Texas struggles to find offense outside of the transition game and Tre Johnson
Texas's offensive struggles were magnified throughout much of this game, especially when Johnson wasn't on the floor. If you remove Johnson's 29 points, Texas only had two players that barely reached double figures scoring against the Buckeyes.
Senior big man Kadin Shedrick and senior forward Arthur Kaluma each had 10 points, encompassing the other two Longhorns players who reached double figures scoring tonight.
Kaluma was probably Texas's best player actually getting to the rim and trying to finish through contact. Texas was having issues driving to the lane and getting to the rim, especially in the first half.
One of the few areas of this game that the Longhorns owned was the transition scoring. When Texas wanted to get out and run in transition, they were really effective getting quick and easy points. Texas won the fastbreak point scoring margin 10-0 over Ohio State.
With the depth Texas has, especially at guard and wing this season, I'd like to see them push the pace more often to get out and run in transition. Texas also owned the edge in points off of turnovers, by a margin of 18-2 over the Buckeyes.
If you had told me before this game that the Longhorns were going to win turnovers, outscore the Buckeyes by a margin of +16 in points off of turnovers, and win the fastbreak point battle by double-digits, I would've almost guaranteed a Texas victory in the opener.
Terry and staff need to figure out this situation with how to utilize the right personnel to initiate the offense and know when to push the pace in transition. Start with getting the ball in the hands of your playmakers, like Kaluma and Johnson (and Mark when he returns from the lower-body injury) on offense.
Texas also needs to get into its offensive sets faster, instead of just playing iso ball and running bland two-man game screens and rotations that defenses can easily figure out.