Texas Basketball: 3 reasons why Longhorns will upset Purdue

Marcus Carr showed he can lead this offense when it matters

While Jones was enormous for the Longhorns in their win over Virginia Tech on March 18, another important performance came from the former Pitt Panthers and Minnesota Golden Gophers senior transfer guard Marcus Carr.

In a nice bounce-back outing for Carr against the Hokies, he came up with 15 points and a game-high nine assists while shooting better than 50 percent from the field and from beyond the arc.

Carr is the type of guard that could be a problem for the Boilermakers if he’s in rhythm on offense. In fact, Carr can be a real problem for any team that can’t get a handle on him on the perimeter. And that was certainly the case for the Hokies in their loss to Texas on March 18.

Texas will need Carr to play some efficient two-way basketball again in the Round of 32 if they want a chance to upset Purdue. Carr didn’t have a single turnover in Texas’ win over Virginia Tech on March 18. He won’t necessarily need to repeat that exact number of turnovers against Purdue in this one, but he likely can’t have more than one or two.

A world where Carr is an efficient two-way floor general for the Longhorns makes them one of the most dangerous teams in the entire field. This is also something that Purdue is going to be weary of entering this game.