Texas Basketball: 3 struggling players that must step up in January

Sir’Jabari Rice, SG/SF*

The reason why there is an asterisk next to the name of senior shooting guard/wing Sir’Jabari Rice on this list. Rice hasn’t necessarily struggled to the degree that the other two Longhorns players on this list have in the last few games.

In fact, there were a lot of positive things I had to say about the way that Rice closed out the game for the Longhorns in the win over the Sooners on Dec. 31. Rice was great down the stretch, going perfect on nearly a half-dozen free-throw attempts to keep Texas ahead late in Norman.

The issue that Rice has faced in the last two or three games has to do with his shooting efficiency. In the last three games, Rice is shooting just 35.3 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from beyond the arc. He is at least perfect on seven attempts from the charity stripe, though.

This down stretch for Rice in terms of his shooting percentages is clearly having an impact on his scoring. Rice has only scored 20 points in the last three games, good for second worst among the regular Longhorns players in the rotation during this span of contests.

Another issue that plagued Rice in the last three games was turnovers. He has six turnovers and just six assists since the Dec. 21 win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, which isn’t good enough for a player that is being cast as a tertiary facilitator coming off the bench.

Some of these issues in the last few games have also led to Rice posting the lowest game score of the six Longhorns players that have registered at least 10 points combined in the last three outings. He even sits below Mitchell in terms of his overall game score from the last three contests.

Rice is just too important as a vocal leader in the locker room and on the court to be struggling at a critical point of the regular season schedule for the Longhorns.