Protecting home court key to Longhorns’ NCAA hopes
AUSTIN — Texas men’s basketball just wrapped up a six-game stretch against ranked opponents, finishing 3-3.
But after Tuesday night’s 70-65 loss to No. 14 Iowa State at the Moody Center, the Longhorns fell to 1-4 at home in conference play. That’s the worst home record in the Big 12 right now. Oklahoma State is the only other team that is below .500 in home conference games. Meanwhile, three Big 12 teams — Houston, Iowa State, Kansas — are undefeated at home.
With three ranked wins so far, including two on the road, the Longhorns have proven that they can be an NCAA Tournament team when they’re at their very best. Texas handled ranked Oklahoma on the road in January, handing the Sooners their first home loss all year. The Longhorns rallied to defeat TCU in Fort Worth after a slow 14-4 start.
The road wins are impressive, especially in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which are used to evaluate teams in March. However, some of the Longhorns’ worst performances this season happened at home. Texas, then ranked at No. 20, opened conference play with a double-digit loss to unranked Texas Tech. The Longhorns also lost at home to UCF, which was projected to finish last in the conference.
For reference, the Longhorns only lost one home game in the entirety of the 2022-2023 season that culminated in an Elite Eight run.
“What’s really critical in the Big 12 is that you’ve got to win your home games because you know how hard it is on the road to win games,” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said after the Iowa State loss.
Texas has another chance on Saturday afternoon against West Virginia to bolster its home record, but it may not be an easy task.
The Longhorns faced the Mountaineers on Jan. 13 and fell 76-73, breaking a four-game winning streak in Morgantown. Thirty-two points from guard Max Abmas and 18 points from forward Dylan Disu were not enough to overcome 22 Texas turnovers.
West Virginia forward Patrick Suemnick powered his team over Texas in a balanced offensive effort, with four Mountaineers scoring in the doubledigits. Abmas and Disu were the only Longhorns to score more than 10 points.
Even though West Virginia has already beaten Texas once this year, the Mountaineers are also 0-4 in Big 12 road games this year.
“I think we just need to be locked into the scouting report,” Disu said on Tuesday. “I think at TCU we started slow as well and scoring four points doesn’t help either. We can’t let our defense dictate our offense.”
With only eight games left in the regular season, four of which are at home, there is little room left for upset losses in terms of building a tournament resume. And Texas has even tougher road games ahead in Houston, Baylor and Kansas.
“Tournament basketball is (when) you can’t waste 20 minutes and start learning to play like your season is ending right now and with that kind of urgency,” Terry said. “We still gotta continue to work on that. We’ll continue to grow. And the one thing I will say about this team is that it still has the ceiling to continue to get better.”