Texas Basketball vs. Kansas: 5 bold predictions for clash in Lawrence

Marcus Carr finds his touch again, and scores 15 on Kansas

One of the coldest Longhorns players in terms of shooting efficiency in the last few games is senior guard Marcus Carr. The fifth-year guard has only made 2-of-14 attempts from beyond the arc in the last three games.

And he’s only posted more than 10 points once in the last three games. He managed 11 in Texas’ win over Baylor on Jan. 30.

In the last two outings, though, Carr has averaged just under eight points per game. He was ice-cold shooting from deep, once again, in Texas’ win over Kansas State as he missed all five of his attempts from deep.

However, this could be an advantageous matchup for Carr given that Kansas doesn’t play as tough of perimeter defense as any of the last three teams that Texas faced in the last week or so. Kansas is letting opponents shoot better than 35 percent from deep this season, which ranks in the bottom half of the Big 12.

Kansas can be late on its closeouts, as it has allowed more than 150 unguarded catch-and-shoot attempts on the season, which ranks among the three worst teams in the Big 12. The Jayhawks also struggle at times with defending at the rim.

Last but not least, Kansas tends to let opponents get to the charity stripe a lot this season at a clip of more than 19 times per game. That is good for the bottom 100 in the country this season.

If you combine these three factors of Kansas struggling to closeout on catch-and-shoot attempts from the field, letting up some opportunities at the rim, and sending opponents to the free-throw line often, this looks like an advantageous matchup for Carr to be able to break out of his offensive slump.

I would consider this outing to be successful for Carr if he can manage at least 15 points on better than 50 percent shooting from the field and at least 35 percent shooting from beyond the arc. That would be a good launch pad for him to find his offensive stride again while the schedule lets up in terms of difficulty in the few games that follow this matchup against Kansas.

Moreover, at first thought, I get why it doesn’t sound very bold to say that a player averaging more than 16 points per game this season such as Carr can score 15 against a mediocre Kansas defense.

Why I believe it is a truly bold prediction to say that Carr will find his rhythm again in this game is the fact that he struggled against Kansas last season. Carr shot worse than 30 percent from the field against Kansas last season while scoring in the single figures in two outings between these two teams.