Beard fuming over sloppy offense, lax defense in loss
— With 14:54 left in an eventual loss to Iowa State, Texas coach Chris Beard scrapped his usual rotation in search of a spark.
Maybe the move would jolt his regulars, or maybe the surprise subs would have a little magic in them on a Saturday afternoon in Ames, Iowa, that was starting to slip away. So starting guards Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey, with their collective 200-plus games of Division I experience, hit the bench, replaced for the moment by graduate transfer Avery Benson and walk-on Tristan Licon, who originally joined this outfit as a graduate assistant before landing a spot on the Texas roster.
The score didn’t swerve much with Licon and Benson on the floor for the next four minutes and 43 seconds. Texas (13-4, 3-2 Big 12) cut its deficit from 12 to eight as the unheralded pair of benchwarmers injected some intensity on both ends, but it was their presence in the midst of a tight road game against another Big 12 championship contender that really left a lasting impression.
Texas, which fell two spots to No. 23 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, shouldn’t be looking to Benson and Licon for answers against a team like 15thranked Iowa State (14-3, 2-3). That task belongs to Ramey, Jones and the six high-profile transfers Beard recruited from major programs.
Instead, Texas played its sloppiest offensive game of the year and paid for too many defensive lapses. It’s just about impossible to win a game when you concede 23 points off 20 turnovers and allow the opposing team to shoot 56.9 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from 3-point range, as the Longhorns did in Ames.
“Just from a toughness standpoint, we put a couple guys in there in the second half who played their asses off, Tristan and Avery,” Beard said after Saturday’s 79-70 loss to the Cyclones. “And that’s Texas basketball; that’s who we’re supposed to be.
“And equally disappointing as the turnovers throughout the game was where’s the fight to go back and block a shot, tip the ball from behind? Maybe even a
hard foul sometimes is the right basketball play after a turnover. But it was a little bit frustrating watching our turnovers basically become their offense.”
Texas still got within five with 4:17 to go after two free throws from Ramey. But on the Cyclones’ ensuing possession, Texas senior guard Marcus Carr lost track of his defensive assignment, allowing senior guard Gabe Kalscheur to loop around the arc and pop out for an open 3 at the top of the key, his sixth triple of the game.
Carr may have helped keep Texas afloat with 15
points and six assists, but he also missed 10 of 14 shots, committed four turnovers, and played some unusually casual defense.
Of course, he wasn’t solely responsible for the Longhorns’ second conference loss.
Texas bigs Tre Mitchell, Dylan Disu and Christian Bishop combined for 15 points, eight rebounds, nine turnovers and zero assists. Foul trouble limited all-around wing Timmy Allen to a season-low 12 minutes. And as a team, Texas missed seven of its final 10 shots, allowing ISU to pull
away in the final minutes.
“You can absorb some off nights, bad possessions,” Beard said. “But who played great for Texas today? It’s a player’s game. And ultimately when you get to that tournament and you want to start winning games, you’re gonna have to have four or five guys have great games.
“And tonight I didn’t see any great individual performances.
Beard added: “Some of our players who were filling up the stat sheet offensively tonight ... they were just giving it back on the other end.
You gotta play on both ends.”
Texas will have to be better on both ends Tuesday when it faces Kansas State (9-7, 1-4) at the Erwin Center.
The Longhorns topped the short-handed Wildcats by 13 earlier this season, but full-strength K-state just snapped a four-game skid with an impressive 62-51 win over Texas Tech.
And a loss Tuesday would drop Texas to 3-3 in Big 12 play with games still to come against No. 5 Baylor (two), No. 7 Kansas (two), No. 18 Texas Tech (two) and No. 15 Iowa State.
And with all due respect to Licon and Benson, it won’t be a positive indicator for Texas if Beard has to sub those two in again with the game’s outcome still in question.
“Just coming together and deciding as a team we want to bring our toughness and aggressiveness to another level,” Carr said Tuesday. “Throughout the season we’ve shown moments of it and at times we’ve executed it, but it needs to become a consistent thing.”