Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud from dominant win over Gonzaga

The absolute best-case scenario came to fruition for head coach Chris Beard and No. 11 ranked Texas basketball following a huge night at the Moody Center on Nov. 16. Texas downed head coach Mark Few and the No. 2 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs en route to the biggest win in a good while during the regular season for this program.

Beard and the Longhorns took command around halfway through the first half and never looked back. Texas was also insanely dominant to close this one out in the second half.

Texas took a comfortable 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime. And then, Texas clamped down on Gonzaga even more, taking the final 20 minutes by a nine-point margin.

That gave the Longhorns the win in this game by the final score of 93-74 in one of the most thoroughly impressive victories in recent memory for this men’s hoops program.

Studs and duds from Texas basketball’s huge win over No. 2 Gonzaga

Here’s a look at the two studs, and one dud, for the Longhorns in this massive 19-point win over Gonzaga on Nov. 16.

Stud No. 1: Dillon Mitchell, F

One of the best performances in the second half of this game for the Longhorns came thanks to the former elite five-star recruit and true freshman forward Dillon Mitchell. Texas needed someone to help it get a boost on the glass. And that’s exactly what Mitchell provided down the stretch in this game, and a little bit more.

While Mitchell didn’t finish this game scoring in double figures, or with the most productive defensive outing ever, he did a lot of what Beard and the Longhorns needed from him.

Mitchell rounded up with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, along with nine rebounds (tying a game-high with Gonzaga’s Drew Timme), one steal, and no turnovers. Two of the nine rebounds for Mitchell in this game came on the offensive glass.

And some of the points that Mitchell put up in this game were absolutely electrifying, including a huge putback in the second half and two alley-oops.

If this is the type of energy and rebounding we’re going to see out of Mitchell against opponents as good as the Zags, then he’s going to have a massive impact on this team. But we’d still like to see Mitchell get involved in other ways to expand his game, such as shooting the three-ball and pulling up from the mid-range a bit more often.