Texas Basketball: 3 key players that must improve after loss to Gonzaga

Marcus Carr, G

There was hope entering the night of Nov. 13 that the Longhorns could sew up some wounds created on the gridiron with a second-half rally on the hardwood to beat the Zags. But Texas had a 20-point deficit to make up in the second half, largely thanks to a plethora of poor decisions on the offensive end of the floor by the Longhorns guard unit.

Part of the poor decision-making from the Longhorns backcourt unit was the play of the former Minnesota Golden Gophers and Pitt Panthers senior guard Marcus Carr. While he came out strong in the regular season opener against Houston Baptist last week, Carr had a much weaker showing in this loss to the Zags.

In the loss to the Bulldogs, Carr registered 11 points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals, no blocks, and two turnovers. And he shot just 4-of-13 from the field, 3-of-8 from beyond the arc, and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.

This game saw Carr have a good opportunity to make a positive offensive impact for the Longhorns. The perimeter defense for the Zags wasn’t figured to be as strong as the interior defense. But that could also prove to be wrong as the Zags played pretty well on the perimeter on this game.

It was the two-point scoring in this game that really got Carr in trouble. Not taking those inefficient shots inside the arc could be important for the Longhorns moving forward against more difficult opposition such as the Zags.

This team is largely going to be reliant on the success of Carr this season to correlate to success in the win column for the entire squad. Carr is going to be a high-usage player it seems in this backcourt unit. Good shot selection and minimizing untimely turnovers will be key for this offense to work well with Carr as a high-usage player.