Heavy mettle

Despite loss, Texas will be dangerous in March

STILLWATER, Okla. -- Taking a quick glance at the box score, one might have assumed it was a glorious day for the Texas Longhorns.

T.J. Ford: A career-high 32 points on 15-of-19 free throws. James Thomas: 21 points and 17 rebounds. Brandon Mouton: 19 points on 3-of-4 3-pointers.

Problem was, the rest of the team combined for five points. Five.

For No. 3 Texas (18-5, 9-3), known for being one of the nation’s deepest squads, it was a particularly baffling event, one that left coach Rick Barnes searching for answers following an 82-77 loss Saturday to No. 16 Oklahoma State (20-5, 9-3). While pleased with an admirable second-half comeback on the road at thunderously loud Gallagher-Iba Arena, the loss couldn’t have come at a worse time in the Longhorns’ still semi-realistic hopes of a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed and now-fading quest for the Big 12 regular-season title.

“You can develop some bad habits this time of year, and that’s what bothers me right now,” said Barnes. “We didn’t do some things we normally do well, for whatever reason, and I’ve got to find out why.”

Over the course of these increasingly long regular seasons, it’s easy to say one game means no more or less than the last one or the one to come. Not this time of year. The lofty goals elite teams like Texas have been working toward are too close to fruition to be taking games off.

Saturday, Ford subtly accused some of his teammates of doing just that in the first half, a 47-33 debacle that marked the Horns’ worst 20 minutes of the season by far.

It didn’t help that the Cowboys, losers in four of their previous six contests, came out unconscious, with Victor Williams and Melvin Sanders hitting on a combined 9-of-11 3-pointers before intermission. But the Horns hurt themselves as well, missing free throws, losing rebounding battles and turning the ball over nine times.

“I don’t think that you can spot a team the way we did in the first half by just letting Oklahoma State do whatever they wanted to do,” said Barnes. “Truth is, if we would have won the game I am not sure that it would have done us any good, because if we are going to come out and play with that kind of attitude and effort in the first half, it sends a bad signal.”

In near-remarkable fashion, Texas did almost win the game, gradually chipping away at the deficit despite five players picking up at least four fouls and no production whatsoever from its bench, pulling to within 70-69 with 3:31 left.

In perhaps the gutsiest performance yet in a two-year career full of them, Ford tried his best to will his team to victory, hanging in the air to hit difficult shots, bearing repeated hard fouls. Combined with Thomas’ absolute dominance inside -- grabbing 12 second-half rebounds and causing OSU’s top three big men to foul out -- the Longhorns in the second half looked very much like the championship-caliber team it has all season.

So the question becomes, what do the Longhorns take from this game? Do they chalk up the first half as a largely understandable fluke based on the atmosphere and the opponent and focus instead on their admirable second half? Or does this signal trouble ahead for a team that had previously suffered road defeats at Arizona, Kansas and Colorado?

The answer should be the former.

Fact is, with the exception of the two teams currently ranked ahead of the Horns (Arizona and Kentucky), no team has found consistent success on the road this season. If anything, Texas’ 3-4 road record is respectable, considering this loss, as well as the Arizona and Kansas ones, have all gone right down to the wire.

Nothing is a better indicator of possible postseason success than toughness on the road, where, like Saturday, often everything that can go wrong does. And what makes the Horns so tough is the three players that nearly carried them back in this one.

There was one junction Saturday with about 13 minutes remaining when Texas was still down double-digits and, following a series of unfavorable calls for the home team, the crowd was as loud as it would be all night. Ford, waiting for the officials to sort things out, stopped to take a look around the place, glanced down at press row and flashed his trademark smile.

It was typical Ford, college basketball’s most unflappable player if not its best. The kind of leadership he provided down the stretch most teams would kill for.

Thomas has become a certifiable beast, as dominant under the glass as any peer in the country, which when combined with Ford makes for one nasty inside-outside combo.

And Mouton is the X-factor, the guy who can bury you with a 3-pointer just when your defense had become consumed with Ford and Thomas.

The three of them on their own are capable of taking a top 20 team to the wire on the road.

When, under normal circumstances, they’re actually helped by the seven other players who average at least 12 minutes …

“We’re as good as anybody in the country,” said Barnes. “On any given night we can play anybody in the country when we get the kind of effort we’re capable of getting. And I think our team knows that. This team has worked too hard and has too much going for it.”

With all due respect to Oklahoma State … agreed.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com

 

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