Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud from UT’s last-second win vs. Louisville

Stud: Kadin Shedrick, C

Hands down, the best player for the Longhorns in this win over Louisville was the former Virginia transfer and redshirt junior center Kadin Shedrick. For the first time in his career, Shedrick scored over 20 points in a game. He registered a career-high and game-high 27 points on an ultra-efficient 11-of-15 from the field and 0-of-1 from beyond the arc.

And while Shedrick didn’t have his best game from the charity stripe, he still picked up five extra valuable points for the Longhorns from the line. He shot 5-of-9 from the stripe.

It’s also noteworthy that this is the first game of Shedrick’s career where he’s made double-digit field goals. His previous career-best for field goals in a single game was eight, which he did twice at Virginia during the 2021-22 season.

Shedrick was Texas’ best source of offense in this game. He was the biggest factor in Texas’ domination in paint scoring, which the Longhorns led 48-30 over the Cardinals.

When the Longhorns needed a basket down the stretch, Shedrick was the guy they turned to. Of his career-high 27 points in this game, 17 came in the second half. Shedrick also knocked down all five free throws in the second half as he got to the line a team-high nine times.

Paint scoring wasn’t the only way Shedrick positively impacted this game for the Longhorns, though. He was also effective on the boards and very disruptive on defense. And he did all this while fighting through a shoulder injury to play a season-high 27 minutes.

Shedrick registered seven rebounds (two offensive boards), one assist, just one turnover, one block, and three steals.

Maybe the most important of Shedrick’s disruptive plays was when he showed the effort to knock the ball lose from the Louisville ball-handler on their final full offensive possession of the game with less than 20 seconds remaining. Shedrick knocking the ball loose sent the possession into chaos, eventually leading to a shot clock violation for the Cardinals.

The shot clock violation gave the ball back to Texas down just one point instead of by three or more, which allowed Abmas to win the game with that last-second clutch mid-range bucket.

Shedrick has been a revelation for the Longhorns early this season. And this was by far the best performance of his short time at Texas thus far. He’s an incredibly important part of this Texas frontcourt, while senior big man Dylan Disu remains out due to a lower-body injury.