Horns’ big men aren’t playing tall
AUSTIN — Texas coach Chris Beard got to talking about urgency again Tuesday night after the Longhorns’ agonizing 66-65 loss to Kansas State at the Erwin Center.
It wasn’t the first time Beard had griped about the laissez-faire attitude some Longhorns have played with this season. And the recurrence of those bad tendencies in front of a fizzing home crowd led to No. 23 Texas’ second straight loss, this one the most torturous yet.
It wasn’t exactly a team-wide malaise that did in the Longhorns (13-5, 3-3 Big 12), though off shooting nights by guards Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey helped swing the game in Kansas State’s favor. Senior guard Marcus Carr (25 points) and forward Timmy Allen (15 points) picked up the offensive burden, and forward Christian Bishop played like a poor man’s Draymond Green with eight rebounds (five offensive), three assists, two blocks and one steal in 24 minutes.
But the two tallest players on Texas’ roster, 6-foot-9 Dylan Disu and 6-9 Tre Mitchell, barely made a dent, especially in the second half.
Mitchell subbed out for the final time with 9:28 remaining. And Disu exited for good with 7:25 to go, ending his night after just seven minutes on the floor. Combined, they shot 1-for-5 inside the arc and had twice as many fouls (four) as rebounds (two).
Mitchell did chip in with nine points, but he failed to score or even attempt a shot over the game’s final 17 minutes. He re-entered the game midway through the second half, only to get dusted on a take by Wildcats 6-footer Nijel Pack, who scooted past Mitchell for a layup.
Beard pulled Mitchell after the play.
“Yes, those guys gotta be a lot more consistent. As do all of our players,” Beard said Tuesday. “I think with those specific guys, I’d like to see more of an urgency, a competitive spirit.
“I thought K-state came in here tonight and they turned the game into a street fight, and we’re willing and able and capable and more than excited to be in a street fight. We had some players on our team tonight, they look like they kind of got punched in the face a few times. We gotta be a lot more aggressive.
There needs to be an urgency to everybody that plays for us.”
Texas may own the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense (55.2 points per game), but its lack of a consistent interior force, a presence capable of deterring shots and wrangling rebounds, has been a nagging issue for months.
The Wildcats made it a point to attack Beard’s sacred space: the paint. Their first nine field goals were either layups (six) or midrange jumpers, and the constant attack placed Texas in early foul trouble and Kansas State in the bonus.
That remained the case all game, with Kansas State pursuing offensive rebounds, turning 12 of them into 13 second-chance points. It also scored 28 points in the paint, the third straight team to post at least that many paint points against Texas.
It was a game in which Texas could’ve used the Mitchell who steamrolled Seton Hall in a close road loss back in December — the one who finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. The Longhorns also could’ve used more muscle from Disu, who averaged 15.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks for Vanderbilt last year before undergoing season-ending knee surgery.
The urgency Beard needed to see was more apparent in Allen and Bishop, though they were also on the court during some costly lapses in the game’s closing minutes.
Bishop grappled for a pair of offensive rebounds on one late possession, turning the second into an assist to Allen as he sliced down the lane. Bishop also slid over and delivered a mean help-side block on guard Mike Mcguirl’s finger-roll layup, but Kansas State grabbed that offensive rebound and then another, eventually earning two points at the free-throw line to trim the Longhorns’ lead to 65-64.
The Wildcats’ final make, the game-winner, came right at the rim. Wildcats guard Markquis Nowell sucked in the defense on a dribble drive, drawing five sets of eyes as Pack streaked down into the lane, snaring the pass and springing for an uncontested layup.
It was a fitting way for Texas to go down. And unless the Longhorns can get some more inspired play from their two bigs, this team, once ranked No. 5 in the nation, might not be able to cease this downward spiral.
“I think there’s just an art to just playing hard and getting after it,” Beard said. “And before I watch the film, I would say that definitely some of the players need to play a lot more urgency, and we’ll get back to work at that tomorrow.”