FIVE QUESTIONS – Texas Basketball (Jan. 17)

After a long period of time when trips to the NCAA tournament seemed as routine as income taxes and nationwide economic growth, the Texas men’s and women’s basketball teams find themselves in a dogfight to make the postseason.

The Texas men – who have played the entire season without sophomore point guard Myck Kabongo and most of it sans injured sophomore forward Jaylen Bond –sit 8-8 overall and winless in Big 12 play after overtime losses to Baylor and West Virginia and a 20-point blowout at the hands of Iowa State. Up next is sixth-ranked Kansas in the Erwin Center Saturday afternoon, so the future is anything but rosy.

Texas coach Rick Barnes has guided the Longhorns to a school-record 13 straight NCAA tournament appearances, but it will take quite a coaching job, and a strong response from his players, to keep that streak intact.

The Longhorns’ women’s team (7-9, 0-5 Big 12) has struggled even more, dropping a team-record seven straight games including a 66-59 loss to Texas Tech on Wednesday night. Up next is 16th-ranked Oklahoma in Norman and Texas has not even played top-ranked Baylor yet.

The UT women will be forced to play the rest of the season without two players who were set to make major contributions this season after senior post Cokie Reed and junior guard Chelsea Bass retired from the team earlier this week for health reasons.

The 2012-13 campaign was never going to be easy for either team, and both have shown flashes of good play. Let’s take a look at five questions (three for the men’s team and two women’s team) as they dive into

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the meat of their conference seasons, with a whole lot on the line and time running out.

1) Is Kabongo absence really that big of a deal for the Texas men’s team?

Yes, but not for the reasons you might think. It’s true that Kabongo (who was suspended by the NCAA for receiving improper benefits and then lying to the NCAA about it) gives Texas a player with true playmaking ability.

Texas really misses Kabongo for his fire and his decision-making on the court and, most of all, for his ability to play lockdown defense.

Without him, the Longhorns, who have never been a high motion offense even with the mercurial point guard, have looked even more stationary than in years past. They just have no one that can create their own shot, and – with talented, but green freshman Javan Felix running the point – Texas is deficient at making the plays when they are needed the most.

2) Can the Horns be excused for their play because of their youth?

You should not buy that for a New York minute, because Barnes sure doesn’t. Yes, Texas has a roster of five sophomores and seven freshmen but the problem is not youth, its leadership.

“We are young, but we’ve played enough games to not use that as an excuse,” Barnes said. “We have enough talent to get it done, but we have to have guys that are going to show up every night. As a coach, you see guys and see what they are but you know what they can be. There is such a fine line to winning and losing.”

3) How can the Texas men’s team right the ship?

Texas has the kind of team that can pull the occasional upset when all cylinders are firing (see the Horns’ stunning 85-67 win over North Carolina as proof) but it lacks toughness and a refuse-to-lose attitude.

“The worst part was looking out and seeing that our opponent just wants the game more than out players do,” Barnes said after his team’s 57-53 overtime loss to West Virginia. “That has happened a few times this year and it comes down to toughness.”

If the Longhorns can keep their heads above water long enough to allow Kabongo to make a difference when he’s eligible to come back on Feb. 13, they could make a final push to get back in the running for a spot on the NCAAs. But with the overall quality of the play in the Big 12, such a scenario seems to be a long shot.

4)Moving onto the Texas women’s team, what have been the problems for the Horns in 2012-13?

There are a lot more than there is space here to list. One thing that has never been in doubt is that the women’ team – with first-year coach Karen Aston at the helm – plays hard every game. But that desire has not been able to translate to wins for the Horns.

Texas is without a true point guard and – with no seniors among the team’s core players – lacks the experience of most of its opponents. Size, even with seven players listed at 6-foot-1 or taller (freshman center Imani McGee-Stafford is 6-foot-7), is also a factor but not as much as strength and savvy.

“We have to look at if we are giving the kind of effort needed to win basketball games this season and I think we are from a defensive standpoint,” Aston said after a Jan. 13 loss at home to 13th ranked Oklahoma State. “At times, we’ve tried to do too much. It looks like selfish play sometimes, but it is just impatience.”

5) And how can the UT women make a run over the final stretch of the season?

Texas has not missed the NCAA tourney since the 2006-07 season, but – because of the hole they dug themselves and the upcoming schedule – finishing conference play at above .500 will be a chore.

The Horns, because of their constant effort, hustle and stick-to-itiveness, have the kind of team that could get on a roll and upset higher seeds in the Big 12 tourney. They will likely have to win that tournament to earn a berth in the NCAAs.

That might be all the Texas women’s team can hope for this season.

“If this was an older team, just the effort wouldn’t have been good enough a long time ago,” Aston said. “The mistakes that are being made are against senior players, and we are really young and haven’t been in some of these situations before. In the moment our players are making mistakes that we hope – in due time – they won’t make.”

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