The full week off over the past week wasn't the boost for Texas basketball (16-11, 5-9 SEC) that head coach Rodney Terry was looking for it to be tonight on the road in Columbia against the South Carolina Gamecocks (11-16, 1-13 SEC).
South Carolina gives Texas basketball's tourney resume a black eye in a 15-point Longhorns' loss in Columbia
Terry and the Longhorns had an opportunity to get their second straight victory in SEC play during the final stretch run of this regular season against South Carolina tonight. South Carolina and head coach Lamont Paris flipped the script quickly on Texas.
Within the game's first 18 minutes, sophomore South Carolina forward Collin Murray-Boyles had 16 points to jump the Gamecocks out to a 32-20 lead over the Longhorns.
Texas was far behind South Carolina by halftime, with the Gamecocks leading the Longhorns 40-22 at the end of the first half. Terry's squad tried to whittle South Carolina's lead down to single digits late in the second half, but it was too little too late.
Foul trouble and a lack of cohesion on both ends of the floor were the biggest storylines of the night for Terry and the Longhorns. Texas turned the ball over a dozen times and allowed South Carolina to shoot a season-high 45 free-throw attempts.
South Carolina registered its first SEC victory tonight. It is also the second road loss consecutively for the Longhorns in SEC play.
Here are three takeaways from Texas's embarrassing 84-69 loss to South Carolina on the road in Columbia on Feb. 22.
Tre Johnson is the only source of offense for Texas
Freshman guard Tre Johnson's scoring outburst was about the only thing the Longhorns could hang their hat on the offensive end of the floor tonight. Johnson's game-high 29 points at least gave Texas a fighter's chance at times in the second half against South Carolina.
Not only was Johnson the only Longhorns player to consistently provide a spark on the offensive end of the floor, he was the team's only one scoring in double figures.
Johnson has been on fire offensively all season for the Longhorns. But I feel like his efficiency and scoring rhythm has really hit another level in the past month in SEC play. In the past two games, Johnson has averaged over 30 points per game on 47 percent shooting from the field and 93 percent from the free-throw line.
Terry and staff need to find different ways to get Johnson creative and open looks at the basket for more efficient field goal opportunities on the offensive end. Johnson has way too often ended up in iso situations late in the shot clock where he's forced to take low-percentage contested shots from deep two or three-point range.
Johnson ranks in the top 10th percentile of the SEC this season in field goal attempts in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock in conference play (per CBB Analytics).