Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud from narrow OT win over OU

Dud No. 1: Christian Bishop, F

This game looked like an opportune spot for senior forward Christian Bishop to come up with in the paint on both ends of the floor. Bishop played well for Texas in its win in the Big 12 opener over Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve.

He gave the Longhorns eight points on an efficient 4-of-5 shooting from the field in 22 minutes off the bench against the Sooners on Dec. 31.

But we saw an absent version of Bishop in this game that made it difficult for Texas’ bench to have its usual outing of two-dozen+ points. Bishop managed just two points on 1-of-2 shooting from the field, along with one turnover in 10 minutes off the bench.

He also didn’t have a single rebound, assist, steal, or block in this game.

The two biggest reasons why Bishop was limited to just 10 minutes off the bench were his lack of two-way impact on the game and foul trouble. Bishop racked up a whopping four personal fouls in just 10 minutes, which put him back on the bench pretty fast at most points throughout this game.

Bishop had a really hard time finding space to work down low, as the Oklahoma frontcourt duo of Godwin and Tanner Groves. While he was drawing some contact, it wasn’t enough to get to the free-throw line. But it was enough contact to keep Bishop from getting clean looks at the rim.

The issues that Bishop had down low in this game were also a big reason why the Longhorns were outscored by a half-dozen by the Sooners in terms of points in the paint. Especially in the first half, Oklahoma largely controlled the paint scoring by a margin of a dozen points.

All told, this is the worst scoring output for Bishop in any Big 12 game this season. It is also likely going to be his worst box plus/minus and player efficiency rating of any conference game this season.

Bishop will need to step up to have a bigger outing for the Longhorns off the bench when this team hosts the No. 19 ranked Iowa State Cyclones at home on Feb. 21.