Men’s Hoops: Defending the three should prove key for Horns

Back-to-back losses to open Big 12 play have taken some of the shine off the Texas men’s basketball team’s successful start to the 2013-14 season.

After an 11-2 run through their non-conference slate,  [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] the Longhorns have dropped their first two conference games against their Oklahoma rivals. Last weekend the Sooners won a see-saw affair at the Erwin Center 88-85. Wednesday in Stillwater, Oklahoma State dominated the second half in an 87-74 win.

The losses put Texas behind the proverbial 8-ball early in the conference season. Most prognosticators feel that a Big 12 team with 20 regular season wins and a .500-record or better in conference play would earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Longhorns accomplished neither last season and had high hopes that they were on the right track entering conference play.

Back-to-back conference losses don’t mean the Longhorns can’t get there, but the path is decidedly uphill in a conference that ranks as the nation’s toughest from top-to-bottom so far. Looking at the first half of the conference schedule, Texas would likely be a favorite to win just twice in its next seven games. The Horns host Texas Tech (0-2, 8-7) before facing a gauntlet that includes (at) West Virginia (2-0, 10-5), seventh-ranked Iowa State (2-0, 14-0), 25^th ranked Kansas State (2-0, 12-3), at ninth-ranked Baylor (0-1, 12-2) and 20^th-ranked Kansas (1-0, 10-4) before wrapping up the first half at TCU (0-2, 9-5).

For Texas to regain its early momentum and climb back into NCAA at-large (and conference title) contention, the defense must improve. Despite losing the top five scorers off last year’s disappointing team, Texas’ offense has been effective. The Longhorns average 78.5 points per game, up 15 points per game over last year. The average makes this team the fourth-highest scoring offense in Rick Barnes’ Texas tenure.

Defensively, though, the Longhorns have struggled. Opponents are scoring 71.9 points per game, third highest in the Barnes era and most since the 2006-07 season. In 15 games, six opponents have scored more than 80 points, including four of the last five (Texas lost three of those four games). By contrast, Texas allowed 80 points just seven times in each of the last two seasons and five times in 2010-11.

This season opponents are shooting better against Texas overall (39.9 percent) than last season (38.4 percent) and markedly better from three-point range (35.7 percent, up from 29.1 percent last season). In fact, Barnes’ Texas teams have only allowed a higher three-point percentage twice, in 2006-07 (36.0) and 2001-02 (36.6).

While Oklahoma State dominated Texas from the foul line Wednesday night – the Cowboys made 35 of 51 attempts while Texas attempted just 23 and made 15, Oklahoma won from the three-point line. The Sooners made 10 of 16 from deep in the first half and finished with 13 three-pointers for the game.

But Oklahoma hasn’t been the only team to have its way shooting three pointers against Texas. On the season opponents are making 7.9 threes per game, second highest Texas has allowed under Barnes. Mercer, South Alabama, Stephen F. Austin, BYU, Texas-Arlington and North Carolina each made at least nine threes. Four of those team enjoyed their most prolific three-point shooting games against Texas. All seven of those opponents made more threes against Texas than their per-game average. Only UTA was close. The Mavericks average 8.9 threes per game. North Carolina may be the most reluctant Division I team to shoot threes, but the nine the Tar Heels made against Texas tripled their season average.

Only UTA and Mercer – both of which hit 33 percent of their threes against Texas – didn’t shoot a higher percentage against Texas when compared to their season averages. BYU (10-12, 83 percent), SFA (11-24, 46 percent), UNC (9-19, 47 percent) and OU (46 percent) all surpassed their seasonal marks considerably. None shoot better than 38 percent (OU) from three point range on the season.

Following the loss to Oklahoma, Barnes said threes weren’t killing the Horns. That loss, he said, came down to rebounding – Oklahoma surprisingly outrebounded Texas 39-28, including 17 on the offensive end.

“People will look at them making threes, but we made threes,” Barnes said, “…but it goes back to rebounding. We had two post players that had one rebound between them. That can’t happen.”

True, Texas can’t afford to get outrebounded, but not allowing teams their way on the three point line should rank just as high on the priority list. Freshman guard Damarcus Croaker said as much after the Oklahoma game.

“Perimeter defense is something that we have to work on,” he said. “[OU is] a good three-point shooting team and we have to get better at perimeter defense.”

 

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What do you think will be key for the Longhorn basketball team as it continues conference play?

#HookEm