Texas Basketball: 2 studs, 1 dud from crucial win vs. TCU

Dud: Ithiel Horton, Wing

After breaking out in his first start in Big 12 play on Jan. 17 against his former team, UCF, senior wing Ithiel Horton has gone cold in the last five outings. And in the prior four games, Horton hadn't scored over five points in a single contest.

As a result of Horton's cold scoring pace recently, Terry and the Longhorns turned to a three-guard lineup in the starting five. Sophomore guard Chendall Weaver was inserted into the starting lineup at the three, which is where Horton started five consecutive games.

Weaver emerged as a big part of the backcourt rotation in the last few weeks in Big 12 play. He's a lightning bolt of energy on both ends of the floor, and plays with tremendous effort with his on-ball defense. Weaver's energetic rebounding and gritty on-ball defense has been a difference-maker for Texas's backcourt unit of late.

Horton took a backseat to Weaver in the backcourt/wing rotation in this win over TCU. He played just three minutes, a season-low. Horton was essentially benched for good after he went 0-of-2 shooting from the field with zero points.

It looks like Terry and staff have had enough with Horton playing significant minutes at the three in these key Big 12 games this season.

I have to agree with this move by Terry. Horton is not the type of role player who is accustomed to knocking down just a few jump shots at an efficient clip and then sitting the rest of the game on the bench. He's a rhythm scorer who needs to take a large volume of field goal attempts to get going.

In this situation where Weaver is playing good basketball at the three for the Longhorns, it makes more sense to give him the most minutes at this spot in Big 12 play.