Smart’s lineup switch pays off, but will it stick?
AUSTIN — All season long, Texas coach Shaka Smart had rolled with the same starting group whenever all five players were healthy and available.
But with the program’s first Big 12 tournament championship at stake, Smart tinkered. And he wasn’t just acting on random gut instinct.
Freshman starting forward Greg Brown had been floundering for weeks, averaging 7.2 points on 35.9 percent shooting, 4.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists over his previous six outings. Then Brown briefly left the court in the second half of Texas’ 67-66 quarterfinals win over Texas Tech — he went scoreless in six minutes that night — and Smart decided to make a change ahead of last Saturday’s championship game against Oklahoma State.
So sophomore Kai Jones got the start alongside senior guard Matt Coleman, redshirt junior guard Andrew Jones junior guard Courtney Ramey and senior big Jericho Sims. The move paid dividends as Jones scored 11 points in the opening 10 minutes of a 91-86 victory over the Cowboys at the T-mobile Center.
Though limited by foul trouble after that tenacious start, Jones finished with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and five rebounds in just 18 minutes. His transition playmaking and seamless switchability on defense were vital for a Texas team that barely survived an onslaught by Cowboys freshman Cade Cunningham (29 points, three assists), named a first-team All-american on Monday and the likely No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
“I think he has really, really grown and improved as a basketball player over the last three, four years, obviously a couple of those years being here,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said of Kai
Jones. “He is such a unique player because he’s 6-foot-11, but like a lot of guys he kind of fancies himself as a perimeter player.
“The thing that he’s done really well is he stayed ready. We believed coming into the season that we had six starters, just the way that those guys practiced in the preseason. And we’ve believed that all year long.”
Brown was the only Longhorn occupying lottery slots in 2021 NBA mock drafts before this season began. But during the past four mont,h Jones has leapfrogged
the newcomer as the more intriguing lottery prospect.
Jones averaged just 8.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.0 block and 1.0 steal in conference play. And there were times he tried a little too hard to emulate Kevin Durant’s perimeter wizardry or Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Eurostepping mastery.
But the game has starting slowing for Jones, who is the perfect lob-catching, glass-cleaning, respectable floor-spacing complement to an offense dominated by its three starting guards.
“He’s a big kid,” Coleman said. “He’s someone that really enjoys the game of basketball. Like working on his game, you know, watching highlights. He truly enjoys the game of basketball.”
Smart has not confirmed whether he plans to stick with Jones in the starting lineup.
For all Brown’s struggles, the 6-9 freshman is still a dynamite athlete and competitor who can help No. 3 seed Texas (19-7) win its first NCAA Tournament game since 2014. He could overpower undersized No. 14 seed Abilene
Christian (23-4) in the Longhorns’ first-round game this Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
But whether Brown or Jones comes off the bench doesn’t matter much moving forward. More importantly for Smart is figuring out how to get them both rolling at the same time. Because if Brown and Jones are both right, no one is going to want to see this Texas team in Indy.
“Greg’s a good player,” Smart said Sunday. “We’re gonna spend some time together today. He seems to have really good clarity.
“And the thing that I’m excited about is, after that game was over last night he celebrated with his teammates like we won a conference championship. And I don’t take that for granted. It would be easy for another person in the very same situation to not act that way. I think that bodes well for his future.”
Andrew Jones finally in NCAA Tournament
It took five years, but Andrew Jones will finally play in the NCAA Tournament.
Texas did not qualify for the 2017 tournament during his freshman season. Jones then began chemotherapy treatment in January 2018 and did not play in the team’s first-round overtime loss to Nevada that year. The Longhorns missed the cut in 2019 and instead settled for an NIT title. And the 2020 tournament was canceled because pf COVID-19.
So it’s been a long wait for Jones, the team’s leading scorer (14.6 points) and 3-point shooter (51 3-pointers). And the 2021 Allbig 12 second-team selection and leukemia survivor will remain one of the best stories in Indiana over the duration of Texas’ stay.