the season: seven consecutive games in which Vokietaitis fouled out or reached four fouls, a stretch that coincided with three losses and two wins that required overtime to secure. The Kentucky loss in January crystallized the problem. With 26 seconds left and Texas down two, he reached for a block and fouled instead. Sean Miller defended him afterward — "He gets fouled as much as any player in the country, and he does a good job" — but the numbers told a more complicated story than any single postgame quote could resolve.
What changed things was February. During the five-game SEC winning streak that briefly looked like it might carry Texas into the tournament without a play-in game, Vokietaitis showed a different version of himself — 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks against LSU on February 18 with controlled aggression rather than reactive desperation. His career high of 28 points came on December 8 against Southern, when he went 14-for-14 from the free throw line in a 95-69 Texas win that demonstrated what the ideal version of him looks like for a full forty minutes.
Matas Vokietaitis Stats at Texas in 2025-26
Through 32 regular-season games, Vokietaitis averaged 15.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 63.1 percent from the field. His free-throw rate of 69.6 percent on 165 attempts placed him among the most-fouled centers in college basketball. His Player Efficiency Rating of 24.8 ranked among the top centers in the country.
At 7 feet and 255 pounds with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, he is built differently from most college centers — longer than his listed height suggests, quick enough laterally to switch onto guards in pick-and-roll coverage, and skilled enough in the post to score without jumping over anyone. NBA scouts attending Texas games this season have noted the combination of touch around the basket and the ability to draw fouls in the paint as the two traits most likely to translate at the professional level. His field goal percentage of 63.1 percent ranks among the most efficient in college basketball regardless of position.
He was named to the NABC All-Gulf District second team on March 17, 2026 — the day he fouled out of a tournament game and watched his team win without him.
BYU Is Next. And AJ Dybantsa Has Already Studied Him.
BYU is expected to attack Vokietaitis early with AJ Dybantsa — if BYU can get him in first-half foul trouble, the Cougars could build a lead and force Texas away from their game plan. Dybantsa is better than anyone in college basketball at drawing fouls.
The matchup is not subtle. Dybantsa averages 25.3 points per game, leads the nation in scoring, and is projected as a top-three NBA Draft pick. He is 6-foot-9, handles like a guard, and draws fouls at a rate that turns opposing big men into spectators. Everything that happened in Dayton on Tuesday night — the foul trouble, the eight-point run, the near-collapse — is what BYU is specifically planning to recreate on Thursday.
BYU arrives in Portland with a rest advantage that matters. The Cougars flew directly to Oregon on Tuesday morning while Texas was still playing in Dayton. By the time Vokietaitis boards a flight after the NC State game, BYU will already have an extra day of recovery, film study, and practice time in the building. BYU is also playing without injured guard Richie Saunders, which makes them more reliant on Dybantsa and Egor Demin — a narrower roster that Texas can game-plan around if Vokietaitis stays on the floor.
There is also the bulletin board angle. Both Dick Vitale and Charles Barkley picked Texas to beat BYU in their tournament predictions — exactly the kind of external confidence that gives a team like BYU something to prove. The Cougars have heard it. Whether that fuel helps them or tightens them in a close game is the kind of thing that does not show up in KenPom projections.
Texas makes up for defensive issues with free throws, finishing fourth in the nation and averaging close to 20 per game. Their weakness is the perimeter — Texas ranks 301st nationally in 3-point defense, which means BYU's shooters around Dybantsa will be open if Vokietaitis has to help off his man. That is the Longhorns' path. Get Vokietaitis to the line. Keep him on the floor. Make BYU's thinner bench pay in the second half when legs go heavy, and the Cougars cannot lean as hard on their two-man attack.
Yahoo Sports broke down the BYU-Texas matchup in full, identifying Vokietaitis's foul situation as the central variable. CBS Sports confirmed the First Four result and Texas's path forward in Portland.
For readers following other athletes navigating high-stakes moments with everything on the line, Hudson Williams went from waiting tables in Vancouver to the Oscars red carpet in twelve months — a different sport, a different country, the same fundamental story about what patience eventually produces.
Frequently Asked Questions About Matas Vokietaitis
Who is Matas Vokietaitis?
Matas Vokietaitis is a 21-year-old Lithuanian basketball center for the Texas Longhorns, born on November 5, 2004, in Marijampole, Lithuania. Standing 7 feet tall and weighing 255 pounds, he transferred to Texas from Florida Atlantic after winning AAC Freshman of the Year in 2024-25. At Texas in 2025-26, he averaged 15.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 63.1 percent from the field. He scored 15 points in Texas's 68-66 First Four win over NC State on March 17, 2026, before fouling out late in the game.
What happened when Matas Vokietaitis fouled out against NC State?
With approximately two minutes remaining and Texas leading by nine, Vokietaitis picked up his fifth foul and was removed from the game. NC State immediately scored eight consecutive points to cut the lead to one. Texas guard Tramon Mark hit a go-ahead jumper with one second remaining to seal the 68-66 win. The sequence illustrated both the risk and the reality of Texas's dependence on its Lithuanian center — when he goes, the team's interior presence disappears.
When does Texas play BYU in March Madness 2026?
Texas faces BYU in the First Round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 19, at 7:25 p.m. ET at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. The game airs on truTV and can be streamed on the March Madness Live App, Paramount+, and HBO Max. BYU is a 2.5-point favorite. KenPom projects BYU to win 84-81, giving the Cougars a 60 percent win probability.
How many fouls per game does Matas Vokietaitis average?
Vokietaitis draws fouls at the third-highest rate nationally per 40 minutes, getting to the free-throw line nearly eight times per game. His foul trouble has been the central storyline of his Texas season — he had seven consecutive games with at least four fouls during a mid-season stretch, contributing to several losses. BYU plans to use AJ Dybantsa's elite foul-drawing ability to put him in trouble early in their March 19 matchup.
Is Matas Vokietaitis going to the NBA?
He is eligible for the 2028 NBA Draft and is already represented by agents Deirunas Visockas and Deimantas Baziukas through the You First agency. At 7 feet with a 63-percent field goal percentage, developing post skills, and a top-15 national free-throw attempt rate, he profiles as a legitimate NBA prospect. His 2025-26 season at Texas — marked by foul trouble, dominant stretches, and a NABC All-Gulf District second-team selection — has attracted meaningful professional attention.