Disu’s double-double lifts Longhorns past Cowboys
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Last season wasn’t the glorious homecoming Dylan Disu dreamed of when he decided to transfer from Vanderbilt in April of 2021.
The long and lean big man from Pflugerville had seen his breakout sophomore season at Vandy cut short by a seasonending left knee injury that February. And while there were flashes of the stretchy 6-9 forward who was averaging 15 points and nine rebounds presurgery, Disu often felt like a stranger in a body that still wasn’t quite right while figuring out how exactly he fit in at Texas.
Disu barely played down the stretch of the 2021-22 campaign, spending the bulk of those games nailed to the bench despite the Longhorns’ dire need for size and rebounding. A year later, and Texas couldn’t imagine letting its senior big man collect dust on the sideline.
Disu collected his first double-double of the season Thursday night, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds to help lead No. 2 seed Texas to a 61-47 win over No. 7 seed Oklahoma State in the Big 12 men’s tournament quarterfinals at the T-mobile Center. Texas (24-8) was set to play No. 6 seed TCU on Friday night in the semifinals.
“I think he’s had a stellar year,” interim coach Rodney Terry said of Disu. “I really do. I think his confidence has been extremely high. I think early in the Big 12 play, he was a really good rim protector for us, one of the best shot-blockers in the league. And then his scoring started coming. It’s all predicated on how much work he’s put in.”
An 11-11 double-double isn’t the stuff of legend. But for Disu, the performance represented a steady year of growth, a sign of so much progress over the span of almost 12 months. All the rehab, all the hours in the cold tub, all the work to reacclimate to his own leggy body was for nights like this.
This was an ugly game. And that might even be an insult to ugly.
Texas shot 37 percent and missed eight straight shots on two separate occasions. The Longhorns were without super senior starting forward Timmy Allen (right lower leg injury), their court general and an indispensable twoway player. So that didn’t help matters.
Still, Texas messed around in the mud with Oklahoma State (18-15) for a little too long in that first half. But the Cowboys stayed stuck in the muck all night.
Oklahoma State shot a hard-to-fathom 27 percent and finished with more turnovers (20) than field goals (14). Senior forward Kalib Boone (11 points, 11 rebounds) led the Cowboys with four made field goals and redshirt senior guard Caleb Asberry (16 points) hit 9 of 11 free throws. Their teammates combined to shoot 20.5 percent from the field.
It was Disu who finally injected some energy amid a lackluster first half.
He shimmied into a turnaround hook shot in the lane to snap a 15-15 tie. On the ensuing possession, he shot-faked from the right elbow, hopstepped around a help defender and finger-rolled a reverse layup. The knee looked strong as steel.
A few minutes later, Disu tossed aside a couple Cowboys, corralled a rebound and threw down a one-handed putback dunk. Texas led by six after that, an edge that would increase to nine by halftime.
“I feel great for sure,” Disu said. “It takes a while with those really big knee injuries. And I had meniscus (surgery) before my freshman year at Vanderbilt. And my first year (at Texas), I just didn’t really feel fully 100 percent. I was just trying to get my legs back under me. This year, I know I feel great. I had a great summer, fall camp. And now I’m having a great season.”
Disu’s played especially well of late. He’s averaging 13.5 points on 60 percent shooting, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and one block over his past four games.
And with Allen expected to sit out and allow his “day-to-day” leg injury time to heal, Disu will remain a focal point for Texas as it hunts for its second Big 12 tournament championship in three years.
“I told him before the game, ‘Be aggressive,’ ” Allen said from the Longhorns’ locker room. “When Dylan Disu is aggressive, we are at our best. If you have to worry about him too, we’re a whole different beast. It’s no surprise. He told me he was going to get after it today, and he did that. He stuck to his word.”