Texas basketball’s Big 12 title hopes hurt in loss to Baylor

The result that interim head coach Rodney Terry and No. 8 Texas basketball needed to stay in the thick of the Big 12 regular season title race did not come to fruition at the Ferrell Center in Waco against the No. 9 ranked Baylor Bears on Feb. 25.

Texas wound up blowing an early double-digit lead, and Baylor controlled the game the rest of the way. Terry and the Longhorns jumped out to an 18-4 lead after a hot start out of the gates in the first half. Senior big man Dylan Disu was on fire early, hitting two three-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game.

At one point, Disu had eight points in the span of the first eight minutes of the game. Disu would stay hot shooting from the field for the rest of the game, as he finished up with a season-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

The problem was that the rest of the team was not holding up their end of the bargain in this game, especially on the offensive end of the floor. There were some other Longhorns players that scored in double figures, including senior forward Timmy Allen with a dozen and sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter with 13.

24 points from Dylan Disu isn’t enough to get No. 8 Texas basketball past No. 9 Baylor

Two of the biggest issues in this game for the Longhorns, though, were letting Baylor get to the charity stripe a ton and the percentage that the Bears shot from the field. Baylor got to the line a whopping 29 times compared to just a dozen times for the Longhorns.

That led to a whopping 14-point discrepancy from the line in this game between Texas and Baylor.

Baylor was also really hot shooting from the field, going 50 percent from the field and 47 percent from beyond the arc. A good portion of Baylor’s scoring in this game came from the bench. Baylor’s bench outscored Texas 30-20, which is an unusual trend for the Longhorns.

Texas had the most productive bench in the Big 12 throughout the season. But every single reserve player outside of senior shooting guard/wing Sir’Jabari Rice was held scoreless for Texas in this game.

One of the factors that made the difference for Baylor on the offensive end in this game was its efficiency in the pick-and-roll. Baylor averaged nearly 1.3 points per possession in the pick-and-roll, more than tripling Texas’ offensive output in this game.

More than half of Baylor’s points in the settled half-court offense came either off an offensive rebound or in the pick-and-roll game.

And when you combine Texas’ issues defending the pick-and-roll with the number of times it sent Baylor to the line, you got a formula for a nine-point loss on the road.

Texas’ best players in this game, at least in terms of two-way impact and efficiency, were Hunter and Disu. Hunter gave the Longhorns 13 points, four assists, just one turnover, two steals, and one block. He also shot 50 percent from deep on six attempts, which was big for the Longhorns.

Meanwhile, Disu contributed four rebounds, two assists, and two steals to go along with his game-high 24 points. Disu had his best offensive game of the season as he found his shot from the field and from beyond the arc.

All in all, this loss for the Longhorns really makes it difficult to find a path to the Big 12 regular season crown. At this point, Texas must win out to take the Big 12 regular season title outright over the Kansas Jayhawks. If Texas wins out, and the Jayhawks win its next two games, that would lead to a tie atop the Big 12 standings at the end of the regular season.

The loss to Baylor moves Texas’ record on the season to 22-7 (11-5 Big 12). Next up for Disu and the Longhorns on the regular season docket is the final road game in Big 12 play, against the No. 24 TCU Horned Frogs on March 1.