Home games against mid-major opponents haven’t been that enjoyable for Texas or its fans in recent weeks. Against Rice, the Longhorns barely escaped with a three-point victory. Days later, a 21-point win over Lamar was marred by sloppy, uninspired basketball. This afternoon, Texas finally did what it was supposed to do against an overmatched opponent, dispatching Texas State with ease.

At first, it seemed like the Longhorns still hadn’t recovered from the beating USC laid on them just six days earlier. Texas allowed Texas State far too many easy looks out of the gate, and the Bobcats made their first five shots en route to an early 10-9 lead. The Longhorns were struggling against the zone as well, taking three of their first four shots from behind the arc, while making just one of them.

The struggles were short-lived, however, as the Horns surged past the Bobcats and never looked back. Texas State managed to stay within three points of Texas for the first 13 minutes of the game, but that was as close as they would get. A 16-4 run closed out the half for the Longhorns, who put on a scoring clinic throughout the final 20 minutes. All three Texas walk-ons even managed to see action in the final two minutes, with Andy Dick‘s runner pushing the Horns over the century mark for a 101-65 win.

What looked good

The offensive outburst for Texas was fueled by a bevy of three-pointers. The Longhorns were 11-for-19 from behind the arc, and the success was a result of smart, patient basketball. The Longhorns moved the ball around well, kicked it out when driving lanes were cut off, and didn’t force up bad shots.

Many times this season, Texas players have dribbled the air out of the ball before taking bad shots — particularly from behind the arc — and wasting possessions. This afternoon, the only long-range bombs coming off the dribble were a result of good ball screens to free up Cory Joseph and J’Covan Brown. In fact, the only “bad” look from behind the arc was one that Brown was forced to put up just before the shot clock expired.

In addition to taking and making open threes, the Longhorns destroyed the Texas State zone with the help of Gary Johnson‘s midrange game. He made a handful of jumpers throughout the first half and headed to the locker room as the team’s top scorer with ten points. His ability to find soft spots in the middle of the zone and then calmly knock down those jumpers is going to be important this season as teams try to test the Texas shooters with the 2-3 look. It’s also worth noting that Johnson added nine boards to his 14 points, including some scrappy work on the offensive glass when Texas was struggling in the early minutes of the game.

The win also marked yet another career-high for the freshman Joseph, who chipped in 19 on 7-of-11 shooting, including an eye-popping 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Cory started off the year slowly, averaging just over six points per game through the first four contests. It was clear that he wasn’t quite comfortable enough to embrace the scoring-point role that people had hyped for him coming out of high school. But Joseph has quickly adjusted to the college game and his role with this team, as he’s doubled his scoring average to 12.8 over the last five games.

Perhaps lost amidst the three-point barrage was the fact that Jordan Hamilton quietly had one of his best games of the year. He may not have led the team with a 20-plus point performance, but he played great team basketball across the board. Hamilton did manage to score 16 points on the afternoon, but also grabbed 10 boards and dished out five assists. He took the open three when it presented itself, but often he was attacking off the dribble from the wings, forcing the Texas State defense to react. When it didn’t lead to good looks at the rim, Hamilton was able to quickly shovel it to waiting teammates in the paint and on the blocks. If Jordan can play this unselfishly throughout the year, the Longhorns will be a better team.

What needed work

On defense, the Longhorns had a glaring weakness in the post. It was far too easy for Texas State to toss lob passes in to their big men. If Texas is going to overplay the passing lane in an effort to deny the entry, there has to be help defense on those lobs. Time and again, the Bobcat big men were able to catch the ball in mid-turn and lay it in with no resistance. The Longhorns need to be more alert when off the ball on defense so they can react quicker in help situations.

The Texas forwards also picked up too many fouls on fadeaway jumpers. The Longhorn frontcourt was generally doing a good job of standing tall when the Texas State forwards were trying to face up or make a move with their backs to the basket. Unfortunately, Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill then erased all of their good defensive work by bailing out the opposition with weak fouls on those fadeaway Js. The Horns need to let their opponents take those low-percentage shots and work on establishing good position to rebound the inevitable misses.

Finally, our “What needed work” section can never be complete without a few sentences about free throws. As a team, the Horns shot 66.7% from the line this afternoon. That’s a slight improvement over the team’s season average, but still below the nation’s median. Once again, the bulk of the issues came from Tristan Thompson, who was 4-for-9. His difficulties at the line are likely never going to change, but for a player who has a free-throw rate above 108 — meaning he actually attempts more free throws than field goals — a free-throw percentage of 48.4% is just not going to cut it.

Next up: vs. North Florida (4-5); Tuesday, 7 P.M. CT