Texas Basketball: Courtney Ramey, Andrew Jones shine in win vs. WVU

Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones combined 43 points were enough for Texas basketball to secure a top 25 win at home Monday night.

Rewind to nine days ago. Texas basketball had just lost their fourth straight game, a 29-point drubbing in Ames to one of the bottom dwellers of the Big 12 conference. Texas sat at 14-11 (4-8 Big 12) with less than a pipe dream of playing basketball past Kansas City with literally every Horns fan calling for Shaka Smart’s job.

But oh boy, what a difference a week can make for the Texas Longhorns basketball program.

Last Monday Texas topped TCU at home and followed that up with an 11-point road win in Manhattan, Kansas. Still, their resume was weak as it lacked a signature win.

Smart and the Horns might have just gotten that coveted signature win Monday night in the Frank Erwin Center.

Matt Coleman added 13 himself meaning the Texas backcourt trio scored 84 percent of the teams’ points tonight.

The bench only went three men deep as Texas was without four contributors, but Brock Cunningham stood out as a bright spot. Though he only scored two points, Cunningham did the little things for coach Smart that do not show up in the box score.

Up seven with just over three minutes to go Cunningham snagged two offensive rebounds on a Texas possession that lasted a minute and 12 seconds resulting in a Courtney Ramey bucket. Cunningham once again brought a spark to this team when they needed it.

So, what’s next for Texas?

The Longhorns have three more games to finish out their regular season: at Texas Tech, at Oklahoma, and vs Oklahoma State. If they can win two of three that will put this team at 19-12 (9-9) ahead of the Big 12 tournament.

ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi dropped this nugget on the broadcast Monday night.

“They’ve got a couple more chances coming up, especially that game against Oklahoma, which looms extremely large for the Longhorns to get back among the have’s. And if they win tonight and then go 2-1 down the stretch they’ll finish at .500, they’ll play a winnable game in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. And that might just sneak them in because remember: more teams are playing their way out right now than the other way around; it’s always been that way and I think it always will be.”

The Horns are rollin’ and may have just gotten hot enough at the right time.