Texas basketball securing blowouts while Longhorns fans stay focused on College Football Playoffs
Big wins over Chicago State are nice, but what is Texas learning about itself in the process?
There is one benefit to playing mediocre teams. It’s basically a controlled scrimmage where it’s darn near impossible for Texas to lose. Makes for a perfect laboratory.
There’s not much substance one can squeeze out of a 105-58 win against overmatched Chicago State.
Texas fans will be excused Tuesday night if they turned away from Moody Center to watch, consume and dissect the latest College Football Playoff rankings. It's totally understandable.
Meanwhile, the Longhorns shot 57% and five players finished in double figures as they improved to 2-1. For the third straight game, Tre Johnson led the team in scoring with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including four 3-pointers.
“I thought we started the game with the right mindset,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “We’re still right now trying to build our identity.”
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The Ohio State loss in the season opener knocked Texas completely out of the top 25. OK, so what needs to be fixed? Can these low-level non-conference foes really provide any serious pushback for Terry and his coaching staff to make any real determinations?
Texas beat up Houston Christian last Friday and won by 31. This was a 47-point blowout. Saturday’s game against Mississippi Valley State is only for the true diehards. That team is 364th out of 364 Division I teams, as determined by Kenpom.
Houston Christian was No. 358. Chicago State was No. 342. Delaware State, Texas’ opponent on Nov. 29, is No. 344. Frankly, these aren’t the type of opponents a program like Texas should be playing.
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Texas has the upcoming Legends Classic — games against Syracuse and Saint Joseph’s or Texas Tech — sandwiched in there to mix in some greenery with all this processed food.
So for now, Terry spends time working on what he knows needs fixing, like perimeter defense and transition defense. Ohio State killed Texas with 14 3-pointers. Houston Christian hit 10 as well. Chicago State was 8-for-26 from 3-point range.
“We're still working really hard on our shooting defense. I mean, we're working at it with drills every day,” Terry said. The coach acknowledged that Chicago State “threw in a couple late,” but Texas players did a good job getting their hands up on defensive switches “having a hand up and taking it personal.”
Forward Ze’Rik Onyema had one of his best games as a Longhorn with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting. The senior started his career at UTEP and played as a reserve last season at UT. Getting him solid minutes as a backup to Kadin Shedrick (12 points) will be beneficial.
Arthur Kaluma had 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists, numbers along the lines of what coaches expected when he transferred from Kansas State.
And Johnson continues to look like a superstar. The McDonald’s All-American broke the school record for a freshman debut with 29 points against Ohio State. He pumped in 28 more against Houston Christian to clinch SEC freshman of the week honors.
It’ll quickly reach a point where his big scoring performances are almost secondary to the team’s nightly storyline.
Texas fans are too busy watching football to worry about basketball right now. That’ll change in December. That’s when the schedule gets more interesting, too.
“We work on our defense every single day,” Terry said. “But we’ll get a chance to have a day off (Wednesday). Guys get some recovery. They will get chance get caught up academically, get some things done from an academic standpoint, and then we’ll come back to start up on Mississippi Valley on Thursday.”
