Texas Basketball has worst defensive meltdown in 30+ years vs. K-State

An absolutely horrendous defensive showing for acting head coach Rodney Terry and No. 6 Texas basketball saw the Kansas State Wildcats absolutely go off at the Moody Center for well over 100 points on Jan. 3. Kansas State would wind up putting up 116 points on Texas in the highest-scoring game I’ve seen since covering this program in the last half-decade.

According to Sports Reference, the Longhorns are now the only team since the 2010-11 college hoops season that was ranked in the top 10 to allow more than 115 points in a single game.

I usually don’t want to start out a postgame piece on such a negative note. But if you like good defense, which is what the fans got used to seeing out of this program in recent years, then this game just was not it.

Terry and the Longhorns had absolutely zero answers for Kansas State’s blistering offense at any point in this game.

Texas literally couldn’t string together any defensive stops as Kansas State was red-hot shooting from the field. Kansas State shot an insane 36-of-60 from the field (60.0 percent) and 13-of-24 from beyond the arc (54.2 percent).

And we have to mention the Wildcats going a whopping 31-of-33 from the charity stripe. Texas just kept sending the Wildcats to the line possession-after-possession late in the second half it seemed.

Rodney Terry and No. 6 Texas basketball have no answers for Kansas State, giving up 116 points in home loss

This insane offensive outburst from the Wildcats led to the Longhorns giving up the most points in a single game since it let up 120 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a home loss during the 1991-92 season.

To some degree, you have to give Kansas State a ton of props for remaining red-hot shooting from the field for essentially the entire game. It felt like even when Texas was contesting Kansas State on the perimeter, everyone was able to knock down shots.

But the fact of the matter is that there are no excuses for giving up this many points in a single game. There were multiple reasons why Texas wasn’t able to get a grip on Kansas State’s offensive efforts in this game.

First and foremost, Texas’ help defense and off-ball awareness, in general, was lacking throughout. Texas was constantly mistiming help defense, which allowed some easy backdoor passes in the lane for the Wildcats.

The lack of off-ball awareness on defense was also causing some slow recoveries for the Longhorns, which gave the Wildcats a lot of open looks on the perimeter.

Kansas State looked to be getting everything it wanted near the basket, evidenced by the whopping 42 points in the paint for the Wildcats on this night.

There were other times when Texas just wasn’t showing much effort around the rim on defense.

Another issue for the Longhorns on defense was some slow closeouts. Texas wasn’t getting to the perimeter to effectively challenge a lot of the deep shots that Kansas State was attempting. And it’s clear that the Wildcats made the Longhorns pay for the open threes.

Moreover, I do want to give credit where credit is due to the Wildcats. Kansas State played really well on offense and got some insane production out of namely point guard Markquis Nowell and forward Keyontae Johnson.

Nowell and Johnson combined for a whopping 64 points on 19-of-31 shooting from the field. Those two also were a perfect 19-of-19 from the free-throw line. They couldn’t miss and essentially kept Texas at an arm’s distance each time the Longhorns’ offense tried to make a run.

There is plenty that we can talk about in terms of positives from Texas’ offense coming out of this game. Texas putting up 100+ points for the second time in the last four games is usually something that we would be shouting from the high heavens. But the importance of that is greatly diminished by the record-breaking night from the Wildcats.

There have to be some answers here from Terry and his staff. I don’t expect Texas’ defense to be perfect every game in a conference as difficult and deep as the Big 12. But giving up 115+ points at home is something that is pretty embarrassing.

The loss to Kansas State moves Texas’ record on the season to 12-2 (1-1 Big 12). Terry and the Longhorns also suffered the first loss at the Moody Center for the Texas men’s basketball program in this defensive collapse vs. K-State.