Longhorns set to snap out of haze
Upcoming schedule offers opportunity to return to winning
AUSTIN — The Texas Longhorns arrived at WVU Coliseum the morning of Jan. 9 prepared for a dogfight with West Virginia. They loaded back into the team bus several hours later buoyed by the emotional high of a gamewinning 3 by leukemia survivor Andrew Jones.
But the tenor of the program’s most promising season in a decade changed in the aftermath of that 1,400 mile trek into Appalachia. On Jan. 11, West Virginia halted all team activities as it dealt with an outbreak of COVID-19. The Mountaineers’ shutdown lasted nearly two weeks.
Texas got through its next game, a last-second 79-77 loss to then-No. 15 Texas Tech on Jan. 13, intact. Then things got bad.
A rash of positive tests and contact tracing protocols whittled Texas’ roster down to eight scholarship players for a Jan. 16 home game against Kansas State. A couple days after Texas’ skeleton crew cruised by the Wildcats, coach Shaka Smart went into isolation due to contracting COVID-19.
Texas hasn’t been the same since.
“I mean it’s been quite a journey,” Smart said Monday morning during a Zoom interview. “Adversity and challenges are going to occur over the course of the season. And the difference between the teams that really finish strong and have a very successful season at the end of the day and the ones that don’t are the ones that come closer together through adversity, through challenges. And we’re kind of in the midst of that right now.”
No. 13 Texas (11-5, 5-4 Big 12) has lost four of five since its fateful trip to Morgantown, W.Va.
Acting head coach K.T. Turner had eight players available during an 80-79 loss to No. 24 Oklahoma on Jan. 26. The Longhorns went nearly three weeks without a full contingent of players and coaches cleared for activities. The full team finally practiced together on Jan. 31, two days before an 83-69 home loss to No. 2 Baylor.
There’s some rust to account for after playing just three games since Jan. 17. And the Longhorns’ conditioning isn’t at the expected level given how much time players have missed when accounting
for postponed games, canceled practices and isolation measures that limit how aggressively they’re able to train and workout.
But Texas’ quest to return to form hit another snag last Saturday in a 75-67 double-overtime loss to Oklahoma State.
Rust doesn’t explain away a 20-for-79 shooting performance. It doesn’t mask a 5-for-35 performance from 3-point range or the 21 turnovers or the offensive disarray. And it doesn’t explain why Smart’s group was so flummoxed by the Cowboys’ switch to zone.
The Longhorns’ defeat was borne of sloppiness, inattention and a startling lack of shooting confidence. Troubling was the combined output of starting guards Matt Coleman, Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones: 37 points on 10-for-49 shooting, 3 for 26 on 3s, five assists and seven turnovers.
“I was really pleased with the way our guys, just the look on their faces yesterday (at practice),” Smart said. “Our three guards, we need them to play better on the offensive end than they did in the Oklahoma State game. I really like maturity that they seem to have about them coming out of that game, but it’s about getting back on the court tomorrow night at Kansas State and actually putting together two really good halves on both ends of the floor.”
“I think the biggest thing offensively is we want our guys to play aggressive, confident and loose. We got away from getting the ball down the floor as fast as we want to on offense (against Oklahoma State). We gotta get the ball down the floor faster.”
Texas has time to regain its footing. Games against Kansas State and versus TCU (10-7, 3-5) this week could help rebuild the confidence and poise the Longhorns played with during a sizzling 10-1 start. The Wildcats have yet to win in 2021 and TCU has dropped five of its past six games.
COVID-19 disruptions will continue battering programs — Baylor on Monday postponed its next three games — but the Longhorns will keep trying to move forward, starting with Tuesday’s matchup with K-State (5-15, 1-10) at Bramlage Coliseum. All Smart can do is hope they’re all in the clear now.
“They’re not machines, so we got to make sure we factor in what they’re dealing with,” Smart said. “We’ve been going through this for so long that it almost becomes a part of the routine. But I give these kids a lot of credit for their ability to deal with the adjustments and the changes and the different things that they’ve had to endure.”