Seeking massive rebound, Texas men’s basketball hosts LSU

By Colby Gordon

Texas coach Shaka Smart threw around terms like “passion” and “pride” on a regular basis Friday during his weekly press conference, the first since the Longhorns’ disaster of a performance during a 97-59 loss Monday at West Virginia.

A loss on the road to the Mountaineers isn’t a big concern, but the way it played out, with Texas non-competitive after the first 10 minutes and at times showing a lack of hustle, is.

“When you go through a game like that, [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]it’s flat-out embarrassing,” Smart said. “We were really disappointed coming off (Saturday’s loss to Kansas). When you have a game like that, you have to handle the quick turnaround better than we did. It’s up to us to learn from that.”

One play that best summed up the WVU game — and made the rounds on social media — came midway through the second half with Texas trailing, 77-36. A loose ball thrown toward UT’s basket was run down by West Virginia’s Oscar Tshiebwe and eventually dunked while three Longhorns basically just stood for the majority of the play and watched.

“We don’t have a guy that can say, ‘I did everything I can do,’ (for the West Virginia game),” Smart said. “It’s a game where we have to be self-reflective and say, ‘How can we help each other?’ The way to process that game is to look in the mirror — all of us, coaches and players — and say, ‘What can we do better?’”

The Longhorns (12-6 overall, 2-4 in against Big 12 opponents) have three winnable games coming up with home dates against LSU — the home game against the Tigers will be especially tough — and Iowa State sandwiching a road game at TCU before making the return trip to KU.

Smart said practices this week have been intense and that players are looking forward to getting back on the floor Saturday against an LSU team that is currently in first place in the SEC with an undefeated 6-0 conference record.

“It’s human nature when you go through a game like that to look at someone else (to blame),” Smart said. “Our emphasis to our guys is that whether we win or lose, we do it together. We look at, individually, what we can do better instead of pointing the finger at somebody else. Our guys have had an urgency and excitement (this week) of being better.”

Texas will be shorthanded Saturday in the frontcourt with Gerald Liddell out indefinitely due to a back injury and Kamaka Hepa questionable. Those absences put an extra load on Kai Jones, Royce Hamm Jr. and Will Baker to help Jericho Sims in the post.

“It’s been said to them (that they have additional pressure),” Smart said. “We’ve challenged our big men to step forward. LSU has really good, versatile guys at those spots. For our guys, it’s about focusing on us and having a passion for rebounding, running the floor and defending the way we need to defend.”

Texas enters the weekend ranked 70th in the country, according to the highly respected analytics site kenpom.com, and outside of the NCAA Tournament. While are still plenty of plenty of games to be played and time in which to improve, the Longhorns need to start winning their share of games, and sooner than later.

“We’ve told our guys to stay focus and locked-in on what’s inside of our team,” Smart said. “When you get in a tough stretch like we just had, it’s easy to get caught up in different things. The one word we’ve used with our guys is ‘passion.’ It’s about having passion on the current possession. If we’re on defense, it’s about stopping the other team, and if it’s offense, it’s about working together to create a basket.”
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