Longhorns aim for more consistency
SEC Challenge game provides break from roller-coaster results during Big 12 action
AUSTIN — Fortune is such a fickle beast. Texas knows that as well as any team in the nation.
The Longhorns have alternated wins and losses since opening Big 12 play with a 92-86 loss to No. 11 Kansas on Dec. 29. They have experienced the ecstasy of crucial résumé-building victories over No. 16 TCU and No. 8 Texas Tech, only to turn around and suffer devastating road defeats to Oklahoma State and No. 6 West Virginia.
Texas (13-7, 4-4 Big 12) once again is riding the high of victory, but the Longhorns remained more guarded as their Big 12/SEC Challenge game with Mississippi approached.
“We’ve got a little theme,” junior guard Kerwin Roach said. “Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. If we just do that, remain consistent and level-headed going into games, we’ll go out there and dominate. But that’s kind of hard to do at this level.”
Fighting off fatigue
Consistency has been something easier said than done for just about every Big 12 team. A midseason break from conference play probably feels like a godsend for Texas and the other nine teams in the Big 12. For weeks, they have gone toe to toe with each other, and no team has gone unscathed.
But that doesn’t make Saturday’s game against the Rebels at the Erwin Center easy, just different.
Mississippi (11-9, 4-4 SEC) has been on its own roller coaster. The Rebels just beat a good Alabama team after dropping two in a row to Texas A&M and Arkansas by a combined six points. Five Mississippi players average at least 10 points per game — a balanced attacked led by senior Deandre Burnett and junior Terence Davis, and the Rebels’ rotation goes nine deep.
Fortunately for UT coach Shaka Smart, the long break between Monday’s victory over Iowa State and Saturday’s interconference matchup arrived at an ideal time as he has resorted to a shortened rotation after the loss of sophomore guard Andrew Jones, who was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this month.
As a result, Dylan Osetkowski is averaging a team-high 38.5 minutes in conference play. Matt Coleman is at 35.6, followed by Mo Bamba at 34 and Roach at 32.
But fatigue is only a factor, not an excuse.
“I used to work for a guy who talked about players thinking they’re tired,” Smart said. “Whether they are or they aren’t, just thinking (can bring) mental fatigue. There’s a psychological term called ‘cognitive fatigue,’ where you’re just not as sharp because there’s that drain on you mentally. We’ve seen that some, and I think most teams have. But the reality is, it’s not an excuse. The other teams are playing just as many games as we are.
“Half the guys we have out there playing are freshmen, so they’re what we call training age. But they’ve got to battle up and fight. Now, we get a little bit of time. But if we win games, it’s going to be because we were able to battle through any type of physical or mental fatigue. If we lose games, nobody is really going to care and say, ‘Oh, they were tired, it’s no big deal.’ Can’t do that. Got to find a way. It’s big boy basketball, and these guys will be reminded of that a lot.”
Learning opportunity
There will be no excuses if the offense again falters down the stretch — a recurring theme that has transformed too many winnable games into loses.
“I’d say it’s pretty self-inflicted,” Bamba said of the team’s crunch-time scoring struggles. “They’re not changing anything they do defensively, it’s just us. We get real tense.”
The Longhorns will try to play it cool as they try to string together multiple victories for the first time since mid-December. And, as they can attest, a bit of good fortune wouldn’t hurt, either.