Texas Basketball: Marcus Carr’s shooting inefficiencies a big issue

It was talked about on here before the season even started, but No. 21 ranked Texas basketball needs the former Pitt Panthers and Minnesota Golden Gophers senior guard Marcus Carr to be smart with the decisions he makes on offense. New head coach Chris Beard and this Texas squad were clearly hampered by some of the decisions that Carr made in the four losses that the team has so far this season.

In the road loss to the No. 15 Iowa State Cyclones on the road on Jan. 15 by the final score of 79-70, the Longhorns didn’t get the most efficient outing from Carr by any means. Texas did get a double-digit performance from Carr in this loss to Iowa State. But it definitely didn’t come in an efficient manner.

Carr finished up this loss to Iowa State with 15 points on just 4-of-14 shooting from the field, 2-of-6 from beyond the arc, and 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. He also registered three rebounds, six assists, two steals, one block, and four turnovers.

That saw Carr register a 43.9 true shooting percentage and 94 offensive rating in this game.

Texas basketball needs to figure out how to best use Marcus Carr when he’s cold shooting from the field

Considering the fact that Carr took roughly 27 percent of the Longhorns’ field goal attempts in this game, and only knocked down four of them, it’s not that difficult to see how his shot selection was a problem. Carr needs to pass the ball off more often than not if the Longhorns are going to win games like this when he’s cold shooting from the field.

While notable teammates of his like redshirt senior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones, junior power forward Dylan Disu, senior guard Courtney Ramey, senior forward Timmy Allen, etc. are in rhythm shooting from the field and/or from beyond the arc, Carr needs to give the ball to them. Instead, Carr kept shooting the ball when he was out of rhythm and Texas couldn’t keep up with Iowa State down the stretch on the scoreboard.

And this is an emerging problem for the Longhorns that is very easy to pick up on in their four losses this season.

It’s pretty crazy how in sync Carr’s shooting percentages are in terms of the correlation with the Longhorns’ success in the win column this season. Game in and game out, Carr’s shooting percentages tend to be a huge determining factor in whether Texas is able to come out with a win.

Two numbers give the indication of how problematic it can be when Texas is facing a good team and Carr is taking bad shots.

The first is the fact that Texas owns a record of 1-3 this season when Carr shoots worse than 37 percent from the field while taking at least 10 field goal attempts. The lone win where Carr’s numbers met this criterion so far this season came over Alabama State late last month.

And the second indicative number of the issue of poor shot selection from Carr is that Texas is 0-4 this season against major conference competition when he shoots worse than 40 percent from the field in any game. These four losses have now come against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Seton Hall Pirates, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and Iowa State.

The worst shooting performance that Carr had this season against a major conference opponent that resulted in a win for the Longhorns came earlier this week against the Oklahoma Sooners. Carr shot 43 percent from the field on seven tries in a double-digit win over the Sooners.

That win over Oklahoma is a good example of how to proceed with Carr moving forward when he is not in a great rhythm shooting from the field and from beyond the arc. Let him get to his spots early on in games and see what his percentages are looking like. If he’s in rhythm, let him go to work.

If not, use his playmaking ability to create space for his opponent and let him move the ball around to them to hit open shots. It sounds easy in theory, but clearly, this is an issue for the Longhorns against major conference competition so far this season when Carr is having an off game.

I truly believe that the Longhorns can beat any team in the country when Carr is on. But he’s likely not going to be on fire in every game. That trend is especially important to recognize throughout the rest of the Big 12 slate and come NCAA Tournament time.