Dumars imparts advice to Horns
AUSTIN — Texas invited Naismith Hall of Famer and two-time NBA champion Joe Dumars to serve as the inaugural speaker for its new “Basketball Greatness Series.”
Graduate forward Brock Cunningham said Dumars provided “a lot” during their virtual meeting.
“It was just a gold mine of information,” Cunningham said.
What stood out most to Cunningham was how forcefully the Detroit Pistons legend spoke about confronting failure and adversity on the winding path to greatness.
“How do you handle failure?” Dumars asked a rapt audience. “I don’t care who you are or who you see as successful; they have failed along the way. And if you can’t handle failure, you’ll never get to greatness.”
The sixth-ranked Longhorns (20-6, 9-4 Big 12) will keep that in mind as they approach Saturday’s home game against archrival Oklahoma (13-13, 3-10).
Texas failed Monday, falling to Texas Tech 74-67 in Lubbock. Cunningham and Co. can’t afford many, if any more, setbacks like that as they vie for the program’s first conference title since 2008.
“In this sport and especially in life, your life is going to be determined by how you handle failure,” Cunningham said. “We’re coming off of a loss and we’re getting better and we’re moving into this next game. But we’ll be better coming out on Saturday.”
The Sooners have had
their share of failures this season, including a 70-69 loss to Texas in the conference opener on New Year’s Eve. But second-year coach Porter Moser’s team also owns some impressive victories, including a 93-69 romp over No. 1 Alabama on Jan. 28 and a 14-point win over No. 12 Kansas State on Tuesday.
Though Oklahoma is last in the Big 12 — Texas is tied for first with No. 5 Kansas and No. 9 Baylor — it still has a chance to reach the NCAA Tournament with a strong finish. And beating Texas on Saturday at the Moody Center would amplify the Sooners’ odds of receiving an at-large bid.
“I know we need more than one win, but you need one to start a streak,” Moser told The Oklahoman after Tuesday’s win over Kansas State. “We needed one to get started in the right direction.”
Texas is, of course, a lock for the NCAA tournament. But it doesn’t want to tumble in the wrong direction in the Big 12 standings as it jockeys for a top-2 seed with Selection Sunday approaching.
“Deepest conference in the country with elite players on every team,” Cunningham said. “It does wear ya down, but it’s nothing that we’re not built for.”