Texas Basketball: Jase Febres injury news devastating for Longhorns

More bad injury news continued to drop for the Texas basketball program this year, now with Jase Febres out for the rest of the season.

By now, the Texas basketball program should be getting their roster together at the right time to maximize this waive of momentum as they push to the NCAA Tournament. But Texas seems to get less and less healthy as the days go by. The most recent injury news to hit Texas is the season-ending ailment to junior shooting guard/small forward Jase Febres.

Over the course of the last two weeks, the Texas Longhorns basketball program got a lot of bad injury news at almost every position. Junior guard Matt Coleman was limited for a while with a bruised heel last month, and junior standout center Jericho Sims is out for the rest of the season with a back injury. Even true freshman shooting guard Donovan Williams hurt himself in the upset win over the No. 22 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road in Lubbock last weekend.

Williams is likely to miss the Longhorns Red River Rivalry game on the hardwood against the Oklahoma Sooners on March 3 thanks to this left-knee injury. That will add him to a list that also includes Febres, Sims, and sophomore forward Gerald Liddell of those who will miss the Oklahoma game due to various ailments.

I’ve already touched on the impact that missing the efficient and experienced Sims brought to the table for the Longhorns. But losing Febres for the remainder of the season will hurt the Longhorns a lot too. Febres is one of Texas’ most consistent outside shooters, and he fills a position of need for them. Texas doesn’t have much wing depth at the top of the rotation.

The starting five for Texas mostly sported Febres at the three. But now the backcourt will still be manned by Coleman and sophomore guard Courtney Ramey. But the wing spot will have to be taken by junior shooting guard Andrew Jones since the Longhorns are so thin there now.

Prior to going down with this knee injury that will require arthroscopic surgery, Febres played in 23 games this season. He averaged 9.4 points per game, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists, while shooting 37.4 percent from the field and the same percentage from beyond the arc. More than three-quarters of the field goal attempts Febres took this season were from three-point land.

The floor spacing and growing two-way nature of Febres on the wing was very valuable to Texas this season. Febres was working on registering a career-best 101.0 defensive rating and 1.8 defensive box plus/minus rating. He also registered a career-best .108 win shares per 40 minutes. Febres had 1.9 win shares racked up on the season overall before going down with this season-ending injury.

Texas owns a record of 18-11 (8-8 Big 12) after their two upset wins over top 25 opponents last week. They downed No. 22 Texas Tech and the No. 20 West Virginia Mountaineers in a two-game span. Texas has to face the Oklahoma schools before their regular season comes to an end and the Big 12 Tournament begins. But they will have to take on that challenge now without the services of Febres, who’s trying to now recover from this hyperextended knee.