What does this young team have to do to catch a break? The Longhorns mounted an impressive comeback, erasing an early 15-point deficit -- 12 at the half -- to go ahead 64-60 with 2:20 remaining, but the Jayhawks finished strong and pulled out a tough 69-66 road victory. Congratulations to Kansas on the victory -- Bill Self called it the team's best win of the season and the Jayhawks were resilient themselves in closing out the game strong -- but man, this Texas team just cannot catch a break. The game was officiated like it was played in Lawrence, with Taylor and Robinson getting the star treatment, and what few touch fouls that were called all going against Texas.
Bah. Kansas is clearly the superior team, and we're not going to beat them at Allen Fieldhouse, but it was tough to see us fall short today, when Kansas was allowed to manhandle us defensively with impunity. Texas was whistled for 23 fouls, to Kansas' 19. Awesome. Because our margin for error is large enough as it is.
Regardless, ultimately the loss falls on us, and Kansas deserves credit for the win. They executed down the stretch, and we fell short for the same reasons as we have all month. We were once again close to a breakthrough win, but we have ourselves to blame for falling short. On the bright side, it's clear that if we can avoid falling behind early we're very much capable of beating just about anybody.
So it goes with such a young team, and like Wiggo, I was really proud of our effort, even as disappointed as I am that we couldn't pull out the win. Our frontcourt delivered a hell of a game, and it was the forgettable play from our guards in the first half (McClellan excepted) that really cost us the game.
Once more, all together now: we're getting closer. But we're also about to start running out of time. To avoid a situation where we'll have no margin for error down the stretch, Texas needs to take care of business on Tuesday night versus Iowa State and then win at least one of two at Baylor and versus Missouri. Going 2-1 over the next three still puts us in a solid position heading into February, while 1-2 puts us behind the eight ball. Losing all three makes us a huge longshot to get into the NCAA Tournament field.
Hook 'em
0 recs | 29 comments
The Texas bigs did a great job containing Thomas Robinson
This guy may be the best player in college basketball this season. And he only scored 17 points on 16 FGAs and 4 FTAs. Major props go to Jaylen Bond in particular for the job he did; I can only remember one significant defensive breakdown from Bond on Robinson in the game. But all of the Texas bigs held up.
Reggieball - January 21, 2012
Team is playing so hard
Just cannot catch a break. It hurts thinking about the past two games. Too many “what ifs” come to mind.
GoHornsGo90 - January 21, 2012
Maybe we're saving our luck for the tourney
Caradoc - January 23, 2012
Path to 10 wins
We have 2 Ws already, so we need 8 more.
Must wins: vs. Iowa St, vs. Texas Tech, @ OU, @ Ok St, @ Texas Tech, vs. OU
Those six are not gimmes, especially the road ones, but that would put us at 8.
Still need 2 of these 4. (And will need 3 of 4 if we drop a game above)
Best chances: @ Baylor, vs. Missouri, @ A&M, vs. K State
Not going to win: @ Baylor or @ Kansas
awiggo - January 21, 2012
Atmosphere at the Drum was electric!
Was an amazing game to be at and in the heart of the student section. Tough loss for us as we made such an amazing comeback, but took so much energy to do so. Costly down the stretch with a couple of breaks going Kansas’ way and the rest is history.
Team is improving little by little each game. Who would think the 5 freshman that played would give Kansas a run for their money?
Resiliency is not an issue; it’s finishing in crunch time. We got a chance to finally win a very winnable game on Tuesday. Then, we’ll see whether the cards will fall in our favor. Keep fighting ’Horns!
BONation11 - January 21, 2012
regrettably...
I think we’re NIT bound. Lot of good teams and coaches ‘better’ than Rick have done it too.
We’ve got some pups who bite.
Thanks, PB.
Sailor Ripley - January 21, 2012 via iPhone app
Agreed
2009-2010 North Carolina Tar Heels lost in the NIT championship game to Dayton. Of course, UNC was HORRIBLE that year, but they’ve certainly rebounded nicely. Point being, there is no shame with an NIT showing in a rebound year. No shame at all.
kriess - January 22, 2012
Honestly NIT isn't the end of the world
Barnes could use it as motivation to be even stronger next year. We’ll definitely want to avenge an NIT year.
goingforthecorner - January 22, 2012
The thing is, the reason we never go to NIT is because our recruiting classes include a lot of 1 and dones.
This year, other than Kabongo, we don’t have that ridiculous class, but guys like McLellan, LEwis and Holmes will be solid to great contributors by their sophomore junior seasons. That’s how you build a championship contender.
mr.manager - January 22, 2012
On the bright side
NIT means a couple of additional home games
Caradoc - January 23, 2012
i think McClellan may have turned the corner
he’s really showed up on the defensive end the last couple of games.
I feel bad for Holmes. He’s playing well, but he got a couple of cheap calls today, and it limited his gametime once again.
Was glad to see Bond finally step up in conference play.
Call me nuts, but we could beat Kansas in the fieldhouse (and i think now they know it). Missouri is the only team I think we can’t beat.
following - January 21, 2012
Well, let's see what happens against Baylor.
mr.manager - January 22, 2012
Shot distribution
J’Covan Brown – 26 shots attempted
Kabongo, McClellan, Lewis, Bond, Holmes – 24 shots attempted combined
I know JCB is the man and is obviously the best and most experienced player on the team and probably the only guard Rick Barnes trusts and wants to have the ball in his hands in any meaningful situation, but this is totally unacceptable to me.
If you want to take away shots from Lewis, go on right ahead. But on a day when Sheldon was on fire from deep, how does he only attempt five shots the entire game? Bond was perfect from the field but only attempted three shots. Why isn’t Holmes getting more looks down low (can we please get him off the 3 point line)?
It would be one thing if this team consisted of J’Covan Brown and a bunch of defensive-oriented glue guys like Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay, but it doesn’t. JCB has no business dominating the shot chart like this. The freshmen are probably still gun shy and don’t want to get into Barnes’ dog house, but they need to get themselves more involved in the offense. This will greatly benefit their development which will pay dividends in March and the next few seasons.
goingforthecorner - January 22, 2012
Per ESPN
patienthornsfan - January 22, 2012
McClellan needed more shots
For sure.
GoHornsGo90 - January 22, 2012
I'd put that on the coach
If barnes doesn’t want brown shooting it 26+ time, he’d make sure he didn’t. Are you going to blame Brown for mcclellan getting 0 shots in the 2nd half? Or for not playing bond except when they absolutely needed to and for only 13 minutes? It comes down to coaching, awful coaching in this case. Barnes didn’t emphasize brown enough against mizzou( we couldve won if he did) but did too much vs kstate and ku. Brown should be taking around 20 shots pg, McClellan around 10. Unless either is hot, in which case give them more and take away the 2 3’s by Holmes, those were awful. With better coaching Texas could have 5 or 6 less losses this season
Mclovin1035 - January 22, 2012 via mobile
In the clutch our offense doesn't resemble anything organized at all
playing against a tough KU defense makes it look even worse. I think Kabongo not developing as fast as we had hoped is really affecting this too. Now J’Covan is our primary shooter AND our primary ball-handler – thus his 25+ shot chucking.
goingforthecorner - January 22, 2012
Good point
We should work on someone else handling the ball at the end, so perhaps Brown can get the ball off of a screen and be more open instead of taking a contested 3. I don’t mind him taking so many shots esp at the end of games when he hits them, but if he’s cold early he shouldn’t take 8 in the 1st half. He got to the line more which was good and most possessions he’d drive and draw a double team which freed up Chapman or Bond or someone to get the rebound and extend our possessions. Barnes is arguably the worst offensive coach in the game, and for some of yesterday I felt like KU had an extra guy on the court. Kabongo looked fine the previous 2 games and hit that big 3 but needs to develop a lot more.
1 other gripe I have is that TROB picked up foul #3 early in the 2nd half, and got no more after that. We needed to attack him more
Mclovin1035 - January 22, 2012
Anyone know what happened to Sterling Gibbs? Is he injured?
Would be nice to have a player that can shoot over 40 percent from deep when JCB is getting too much attention.
goingforthecorner - January 22, 2012
He's just not ready yet
For this level of competition.
GoHornsGo90 - January 22, 2012
We have Iowa State at home next, right?
That will be a must win game for our tourney chances, I say. We get that, then maybe we can look at ways to get to 9 or 10 wins in conference. The big 12 is so good, that if we get a couple of marquee wins, a .500 record in conference MIGHT do it. (Although our non-conference schedule probably won’t help us out much with losses to UNC. NC St, etc.)
junglerules - January 22, 2012
Great post and comments...
Pretty much covers all the bases here…
Great game. Great crowd. Great effort. Heartbreaking loss. For this team, it’s a shame that this whole season will come down to “Who did you beat?” I can already see the “key wins” graphic being highlighted in yellow on the CBS Selection Show as a reason why Texas missed the tournament.
With the exception of the road games against UNC and Mizzou, this team has been “in” every game they’ve played this year. But that’s really not what drives the Bracket train, and it’s why today’s game hurts more than it should. That first true “key win” was just sitting there, and it slipped away.
Oh well. Onwards and upwards.
txtwstr7 - January 22, 2012
Great points
Maybe this year having 68 get in will be the difference in us making it. Those 3 extra spots could be crucial….
junglerules - January 22, 2012
It's great to see these young guys not give up to better teams and fight back.
They just lack the poise and discipline to execute when the extreme pressure is on them. It just a matter of practice and playing together. They have the determination to fight back against better teams down by 7-8 possessions. They just need more experience to not let the other team up at the end.
With a smaller quicker team it seems that spreading the floor and allowing our quickness to over come the size of the defense would work better with the talent on the team. Now a lot of the Horns offense is picks and screens on baseline movement but that leaves 2 defenders on either side of the hoop at about 45 degrees and 4-5 feet out. If any of the high picks or screens work you are left with 2 defenders in perfect position to stop penetration. This also leaves the defense in good rebounding position on a deep shots.
Picking and screening near the basket also keeps the defense close so the distance between is short enough that the defense can rotate fast enough to help.
A young group like this is going to be erratic shooting long range under pressure. They score at a much higher percentage close to the basket. Instead of using the speed, quickness and fresh young legs the horns they run a scheme that is more suited for a bigger more experienced team. Barnes maybe pushing to much basketball when a simpler scheme may be more useful. But then Barnes has not had the luxury of holding on to players long enough to
to train.
Xerxes - January 22, 2012
Advanced stats/box score
http://www.scacchoops.com/ViewHDGame.asp?hSchedule=12614
http://www.scacchoops.com/ViewHDGame.asp?hSchedule=12614&bView=0
Here’s your estimated +/- data. They don’t look at Kabongo and Wangmene too kindly:
Holmes +9 (17 min)
Bond +9 (13 min)
McClellan +4 (35 min)
Chapman +3 (34 min)
Lewis +2 (24 min)
Brown 0 (37 min)
Wangmene -15 (15 min)
Kabongo -17 (25 min)
I’d like to see more Bond on the court. Holmes’ foul trouble is what limited his minutes.
What else can you say about Kabongo? It’s yet another Findley Prep guard that underperformed relative to his ESPNU recruiting ranking. Let’s just hope he decides to stay and work on his jump shot, unlike Avery Bradley and Cory Joseph.
goingforthecorner - January 22, 2012
I'd believe it
Agree about the last 2 statements, though Myck turned the corner after the past 2 double doubles.
Barnes reluctance to play Bond was mindboggling. I understand not starting him ( he’s much better off the bench) but Barnes wouldn’t have even played him if the other 3 didn’t get into foul trouble.
Our Lineup
Kabongo
Brown
Lewis ( I like sheldon off the bench and he gets enough minutes anyways)
Holmes
Chapman
Bench
6 McClellan
7 Bond
8 Wangmene
9 Gibbs
Mclovin1035 - January 22, 2012
Kabongo gone?
If he’s one-and-done, he really hasn’t done much. I don’t mind it if one-and-done guys come in here ready to play — and I include Tristan Thompson in that. But who needs guys who don’t get it together until the season’s almost over? We’ve invested a lot of playing time and coaching effort into Kabongo that mainly wasted if he doesn’t return.
Caradoc - January 23, 2012
I am going to say that I will be shocked if Kabongo is one and done
Cory Joseph surprised me, but at least I could see him fitting on an NBA roster. Anyone who is drafting Kabongo right now is doing it based entirely on potential, and has to be willing to send him to the D-league for a while. He hasn’t shown anything yet that resembles the required skill set for an NBA point guard. He can’t knock down the shots that you need to be able to at the next level. He is a project at this point, and the draft is loaded with guys who will play at a pretty high level right away. Also, the NBA is loaded with point guards at this point.
This isn’t like last year, where Tristan and Cory were able to take advantage of a weak draft class.
Of course, I have been surprised before by early entries. I didn’t see Avery Bradley and definately didn’t see Maurice Evans coming.
Reggieball - January 23, 2012
Heartbreaking is right.
That was painful – you just knew that even though we were up 4 with two minutes to play we were going to find a way to give it away. The exciting takeaway is that we can make so many mistakes and still stay in the game.
Myck got very little PT late in the second half. Was Barnes pissed at him or trying to save him since he was so clearly gassed against Missouri at the end? The ‘and 1’ that KS got at the end of the game was b/c Myck looked down right lethargic trying to come off the screen.
Hope we can pick up a couple wins in the next week.
Hook ’em!
jimmer - January 22, 2012
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