San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Down 3 players, Horns still cruise
AUSTIN — The home bench inside the Erwin Center looked lonelier than usual Saturday night.
The backdrop of an empty arena — Texas has barred fans from attending the past several home games — made the sparsity even more glaring as the fourthranked Longhorns prepared to face similarly short-handed Kansas State. Both teams carried just eight scholarship players into the contest.
With freshman forward Greg Brown, sophomore forward Kai Jones and junior wing Brock Cunningham all held out due to COVID-19 precautions, Texas coach Shaka Smart had to dig deep into his roster for some new lineup combinations. Junior forward Kamaka Hepa transformed from bench party monster and caffeinated hype man into a starter for the first
time since Feb. 19, 2020 vs. TCU. Senior shooting guard Jase Febres received his first run in nearly a year after undergoing microfracture knee surgery last March.
But the late scratches and roster shuffling didn’t hinder Texas (11-2, 5-1 Big 12) in the slightest as it bounced back from Wednesday’s last-second loss to No. 15 Texas Tech with a dominant wire-towire 82-67 win over Kansas State (5-9, 1-5). And even that 15-point margin of victory didn’t properly illustrate how the Longhorns controlled this matchup.
“Just proud of the guys for responding after a tough few days,” Smart said. “Obviously the loss on Wednesday was devastating and really disappointing for our team and staff. We knew we had to turn the page. And on Friday we find out we’re gonna be without a few guys. But I thought the guys to-night really executed what we were trying to do.”
Hepa played so well that Smart might have to dust him off more
often. The gregarious Alaskan even brought his sideline smack talk to the court after swatting a euro-step layup attempt by Wildcats guard Mike McGuirl. On the ensuing trip downcourt he sank a spot-up 3, one of a career-high five deep balls he hit on the night. Hepa also matched his careerhigh in scoring with 15 points.
“Obviously I was a little bit more excited about tonight just because I was able to be out there with my teammates on the court,” Hepa said. “Just because of my situation and our team situation this year I don’t necessarily get to do that too much, but I enjoy every second of my team and I enjoy embodying my role. It felt really good to just be out there with my teammates playing, playing basketball.”
And Febres looked surprisingly springy for a guy who hadn’t tested his repaired knee in an actual game since Feb. 8, 2020 vs. Texas Tech. He soared for two chase-down blocks in the first half, the second caroming off the rim into the hands of Texas forward Royce Hamm.
Febres also grabbed five rebounds,
handed out three assists and connected on 2-of-6 3s, the first make triggering a Kansas State timeout and prompting a bear hug from teammate Courtney Ramey. That early 3 also happened to arrive near the tail end of an 18-0 first-half run that demoralized the Wildcats after they tied the contest at 12-12 seven minutes in.
Texas kept its foot down even after building a 20-point halftime lead. And the destruction it wreaked on Kansas Stat was about as egalitarian as it gets.
Redshirt junior guard Andrew Jones, senior big Jericho Sims and Ramey did the bulk of the scoring in the first half, combining for 33 of the Longhorns’ 44 points. But every single available Longhorn made at least one field goal, four scored at least 14 points and five of the eight reached eight points. Jones paced all scorers with 19 points, narrowly missing his fourth 20-point performance of the season.
“Just want our guys to share with each other and really feel good about each other’s success,” Smart said. “I think our guards,
Matt (Coleman), Courtney and Andrew really set a tone with that.”
The rout got so bad that Texas transitioned into playground mode as its second-half lead climbed toward 28 points. One fastbreak featured Ramey lobbing a pass off the glass to Sims, who hammered a dunk with enough force to rattle the backboard.
Ramey finished with 14 points and a game-high nine assists. Sims recorded 14 points and seven rebounds in just 24 minutes of action.
As electric as the offense was, Texas truly commanded this game with its defensive effort and commitment to team rebounding. Even without Brown (8.0 rebounds per game), K. Jones (4.8) and Cunningham (3.4), the Longhorns matched Kansas State on the glass, 34-34, and had a 12-9 advantage in second-chance points.
At one point Texas forced the Wildcats into 10 consecutive misses from the field, a brutal five and a half minute stretch that the visitors never recovered from. The Wildcats shot just 43.1 percent from the field and committed 14 turnovers.
It was the sort of defensive effort Smart had grown accustomed to seeing from his team, which entered the game allowing 88.7 points per 100 possessions, the fifth-best mark in the nation. And to do it without three of their top four frontcourt defenders was encouraging.
After spending all week in Austin, Texas will hit the road for its next two matchups. The Longhorns play at Iowa State on Jan. 20 and at TCU on Jan. 23.