Texas Basketball: Longhorns could steamroll K-State to bounce back
A big time stretch of downtrodden play for now No. 13 ranked Texas basketball and head coach Shaka Smart has a chance to finally turn the corner early this week. On the night of Feb. 9, Texas will get a shot to right the ship on the road against the struggling Kansas State Wildcats.
It was a little more than one month ago that Smart and the Longhorns got their most recent victory of the Big 12 slate, coming over this same Kansas State squad. The Longhorns most recent win came over the Wildcats at home at the Frank Erwin Center on Jan. 16, by the convincing final score of 82-67.
Texas will now carry a record of 11-5 (5-4 Big 12) into their Feb. 9 road meeting with Kansas State. They have lost three games in a row and four of their last five. And their last game resulted in a tough double overtime loss at the hands of head coach Mike Boynton and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on the road in Stillwater on Feb. 6.
Once Texas faces Kansas State, the schedule will get pretty difficult again, and fast. Texas will then take on the TCU Horned Frogs on the road in Fort Worth on Feb. 13, and then the rival Sooners on the road in Norman on Feb. 16.
This road trip for the Longhorns will be a challenging one, but also one that could help them turn the corner for the remainder of the regular season.
What Texas basketball can do vs. Kansas State
Texas is currently a whopping 15-point favorite roughly 24 hours ahead of tip off. And the ESPN matchup predictor gives Texas a 93.5 percent chance to beat Kansas State on Feb. 9. Texas is clearly a heavy favorite over the Wildcats this week.
This has to be a spot where the Longhorns take full advantage of a clear bounce back opportunity to snap their three-game losing skid. Kansas State currently holds a record of 5-15 (1-10 Big 12), with their last game resulting in a 73-62 loss at the hands of the Texas Tech Red Raiders back on Feb. 6.
A driving force for the Longhorns in this game very well could be a bounce back outing from the backcourt duo of senior guard Matt Coleman and junior guard Courtney Ramey. Those two did not play that well in Texas’ loss to Oklahoma State last weekend.
Despite both players shooting well under 30 percent from the field in a tough night shooting in general for Smart’s Longhorns, Coleman and Ramey are still playing well this season as a whole. Through 16 games played (all of which he’s started in), Coleman has averaged 12.8 points per game, 3.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.1 blocks.
And he’s shot an increasingly inefficient 44.7 percent from the field, 32.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 88.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Meanwhile, Ramey has started in all 15 of the games he’s played in for the Longhorns. He’s averaged 13.7 points per game, 3.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Ramey shot 41.5 percent from the field, 42.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 82.4 percent from the free-throw line.
As a team, Texas shot just above 25 percent from the field in their loss to Oklahoma State. They obviously need to improve on that end of the floor if they want to have any hope of also beating TCU and Oklahoma on the road in the next week or so.
Next. 3 players shining as the losses continue to mount. dark
Texas still is going to be a contender for a high single-digit seed for the NCAA Tournament, but they need to get it together and fast. Things are not going well for the Longhorns in the last five games, even though they do draw this Kansas State meeting at the right time.