The preseason favorites to compete for the Big 12 men’s basketball title will meet for the first time Saturday, and to no one’s surprise, both Kansas and Texas are in the thick of the conference title race.
Kansas will enter the game as the higher ranked team. The Jayhawks rank 14th in the USA Today coaches’ poll and 11th in the Associated Press poll. Texas ranks 18th and 17th, respectively. Kansas, 15-3 overall, sits atop the conference standings after five games, tied with Iowa State at 4-1. Texas sits a game back at 3-2, 14-4 overall.
Both teams will take the Erwin Center floor Saturday afternoon having reclaimed some momentum after enduring some rough stretches of play. Like Texas, Kansas suffered a non-conference defeat against top-ranked Kentucky in which it[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] scored just 12 points after halftime. Kansas also shook off a Saturday night defeat at Iowa State by holding off Oklahoma Monday night in Lawrence, as Tom Keegan wrote in the Lawrence Journal World.
Texas seems to have rediscovered its purpose – and its size. In wins over West Virginia and TCU, the Longhorns focused their offense around post players Cameron Ridley, Myles Turner and Jonathan Holmes.
The Texas trio had struggled mightily in a recent two-game swoon that saw Oklahoma and Oklahoma State post double-digit wins over the once-highly ranked Longhorns. In a listless 70-49 defeat against the Sooners, Holmes, Ridley and Turner combined for just 11 points on 5-of-22 shooting. At Oklahoma State two days later, Texas showed more fight but not enough, falling 69-58. Turner shook free from his slump to score 18 points, including a 4-for-4 performance beyond the arc, but Holmes and Ridley combined for just three points.
With a week between the Oklahoma State loss and last Saturday’s date with then-16th ranked West Virginia, Texas got back to basics through a series of grueling workouts with head coach Rick Barnes, wrote Brian Davis for the Austin American-Statesman.
“The team that showed up Saturday was the same team Texas fans saw in November and early December.” Davis wrote. “The Horns held the Mountaineers to 24.1 percent shooting, scored 21 points off 17 West Virginia turnovers and had three players finish in double figures.”
More than the defensive effort – which held preseason conference player of the year favorite Juwan Staten to just three points, the Longhorns remembered that they are the biggest team in the conference and possibly the biggest team in the country outside of Lexington, Ky. Playing through Ridley – his first two baskets were thunderous dunks – and consistently putting the ball inside, Texas simply bludgeoned the undersized Mountaineers 77-50, wrote Cedric Golden.
Ridley wasn’t a one-man show. His 19 points led the Horns, but Texas’ inside dominance – and use of that dominance – stood out. Holmes and Turner added 16 points each. Even Prince Ibeh got into the act with a pair of high-reaching dunks.
Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said Texas did what it wanted to in the win, wrote the AP’s Jim Vertuno in the Greenwich Time.
In all, Texas got 56 points from those four players, a trend that continued Monday at TCU, when the biggest three combined for 30 more points. TCU concentrated on them, which allowed guards Isaiah Taylor and Javan Felix to combine for 28 points on 12-of-23 shooting in a 66-48 win.
In addition to utilizing its size on offense, Texas has all but scrapped its man-to-man defense and relied on a long zone with outside pressure to stifle both West Virginia and TCU, playing it exclusively for both games. The Frogs and Mountaineers combined to shoot 29 percent from the floor and 24 percent beyond the arc. In the losses to OU and OSU, Texas allowed a combined 44 percent from the field and 48 percent from three point range.
“I know this: It’s got to be the first time in 17 years that we’ve played 80 minutes of zone,” said Barnes said after the TCU game.
As Chris Hummer writes for 24.7 sports, success starts with Texas’ size.
On Saturday Kansas might not be able to match the Longhorns’ size inside, but the 10-time defending conference champions offer size on the perimeter in shooters Wayne Selden (6-foot-5), Brannen Greene (6-7) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (6-7). While the Longhorns have plenty of size on the inside, the three main guards – Felix (5-11), Taylor (6-1) and Demarcus Holland (6-2) are considerably shorter than their Jayhawk counterparts. That match-up will be key in determining Saturday’s outcome.
Last year’s 81-69 Texas win snapped Kansas’ three-game series winning streak in Austin. Prior to last year’s win, Texas hadn’t beaten Kansas in Austin since Feb. 11, 2008, when Connor Atchley scored 16 points on perfect 6-of-6 shooting and Damion James and A.J. Abrams scored 14 each in a 72-69 win.
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