By Riley Zayas
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas men’s basketball team lost its last two games, each against a ranked opponent, but the reaction after each game could not have been more different.
Against their highest-ranked opponent of the season, the Longhorns held their ground at home, falling to No. 6 Kansas, 66-57, Saturday afternoon, but then got run out of Morgantown, W.Va., 97-59, by No. 14/15 West Virginia.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier, even when[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] it doesn’t come with conference play implications. The LSU Tigers will roll into town to face UT at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Frank Erwin Center in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN. The Tigers are battle-tested and ready after six games of SEC play, including Wednesday’s 84-82 win over Florida. With a 14-4 record, the Tigers have been able to come back strong, fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA tournament last March, despite losing four starters.
One of those four starters that was lost was All-SEC guard Tremont Waters, who averaged 15.3 points per game for the Tigers last season. Players of his caliber always are tough to replace, but the Tigers are playing well, thanks in large part to guard Skylar Mays (team-high 16.1 points per game) and forward Darius Days (a team-high 8.1 rebounds per game), each of whom has started every game for head coach Will Wade this season. In addition to his scoring, Mays also has made a significant impact on the defensive end, with a team-high 34 steals. Days is arguably LSU’s top post player, pulling down a team-leading 8.1 rebounds per game and scoring 11.8 points per game, thanks to a 50.3 shooting percentage on field gaols.
This is just one of the 10 games in this year’s edition of the Big 12/SEC challenge, an annual college hoops event in which all 10 teams from the Big 12 play 10 teams from the Southeastern Conference. This year’s challenge is the seventh in the history of the event, and has been the model for other conference challenges, such as the Big 12/Big East challenge, held for the first time earlier this season. Texas was one of the participating teams, losing Dec. 21 to Providence.
When asked about his team’s play against Kansas, Texas head coach Shaka Smart spoke of something he has mentioned on more than a few occasions in the past weeks: the players “driving” who they want to be.
“I really thought (in) our last two games, our guys drove who they wanted to be,” said Smart. “That was a really positive step we wanted to build on today [against Kansas]. We had that same identity in the first half, but we didn’t have it in the second half. That’s when it matters most.”
That’s when it matters most indeed. Against LSU, closing the game well can be the difference in winning or losing, and a major point of emphasis for the Horns this week.
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