Freshman Mo Bamba scores a season-high 24 points as Texas routs Iowa State.
AUSTIN — There is a principle called “fail forward” imprinted within the Texas basketball program’s culture document. The instruction is simple: Use every failure as fuel.
The Longhorns entered Monday’s game reeling from their biggest flop of the season, a 35-point loss at then-No. 6 West Virginia. It might as well have been jet fuel.
“Our motto coming into this was, ‘Somebody has to pay for it,’ ” Bamba said. “Unfortunately for Iowa State, it was them.”
Texas made the Cyclones pay for the wounds inflicted by West Virginia with a 73-57 win at the Erwin Center.
The Longhorns (13-7, 4-4 Big 12) failed miserably Saturday, outclassed and embarrassed by a team many consider a Final Four contender. Iowa State, previously bested by UT on New Year’s Day in Ames, Iowa, emerged as Shaka Smart’s sacrificial lamb despite its weekend win over then-No. 8 Texas Tech.
“The guys’ self-reflection was really good,” Smart said. “I had to make an adjustment to how I would normally react to a game like that. Normally, we want to watch tape for about two, three hours and break everything down the next day after the game. But I just felt like that would be a mistake with us having this quick turnaround. And Iowa State played their best game of the year on Saturday, so they were coming off a really good team performance. So we just tried to make it all about tonight and winning this game.”
It helped that Kerwin Roach, a 28.9 percent 3-point shooter entering the game, turned into Ray Allen for a brief period. He sank a trio of 3-pointers in the game’s first four minutes.
In his third game back from a fractured hand, Roach matched his career highs of 22 points and four 3-pointers. He also recorded four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
It was mostly the Roach and Bamba show early on, with a healthy sprinkling of Dylan Osetkowski (10 points).
Six of Bamba’s 13-first half points were the product of offensive rebounds. He also swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key as Iowa State defenders gazed at each other, wondering whether to defend the shot or leave it be. They made the wrong choice.
About seven minutes into the second half, a strange thing happened: Iowa State big man Cameron Lard actually blocked Bamba at the rim. That, it seemed, was like poking a grizzly bear in the rear with a sharpened fire iron.
About 30 seconds later, Bamba snatched an offensive rebound in traffic, gathered, and slammed the ball through the rim with two hands. It was the exclamation point on a career-best 24-point performance. He added 12 rebounds and three blocks.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody,” Bamba said with a mischievous smirk. “I was probably trying to hurt feelings.”
Fortunately for Texas, when the inevitable late-game scoring freeze finally arrived, its 16-point lead proved a comfortable enough cushion. The Longhorns missed six of their final seven shots, but Iowa State went scoreless over the game’s final four minutes.
Eight points was as close as the Cyclones (11-8, 2-6) would get.
The Longhorns adhered to the “fail forward” attitude Monday. Hopefully, they let some fuel in the reserves for the weekend.
“What we need to do is not only flush Saturday, but learn some things from tonight and Saturday, then flush this too,” Smart said. “We have one more non-conference game against Ole Miss on Saturday. It’s a phenomenal opportunity. We need to put together an opportunity to win multiple games in a row. Fortunately we’re at home. Our guys can get some rest, and then we need to go attack them.”