Texas Basketball: 3 takeaways from Horns offensive collapse vs. Iowa St

Three-point shooting woes continue

At this point of Big 12 play, it’s really hard to overlook some of the struggles that Texas has faced in terms of shooting woes from beyond the arc. Texas shot just 4-of-17 from beyond the arc in this game, which put them at a woeful 23.5 percent.

This is now the fourth straight game where the Longhorns shot worse than 30 percent from beyond the arc. It’s also the second straight game where Texas shot worse than 30 percent from beyond the arc while its opposition shot better than 35 percent.

I must give credit where credit is due to the Iowa State perimeter defense. Iowa State has played really solid perimeter defense all season. This is especially the case in Big 12 play, where Iowa State held its opponents to just 28.3 percent shooting from deep coming into this game.

And Iowa State definitely got the best of Texas in this game when it came to contesting three-point attempts. A lot of this had to do with Iowa State’s ability to double-team and trap the ball, which made Texas force up some bad three-point attempts late in the shot clock. We saw multiple possessions where Texas dribbled out the shot clock, which then forced someone like Carr or Hunter to heave up something before the clock ran out.

Texas just wasn’t able to get the job done in terms of moving the ball around the perimeter to keep the Iowa State defense honest. Iowa State figured out that it could pressure the ball, occasionally sending a double-team, while closing off the easy passing lanes. That forced Texas into a bind as the primary ball-handler ran out of options since the off-ball movement was lacking throughout much of this game.