Texas Basketball: 3 takeaways from convincing loss to No. 4 Tennessee

Olivier Nkamhoua afforded way too much leniency in the post

Where Texas lost this game was in the paint on its own end of the floor. Texas struggled to defend its own basket throughout the contest, which is something that will ultimately reflect poorly on senior big man Dylan Disu.

I was looking for a big outing from Disu in this one. If Texas was going to contend with Tennessee’s size and competitiveness down low, Disu needed to have a big performance. Instead, Disu had one of his most absent performances in the last few weeks.

Disu finished up this game with just two points in 28 minutes on the floor. He also only brought down four boards, but we’ll touch more on that later.

The player that wound up doing the most damage to the Longhorns in the paint in this game was senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua. The fourth-year big man dominated Texas down low, helping the Vols to a whopping 40 points in the paint.

That is the second-highest total number of points in the paint that the Longhorns allowed this season, only behind the 42 points it allowed in the defensive meltdown against the Kansas State Wildcats earlier this month.

Nkamhoua was responsible for roughly half of Tennessee’s points in the paint in this one, as he finished up with a season-high 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the field. But Nkamhoua also contributed to the Vols’ efforts in other ways, including tying a team-high with eight rebounds, along with three assists and one block.

The 6-foot-8 Nkamhoua wound up doing something to the Longhorns that can’t happen if this team wants to make a late run in March and April. Allowing 40 points in the paint and more than 25 points individually to a 6-foot-8 forward is obviously unacceptable results for the Texas frontcourt.