AUSTIN — Ahead of the biggest home game of the season, Texas is getting tired of talking.
The Longhorns, who keep finding themselves on the wrong side of extremely tight games, are ready for all the lessons from close losses to turn into real-life victories on the court.
It’s time for the talk to turn into on-court reality.
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
“We definitely think that we’re one of the best teams in the country, it’s just about showing it,” sophomore Jase Febres said. “You can say it all you want but if you’re not producing it, it’s just talk.”
Coming off a two-point loss to No. 7 Kansas, and a six-point loss to No. 8 Texas Tech, the Texas Men’s Basketball team (10-7, 2-3 in Big 12) takes on Big 12 Conference rival and 20th-ranked Oklahoma (13-4, 2-3) Saturday at 7 pm. at the Erwin Center looking to rebound and prove they are right with their fellow top-ranked Big 12 teams.
“When a game is close throughout each possession takes on unbelievable significance,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “You certainly don’t wanna play with avoidance, to not make a mistake, but there’s a ton of low-hanging fruit for certain guys on our team individually and our team as a whole, to grab ahold of that affects the outcome of those close games.”
Growing Pains Need to Become Growth Spurt
The growing pains have been evident to the team and its fanbase, both last season and this year. Yet the growth spurt from the hurt of those close losses is drawing to a close according to the senior forward Dylan Osetkowski.
“I think the biggest thing is continuing to realize that we’re right there and it’s just two, three possessions, little details throughout the game that we just need to clean up, need to tighten up,” Osetkowski said. “I think once we do that things will start to take care of themselves.”
The Sooners come into Austin having suffered a similar fate so far, standing at 2-3 in Big 12 play just like the Longhorns. Oklahoma had a surprising loss to Kansas State Wednesday, losing 74-61, with seven-point losses to Texas Tech and Kansas on their docket as well.
Halting the scoring droughts during games, and not letting the little things linger on will be vital if Texas is to top its rival and improve to 3-3 while sending OU to a 2-4 Big 12 mark.
The ‘Horns, despite the rough patch and close losses, look to games like the three-point win over No. 13 North Carolina earlier this season as the model of how they can compete with anyone and eventually, stand with the giants during March Madness.
“We kind of knew from the North Carolina game we can compete with anybody,” Febres said. “And we showed it again. It’s like I was saying we have little mishaps and go on little droughts we can’t go on when playing these Big 12 teams. And if we didn’t have that we could’ve won the game by five, six points.”
Defense Crucial to Ending Droughts
Asked if the droughts that have plagued the ‘Horns during games this season are avoidable, or at least correctable before they start to mount, Febres pointed to the defense as the answer to snapping out of it during a game.
Texas’ three Big 12 losses have come by a total of only 11 points, and are just 2-4 in contests determined by three points of less.
“I think it also goes into getting stops on the defensive end because we’ll go on those droughts and then the other team will go on a 8-0 run, things like that,” he said. “If we stop people on defense I think that will jumpstart our offense.”
Osetkowski agreed that the little things, especially on defense, can be cleaned up and the time is now to prove that on the court.
“I think just staying disciplined to what we preach every day, to what we do, come game time — it’s easy to let little things slip up (during games),” he said. “It’s the small area of growth we can take to really make that next jump to being one of the better defensive teams in the conference, even in the country.”
The Longhorns took both games from Oklahoma last season, and with the Sooners coming off their disappointing loss to the Wildcats earlier this week, Smart knows Texas will get their rivals best shot so they better be prepared for it.
“One thing with players nowadays, they know everybody makes mistakes, but they also know that to go and win a game they know it takes X, Y and Z — our guys understand that from the Kansas game,” Smart said. “Now its a matter of going and executing it going forward, and
we need our older players to lead the way with that.”
Fans entering the game Saturday have a chance to snag a “Ball The Livelong Day” shirt, as worn by Febres above, by being one of the first 1,500 people through the gates. Furthermore, there are opportunities to take photos with the Sugar Bowl Championship trophy along numerous other pregame activities.
The Texas Women’s Basketball team is slated to play TCU at 1 p.m. at the Erwin Center, giving Texas fans the rare chance at a hoops doubleheader.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.