Texas Basketball: 3 bold predictions for Big 12 opener vs. Baylor

3. Jared Butler and MaCio Teague are held to 20-percent shooting from downtown

The strength of Baylor’s offense comes from the 6-foot-3 former UNC Asheville transfer guard MaCio Teague and the fellow 6-foot-3 guard and sophomore standout Jared Butler. So far this season, Teague and Butler are the only two Baylor players that are scoring in double figures per game, so shutting them down is key.

Those two are also combining for more than 13 three-point attempts per game and 22 overall attempts from the field. Butler is extremely efficient shooting from deep this season, hitting his three-point attempts at a clip of 44.2 percent. Teague isn’t all that shabby either, shooting 36.1 percent from three-point range so far this season.

Baylor ranks just outside of the top 50 Division 1 programs in three-point shooting percentage, at 36.5 percent. But they don’t attempt all that many threes, just 266 on the season so far (ranks No. 248 in the nation). So if this Texas basketball defense has good closing speed and limits the open looks that Baylor gets from beyond the arc, this might not be such a bad day on that end of the floor.

Slowing down Teague and Butler starts with the solid defensive play of the standout Longhorns guard combination that is junior Matt Coleman and sophomore Courtney Ramey. The good news here is that Coleman has one of the best defensive ratings in the Big 12 so far, at 91.5.

The guard battle is going to be key on both ends of the floor in this game, but Coleman and Ramey will be the Longhorns two most important players to upset Baylor this evening.