Well, that escalated quickly.

The Longhorns fell victim to a second-straight loss on Saturday afternoon, turning a ten-point lead in the opening minute of the second half into an epic meltdown that resulted in a fourteen-point road loss. Texas seemed completely lost and overwhelmed as the game careened out of control, the rowdy crowd of 10,000 fueling the Connecticut surge.

So what exactly happened? How did a team that was enjoying a double-digit lead suddenly look like a frightened high school JV team? Fortunately for both this author and my readers, the answers to that question will be short and sweet.

What looked good

There were very few things that looked good on this afternoon. So few things, in fact, that it’s incredibly easy to chalk up this loss and the final nineteen minutes of it to aberrational play that will hopefully never be seen again from a Longhorn team.

Early on, Texas seemed to grasp the simple idea of drive-and-dish that we touched on in the game preview. The Longhorn guards were aware of the defensive presence the Huskies boast inside, and were perfectly content with drawing attention off the dribble and dishing for easy layups or open jumpers. Eight out of the 16 first-half buckets for Texas came off of an assist, with two of the unassisted scores coming on fast breaks.

In addition to occasional uses of dribble penetration, there were a handful of times where the Texas ball movement didn’t seem reminiscent of a high-speed Pong battle around the perimeter. On one particular possession in the second half, Jai Lucas lobbed in an entry pass to Dexter Pittman, who was immediately double-teamed by Lucas’ defender and Pittman’s man. Almost immediately, Big Dex rifled the ball back to a wide-open Lucas. The tiny guard missed his three-pointer, so this won’t go down as even a moral victory in the eyes of the biggest Texas homer. But for one brief moment, Pittman did exactly what he was supposed to with the basketball, and the Longhorns were actually set up to capitalize, although they failed to do so.

Far too often, Dexter brings the ball down low, typically leading to a turnover against the double- or triple-teams. In addition, Texas normally has only the offensively-challenged Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay waiting on Dexter’s side of the court as a kick-out option, which means there is absolutely no three-point threat for the defense to worry about. In this instance, Pittman kept the ball high and recognized the presence of a three-point threat waiting. If Texas could actually have multiple possessions like this in one game, that outside threat might actually open things up inside for the much-maligned big man.

The Longhorn defense looked good in brief stretches, although there was a horrible trend of playing solid defense for 30 seconds before letting a big man make a clean cut for a wide-open backdoor layup. Time and again, Texas would shut down Connecticut with great denial on the perimeter, only to give up the easy, demoralizing bucket. There were far more awful things about the defense on Saturday afternoon, but we’ll get to that in the following segment…

What needed work

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, this game wasn’t in the 8-and-under Little Dribblers league, so things weren’t finished after just 24 minutes. Texas absolutely collapsed in the second half, and that means there will be a lot for Coach Barnes to work on before Wednesday night’s game with Texas Tech.

The most glaring problem for the Longhorns was a complete lack of transition defense. This was one of our keys to the game in yesterday’s preview, and it is the one thing that the UConn offense does exceptionally well. But even with that information being very public knowledge, Texas seemed to have no interest in getting back on defense to turn the game into a half-court battle. The Huskies scored 20 points on fast breaks, including twelve in a 7:30 stretch of the second half where they turned an eight-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

As briefly mentioned earlier, the other big problem for the Texas defense was breakdowns late in the shot clock. Great defensive stands don’t mean a damned thing when you only hold a team for 30 of 35 seconds, and that sort of glaring defensive miscommunication is even worse when it results in the wide-open, point-blank looks that UConn was getting.

In one of our tweets from the game, it was mentioned that you won’t beat many teams who are shooting 55% from the field. While that’s certainly true, the defensive issues mentioned above certainly didn’t help matters. It would take quite an awful team to have a bad shooting night when they are racing down the court for uncontested fast break points and cutting back-door for open layups that Jim Abbott could sink.

The final problem contributing to the Connecticut surge was the Longhorns’ lackadaisical ball control in the second half. Thanks to three Balbay fouls in just fifty seconds, the point guard role was filled down the stretch mostly by Mason and Jai Lucas. While both are serviceable points, they aren’t exactly staunch lockboxes with the basketball, and neither is the man you’d want to lead your team out of a double-digit hole in a hostile road environment. They combined for three turnovers down the stretch, with Jordan Hamilton and Damion James adding four more. Without Balbay on the floor to slow things down, the Longhorns looked absolutely clueless with the basketball.

While Texas was busy coughing it up and helping Connecticut to stretch their lead out to thirteen points, the perpetual free-throw nightmare resurfaced to exacerbate the problem. The Horns missed five consecutive free throws as the Huskies were pulling away, and made just 4-of-10 in the second half. While this Texas team is never going to be a good free throw shooting squad, going 1-of-6 in the most critical stretch of the game is just as bad as three dumb turnovers.

The road ahead

Texas has the good fortune of following up this brutal road trip with a home game against Texas Tech. And while the Red Raiders are vastly improved this season, they are still a much different team away from the confines of United Spirit Arena. A solid, convincing win should help the Longhorns get back on track before a tough home game with the Baylor Bears on Saturday, a squad that has finally added quality defense to its usual array of offensive talents.

Tickets still remain for both games, and judging from the typically flaky nature of Texas fans, neither will likely be a sellout thanks to the current losing streak. But this team deserves fan support, regardless of the results of these two tough road games.

If you want to save a few bucks on tickets and support your hometown team, check out Bevo’s Bargains through the Texas Box Office. Fans can save $2 per ticket for the Tech game by donating three books to the less fortunate, while military, fire, EMS, and police can enjoy the same discount if they order their tickets in advance. Girl Scouts are eligible for the $2 for the Baylor game, and must also order tickets in advance.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more content, as we have more photos to share from this year’s trips and perhaps some notes from the road. On Tuesday, we’ll take a statistical look at the struggles Texas has encountered in its last three games, and discuss how those flaws could be addressed down the stretch.