Is There Still Hope for Texas Longhorns Basketball?

Yes, the Texas Longhorns basketball team did lose to Oklahoma on Tuesday night. The Sooners swept the season series. Texas couldn’t seal the deal in Norman when it mattered most.

Still, there just might be a glimmer of hope in a season that has not gone according to script.

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The Longhorns battled Oklahoma the entire game. This game was the polar opposite of what happened in Austin last month. On Tuesday we saw a Texas team hungry for a win. Myles Turner and Kendal Yancy rose to the occasion and carried the team on their backs.

Texas forced Oklahoma to deviate from its game plan for the first 37 minutes or so of the game. The Longhorns blocked 13 shots, forcing the Sooners to settle for jumpers rather than work the ball into the paint for high-percentage shots. Oklahoma’s top four scorers were all guards.

Turner had it working Tuesday night with his 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots. He was clearly Texas’ best player on the court. Yancy continues to earn the trust of Rick Barnes and took several big shots. He was active around the glass with six rebounds, and had just one turnover. Yancy still needs to work on his perimeter shooting as he finished 2-8 from the 3-point line. If he can start to hit this shot with more consistency, he will become that outside scoring threat Texas desperately needs.

There are still concerns, however. Jonathan Holmes did not look very good shooting the ball. He had a team-high 11 rebounds, but the shot just wasn’t working. Sometimes a player needs to work his way out of a shooting funk by simply shooting. But in a tightly-contested game he probably should have looked for better shots than he did. Cameron Ridley and Prince Ibeh were saw limited minutes. How do your two big men get on the court for a combined 19 minutes? Barnes needs to find a way to incorporate these guys into the flow of the game and take advantage of the height.

Texas Longhorns

Isaiah Taylor was stymied by the Sooners guards all night. He finished 1-10 from the field. Taylor had trouble shaking the athletic Oklahoma guards and couldn’t get to the basket like he tries to do.

This was a tough loss to swallow considering Texas had the lead late in the game. The teams traded body blows throughout the contest and the Longhorns hung tough. Texas didn’t falter until the end. For a team that needs to find a positive from this game, it can look to the fact that it didn’t back down from a tough opponent in a hostile environment.

Barnes has a few days to build upon the good things that happened before Iowa State comes calling in another crucial showdown.