Texas Basketball: 3 reasons Horns can dominate Kansas again

3) Why Texas basketball can dominate KU

Motivation from loss to West Virginia

What was likely the toughest loss to swallow of the regular season thus far for Smart and the Longhorns arrived over the weekend. West Virginia got away with two fouls on the final play in an 84-82 last second win over the Longhorns on Feb. 20. That snapped a building winning streak for Texas, just as they were starting to find traction after a number of game delays due to weather COVID-19 related issues.

Texas had the chance to sweep the season series against head coach Bob Huggins and the talented and deep Mountaineers over the weekend, at one point holding a 19 point second half lead. But the Longhorns could not keep a hold of the lead down the stretch, and thus raked in their seventh loss of the season thus far.

That type of energy coming off a tough loss like that can really motivate a team when they’re playing at home in a spotlight like Texas is about to on national television on ESPN against the Jayhawks. Texas already bested the Jayhawks once this season, and very well could do the same on this night.

It won’t be easy for Texas to take care of business against a rolling Jayhawks team, but Smart’s squads tend to respond well in recent years in situations like this. Texas is also the healthiest they’ve been in a while, which will bode well against the thinner rotation of the Jayhawks.

Texas has a real opportunity here to pull off something that was unheard of for them for a while; sweeping the regular season series against Kansas.