There’s a glimmer of hope emanating from a surprising upset win in the Moody Center. We are unsure what to make of it.
The Texas Longhorns (13-5) defeated the No. 9 Baylor Bears (14-4) on Saturday. The win resurrects the program from the low point of Rodney Terry’s tenure as head coach in Austin.
We have not forgotten the circumstances that seemingly already put Terry on the hot seat. Terry and company followed a loss to conference cellar dweller West Virginia (7-11) with another loss to an inferior opponent in UCF (11-6). Those losses are as informative of the team as Saturday’s win over No. 9 Baylor.
At its best, Texas can compete with and beat some of the best teams in basketball. The issue is that multiple other high ceiling, low floor teams can say the same thing. It’s who the team is capable of losing against that is more noteworthy.
The margin for error is incredibly low for the Longhorns. If the team gets the performance it did from the guard-forward combo of Tyrese Hunter and Dylan Disu on Saturday, it may not lose many other games. That said, it’s a high bar for the team to ask the two to match their performance against Baylor.
Hunter and Disu combined for 40 points shooting 15-for-24 from the field and 6-for-10 from three point range. Needless to say, Texas probably isn’t going to get that efficiency every game.
What will it take from Texas to continue to win games and make it into the NCAA Tournament? It will take consistent high scoring nights from Texas’ Hunter, Disu, guard Max Abmas and forward Dillon Mitchell. And it will take more of the offense it saw from reserve post player Kadin Shedrick who scored 10 points against Baylor.
The Longhorns did themselves a huge favor in a bounce back win over No. 9 Baylor. The question is whether or not its key players will continue to produce high scoring performances to carry the team. We will have a better idea of how consistently the team can produce when it takes on the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners (15-3) on Tuesday night.