Texas Basketball: Blake Nevins coughs up chance to beat OU

In the Red River Rivalry game on the hardwood on the night of Jan. 26, No. 5 ranked Texas basketball faced head coach Lon Kruger and the Oklahoma Sooners at home at the Frank Erwin Center. Texas got to face No. 24 ranked Oklahoma in their first meeting on the hardwood this season. And it was the first Texas game in 10 days.

This game didn’t go as Longhorns basketball fans hoped it would be early this week. Texas hadn’t played in a single game since they downed the Kansas State Wildcats at home by a 15-point margin back on Jan. 16. They had two games pushed back due to COVID-19 related issues, which were supposed to come against the Iowa State Cyclones and TCU Horned Frogs on Jan. 20 and 23.

Texas was also without head coach Shaka Smart, who announced he had a positive COVID-19 test on his own Twitter timeline on the late morning of Jan. 25. Former SMU Mustangs assistant and Texas associate head coach KT Turner took over as the interim in Smart’s absence in this meeting with Oklahoma.

Despite Smart being out of this game for the Longhorns, the team still entered this game as more than a four-point favorite over a rolling Oklahoma team. But this game was going to be dangerous territory for a Longhorns team that is without both Smart and standout junior guard Courtney Ramey.

And entering dangerous territory is exactly what happened to Texas in the first half of this game. Oklahoma took control of this game from the get go, and it took Texas entirely too long to get comfortable in the second half.

What happened between Texas basketball and OU

When it came down to it, Texas only fell short to the rival Sooners by a one-point margin. But it took a big second half run from a shorthanded Texas rotation to do so.

The second loss in the Longhorns last three games was delivered specifically by the final score of 80-79. It was a spirited effort in the second half from this Texas team that was largely running with an eight man rotation, though.

Texas got also ran into rampant foul trouble early in this game. They saw the likes of senior guard Matt Coleman, senior big man Royce Hamm, and freshman power forward Greg Brown, all foul out in this game.

Nonetheless, well-rounded efforts were delivered from the likes of Coleman and breakthrough sophomore power forward Kai Jones prior to fouling out. In 23 minutes played in this game, Coleman registered 13 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two turnovers. And he shot an efficient 6-of-9 from the field and 1-of-2 from beyond the arc.

And Jones gave the Longhorns a solid two-way effort in this loss to Oklahoma. He registered a team-high 15 points, to go along with 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks. Jones shot 5-of-11 from the field, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, and 4-of-6 from the free-throw line.

But the player that got a lot of attention late in the game for a turnover was one that didn’t get a whole lot of playing time up to this point. Redshirt sophomore guard Blake Nevins got his first real significant game action of the season very late in this outing due to the foul trouble that the Longhorns were running into.

Unfortunately Nevins turning the ball over in the last seconds of the second half cost Texas their final chance to win this game. Texas got two clutch free throws made from redshirt junior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones in the last seconds, but it just gave his team the one point loss in the end.

Texas now carries a record of 11-3 (5-2 Big 12), after losing their second of the last three games at the hands of the rival Sooners. Meanwhile, Oklahoma now assumes a record of 10-4 (6-3 Big 12) after this slight win over the Longhorns on Jan. 26.