Texas topples No. 11 Kansas in huge home win

AUSTIN, Texas — When his players were 15 minutes late to shootaround today, Texas men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart felt more confident than ever about his team.

Heading into a huge home showdown with No. 11 Kansas, the Longhorns called a players-only meeting that wound up running a bit long, but led to a renewed fire and consistency. Texas then toppled the Jayhawks 73-63 Tuesday night at the Frank Erwin Center.

“Today they were 15 minutes late coming to shootaround because they had a meeting 15 minutes before shootaround and it went over, it went long,” Smart said, “which is fine with me, those guys getting connected.”

Seniors Dylan Osetkowski and Kerwin “Snoop” Roach II paced the ‘Horns (12-9 overall, 4-4 in Big 12 Conference games) to the upset victory, while Jase Febres nailed a few huge three-pointers and Jaxson Hayes kept Kansas (16-5, 5-3 against Big 12 teams) off-balance under the basket. Osetkowski finished with 16 points while Roach had 15, including 6-of-7 free-throw shooting down the stretch, allowing Texas to control the clock to secure the win.

“Coach (Smart) always talks about being the aggressors, being the first team ready, being the team that does more of what goes into winning,” Osetkowski said. “I feel like we did that tonight.”

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Smart was thrilled that his team took it upon themselves to come together before the game, as his staff has been prodding the team to take responsibility on their own shoulders to hold each other accountable.

“Guys of this generation, they don’t wanna step on each others’ toes — they really get along well but they’re so hesitant to go at each other when they need to,” Smart said. “It’s way stronger if they do it on their own, but they need some hand-holding to create that and we’ve had some guys who have taken some steps with that.”

Texas led the game for more than 37 minutes — 37:42 to be exact — while Kansas had the lead for a mere nine seconds in the game’s first minute.

Roach was hot in the first half, and even as his shooting went cold he continued to play with a ferocity that kept Kansas at bay. Even as the Jayhawks got within four points with only 1:52 left to play, Texas never allowed them to make it a back-and-forth game while staying just out front down the stretch.

“It changes our team when (Roach) has that mindset, because he brings a toughness to us that we need,” Smart said, and makes the other guys a little bit sturdier out there.”

With 45 seconds left, Roach missed his only free throw of the night, and that’s when Osetkowski had one of the biggest plays of the game, tipping the offensive rebound back out to Roach, who then stepped up and calmly made both freebies.

“We’ve been down this road before. I’ve been down this road a couple times before,” Roach said. “It’s nothing we cant handle. I feel like we just gotta stay within each other and listen to coach Smart and continue to play the basketball we know how to.”

Kansas coach Bill Self admitted that the size of Texas with Hayes, Osetkowski and Jericho Sims, disrupted what they wanted to do offensively.

“We feel like when we have our defense set it’s hard for teams to score on us,” Osetkowski said, “and we did that early and continued to do that throughout the game.”

There was a pointed effort to play through the guys down low with Kansas starting four guards, and it worked.

“We felt with them playing four guards the majority of the game we could play through D.O. (Osetkowski) a little bit,” Smart said.

Hayes had two big blocks in the first half and was corralled nine rebounds to lead Texas while also limiting Kansas star Dedric Lawson to 4-of-15 shooting and just 13 points.

The ‘Horns had just 12 turnovers in the game, while limiting looking for home run plays that might have taken them out of rhythm — Texas had just two points in transition, a dunk by Hayes with 1:16 left.

“We made a big big emphasis the last couple days in practice of if we don’t get something in the first six, seven seconds let’s run the play we want to run, lets’ get the ball all to the guy we want to get it to.” Smart said.

The loss to the Jayhawks at Kansas earlier this season, when Texas trailed by just two points and had a chance to tie it or even win it at the buzzer, loomed large in the Longhorns’ minds because they failed to execute that final play.

Instead of lingering on that before the game today, they came together and used it as motivation to beat KU this time out.

“I think our guys had a sense of confidence going into this game bc of the way we played up there,” Smart said, “and they had a real hunger because we were down two with eight or nine or 10 secs left with the ball, and we didn’t get a good shot and didn’t finish the game the way we wanted to up there.”

Relying almost exclusively on the pick-and-roll, Texas struggled to find a flow to its offense to start the game yet the Longhorn defense and some timely rebounding kept Texas ahead throughout the first half.

The Longhorns fired away from downtown, putting up more three-pointers than 2s with leading the way. Roach’s three-pointers helped Texas get out to an seven-point lead at one point, 23-16, with Hayes and Osetkowski controlling the boards for Texas.

A couple of misfires and mishandles on offense allowed the Jayhawks to jump back in it minutes before the break, though, as a quick 7-0 run got Kansas within one at 23-22.

Hayes was fouled at the rim and sank two free-throws to give the Longhorns a 26-23 lead, where it stayed until halftime.

Texas now plays at Iowa State Saturday at 2 p.m., then returns home to host Baylor Feb. 6.

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