Texas Basketball: Season of Frustration Continues vs. WVU
Texas Longhorns Just Miss Top 10 Win
The Texas Longhorns basketball team dropped a close 74-72 game against #10 West Virginia Saturday afternoon in Austin.
It was the type of frustrating loss that has defined the Longhorns’ season thus far. They’re one play, one possession, one call, one rebound away from a winning record in the Big 12.
Part of the frustration is Texas seems like a good team during Shaka Smart’s rebuilding year. Most notably, the guards survived West Virginia’s trademark press defense, not giving away possessions against pressure.
What really did in Texas was giving away possessions on basic plays. Perhaps too much emphasis went to breaking West Virginia’s press and not enough on executing the offense.
The Key Sequence in Texas Longhorns Losing
The Longhorns led for most of the second half until the game settled to a 60-60 tie with 6:00 on the clock. If the Horns could just make enough plays in the final stretch of the game, they had a chance to win this game.
But, coming out of a timeout, the Longhorns threw the ball away on the inbound pass. On the Mountaineers’ subsequent possession, the Horns did not grab a 50/50 ball that could have led to transition points for Texas. Then, on their next possession, they used their last timeout of the game with 5:39 left.
One pass, one loose ball, one timeout away from a win.
The Horns did not score again until about three minutes left in the game, capturing another of those frustrating elements about the Longhorns season.
The Key Stretches of The Game
Texas went from a 60-60 tie with possession of the ball to down six. They battled back to get within one point on a handful of occasions, but they could not make a key defensive stop.
West Virginia missed free throws in the final seconds, calling back to Texas’ loss to TCU on Wednesday night, but the Horns were unable to get off a last-second heave.
The final stretch of Saturday’s game mirrored the ending of the first half. Texas was solid for the most part, led for most of the half, and yet found themselves down by five points at halftime.
After the game was tied 31-31 with two minutes left in the half, West Virginia finished on an 8-3 run. Kerwin Roach made a three-pointer with one second left on the clock, otherwise it would have been an 8-0 run by the Mountaineers.
Texas Overall Shows Fight In Defeat
Setting aside the final outcome, Texas showed a lot of fight trying to win this game. Leading scorer Tevin Mack was suspended and senior guard Kendal Yancy remained sidelined with an injury.
Transfer guard Mareik Isom got his first playing time of the season in the first half, but he only played a few minutes. It was essentially a seven-man unit trying to survive West Virginia’s press defense.
The guards Kerwin Roach, Andrew Jones, Eric Davis, and Jacob Young played admirably overall. Without Mack to share the load, they handled the mental and physical stress of WVU’s style of play well.
Down low, Jarrett Allen was assertive and dominant at times, but he disappeared in key stretches. Shaq Cleare played perhaps his best all-around game this season. James Banks played some, but he was essentially a non-factor.
When Texas puts everything together, this will be a good team. And, someone needs to step up as the Alpha, as we wrote about before the game. Until then, Texas is still learning how to win. It’s part of Coach Smart trying to rebuild this team.
Don’t look now, but Top 5 teams Kansas and Baylor are next on the road. Texas needs one of these games to feel good about this year’s rebuilding project.