The Texas basketball program scored 19 points in the first half of Tuesday night’s game. The slow start was too much to overcome for the team.
The Longhorns backcourt no showed despite a strong game from Texas forward Dylan Disu. The veteran player put up 28 points on 10-for-19 from the field and 3-for-6 from three-point range.
Outside of Disu, the Longhorns offense put up a poor showing. Texas guard Max Abmas had the next highest point total with 13 despite a poor 3-for-11 shooting night from the field. Abmas went 0-for-5 on three-point attempts. Texas forward Dillon Mitchell had a solid night with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
Longhorns guard Tyrese Hunter had a rough game shooting 0-for-8 against his former team. Understandably, Hunter might have pressed to make an impact against the program he transferred away from, but the inefficiency proved costly.
There’s still plenty of basketball left to play. The Longhorns are somehow a better team on the road so far in Big 12 play. Nevertheless, you can’t help but think the team left an opportunity to move off the tournament bubble slip away.
Head coach Rodney Terry will need to address flat starts in games and find away to get more opportunities to the more efficient scorers in Disu and Mitchell. And he’ll need his guards to start taking and making better shots.
The Longhorns (15-8) reasonably only have three losses to spare to make the NCAA Tournament. They face the West Virginia Mountaineers (8-14) at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday on the Longhorn Network.
