The week ahead for Texas men’s basketball

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — Mid-majors have the potential to rock the nation, specially when they play programs from Power 5 conferences at home. That happened twice in the month of November, with Kentucky falling to Evansville and Duke losing to Stephen F. Austin.

When UAB rolls into town to take on the Longhorns Tuesday, Texas head coach Shaka Smart can’t let his team [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]fall into a similar trap, not with momentum and a 6-1 record on their side. The Longhorns’ start in 2019 has been one of the best for a men’s team on the Forty Acres in a long time, and with more non-conference games looming large in the weeks ahead, earning wins over UAB Tuesday and Sunday against Texas A&M will be huge in keeping this squad in consistent and fluid rhythm in this last month before conference play.

Defense and ballhandling are key aspects of the gameplan for the UAB Blazers, who are led by fourth-year head coach Robert Ehsan. UAB opponents have scored an average of just 60.2 points per game — the Blazers’ scoring defense ranks No. 30 in the country — even against teams like Troy and No. 9 Kentucky. The Blazers also have 37 steals and converted those turnovers into points, averaging 14.2 points per game solely off of takeaways.

Offensively, the Blazers like to run a three-guard set, which leads to extensive passing around the perimeter and then working inside to one of the big men in the paint. One of those low-post players on whom to keep an eye will be center Makhtar Gueye, who has scored 37 points for the Blazers through six games (6.2 per game) and brought down a team-leading 37 rebounds (6.2 per game).

On paper, the Horns could roll to an easy victory, but UAB won’t be making too many mistakes that could bail the Horns out if they find themselves in a hole.

Following that home contest, Texas will head up IH-35 to Fort Worth to face their Lone Star state rivals, Texas A&M, in a Sunday afternoon rematch (that will be televised on ABC) of the 2017 game between the two, which Texas won, 73-69. This rivalry might be over in football, but in basketball, it still is very much alive.

Just seven games into the season, the Aggies find themselves in a rut. With a 3-4 record, their most recent game was a frustrating 67-62 loss to Fairfield (Connecticut) in the Orlando Invitational. However, the Aggies still possess enough talent to challenge and perhaps even beat Texas. It will just be a matter of their mentality and confidence that will dictate which Aggie basketball team steps on to the floor Sunday.

Running the squad for the first time is head coach Buzz Williams, who seeks to rebuild the basketball program in College Station with a sharp attention to detail and great play from backcourt. Without guard T.J. Starks, who this week announced his intention to transfer after being suspended from the A&M team in November, Williams will be relying heavily on junior Savion Flagg to pick up the slack in the three-point shooting game. One area in which the Aggies really have excelled this season is picking up points off turnovers — similar to UAB.

Averaging 15.6 points per game directly from takeaways, the Aggies can capitalize on miscues very quickly. But if the Longhorns can hold on to it, like Farifield did Sunday (just 15 turnovers) they should be able to win on offense alone.

For Smart and his team, it always is about focusing on the present, not getting ahead of themselves and looking too far into the future. That state of mind has helped them take things game by game and will continue to, heading into this week’s slate of games.

“Our team’s at its best when we completely lose ourselves in the fight,” Smart said Thanksgiving week. “So focusing on the present moment, what’s important now, focusing on our teammates, making the guy next to you better through your energy and focusing on the present challenge, those are the ways you can lose yourself in the fight.”
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