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

Texas can’t get it done on the glass

Picking up where we left off on the last part of the list, this was just an unacceptable output from the Longhorns down low. Tennessee completely dominated the play in the paint in this game, especially in terms of how the battle on the boards went down.

The Vols got the edge over the Longhorns on the glass by a margin of 15. Tennessee also nabbed 11 offensive boards compared to eight for Texas.

According to Sports Reference, that is the first time that Texas was outrebounded by a margin of at least 15 since the double-digit loss on the road to the Baylor Bears last season.

Don’t get me wrong, Tennessee is a good rebounding team. Tennessee ranked 13th in the country coming into this game, with a total rebounding percentage just north of 55.

But Texas has faced other solid rebounding teams this season, and no one beat them as badly on the glass as the Vols did. It goes without saying that Texas is going to find trouble to win any games when it gets outrebounded and just outplayed in the paint as it did in this game.

I think this mostly falls on the duo of Disu and senior big man Christian Bishop.

There wasn’t a single Texas big that managed more than five boards. Meanwhile, Tennessee even had a guard that brought down eight rebounds, senior shooting guard Santiago Vescovi.

When Texas loses the battle on the boards by a margin of at least five, its record now sits at a measly 1-3. And the only win in this scenario came over the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a much closer fashion than originally anticipated a couple of weekends ago.

It’s crystal clear that Texas needs better efforts on the glass moving forward. I’m looking namely at the trio of senior forward Timmy Allen, Bishop, and Disu to be able to step up their game in the paint.