Texas Basketball: Regular season capped with huge win over TCU

No. 15 ranked Texas basketball and head coach Shaka Smart walked away with an important win to both cap the weekend and the regular season slate for the 2020-21 campaign. Texas needed to nab a win over head coach Jamie Dixon and the TCU Horned Frogs on the night of March 7 on the road in Fort Worth to confirm their top four seed in the Big 12 Tournament next week.

Smart and the Longhorns came out of the gates firing against the Horned Frogs and never really looked back. Texas was able to notch their 17th win to cap the 2020-21 regular season schedule. They also won three games in a row and six of their last eight games to cap the regular season.

That all came after the Longhorns started to struggle a bit in late January and early February. But this win over TCU allowed Texas to finish up the regular season with a record of 17-7 (11-6 Big 12). That locked up a top three seed for Texas in the Big 12 Tournament, as they were jostling with the Oklahoma State Cowboys and West Virginia Mountaineers coming into the weekend.

This win over TCU in particular for Smart and the Longhorns arrived on the night of March 7 (exactly one year after their last game before the premature end to college basketball’s last season) by the final score of 76-64. A big road win for the Longhorns came largely due to a nice close out performance down the stretch in the second half.

How Texas basketball closed out the win over TCU

Texas closed out TCU effectively in the second half. They won the second half by a score of 43-35, which was pretty impressive against a still talented TCU team. Texas’ starting five was solid through and through in this game.

Senior guard Matt Coleman and junior guard Courtney Ramey were both really good on both ends of the floor for Texas. Coleman and Ramey combined for 27 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, and a whopping seven steals on the night.

Redshirt junior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones was a nice supporting piece to the efforts of Coleman and Ramey on the night. Jones registered a team-high 16 points, to go along with five rebounds and three assists. He shot an efficient 5-of-7 from the field, and a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.

Senior center Jericho Sims was also a productive player for the Longhorns on both ends of the floor. He tallied up 13 points, three rebounds, one assist, and one block. And he shot 6-of-7 from the field on the night.

As a team, Texas shot nearly 10 percent better from beyond the arc over the Horned Frogs. And they shot more than five percent better from the field. But it was mainly winning the turnover battle that allowed the Longhorns to command this game against the Horned Frogs, winning that by a margin of six.

Texas will now wait for their March 11 quarterfinals matchup to be set in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, MO, later next week. This was the best regular season run to date under Smart’s direction, which is hopefully a good sign of what lies ahead for the “Big Dance”.