Season Heats Up for UT Basketball

As an unranked – and overlooked – team in the preseason Top 25 featuring four new starters, the Longhorns are a Manhattan eyelash away from being undefeated as they prepare to embark on a five-week stretch dispersed with iconic programs (North Carolina, Michigan State, Connecticut) and apparent doormats alike.

At 6-1 following Wednesday night’s 76-44 home victory over Lamar, the 19th ranked Longhorns have barreled ahead to a comforting start; one largely achieved by virtue of unforeseen performances that were impressive and admirable on back-to-back nights in New York City against No. 20 Illinois and No. 3 Pittsburgh.

The circumstances surrounding UT’s lone loss – on a theoretically neutral court to the dynamic Pitt Panthers – were weighted against them: their late overtime finish the previous night, and Pittsburgh’s familiarity with Madison Square Garden both combined to reflect that night’s narrow 68-66 loss in a paradoxically uplifting light. Though coaches and players alike are quick to dismiss the notion of “moral victories,” Rick Barnes and company must’ve emerged encouraged by most everything that transpired that night, save the end result.

Pollsters rewarded the team's claim to relevance immediately thereafter, and UT played its first game as a ranked team this season on November 23 against Sam Houston State: a game best known for its 84-50 decision that gave Rick Barnes his 500th career victory (and 298th with UT at that time). It’s important to refrain from sweeping judgment during the season's infancy, however, it’s obvious that the Longhorns have surpassed expectations thus far (and certainly those of the national media), meanwhile dispatching lower-caliber, and lackluster teams Navy (3-6), Louisiana Tech (6-2), Sam Houston State (4-1), and Lamar (4-3) with relative ease. But proving an upset can occur on any given night, the neighboring Rice Owls (3-4) took UT to the brink on Saturday night at the Erwin Center. The Longhorns subsisted heavily on second-half three-pointers (9) while virtually no-showing inside the arc because of Rice’s tenacious zone defense that forced UT into long-distance kick-outs that fortunately paid off, just barely, 62-59.

Last year’s Jekyll and Hyde Longhorns ultimately doomed themselves with atrocious defensive play – ranking 216th of 334 in points allowed at 70 per game at season's end. Rick Barnes has praised his team's effort on defense at consistent intervals this season, and barring the Illinois game where they yielded 84 points in overtime, UT has ably kept everyone else under 70, and at times well below. They’ll need to maintain their defensive energy and execution if Barnes hopes to redeem last year’s erratic season of historic highs and lows. That is, if their free throw shooting doesn’t sink them first.