If Rick Barnes and the Longhorns could have their way, the month of February would disappear from the calendar. In 2008, the Longhorns went on a perfect 8-0 march through the month of February, and then cruised all the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. Since then, Texas has posted a 13-11 mark during the last three Februaries and has failed to make it out of the second round of the Big Dance. Last night, the Longhorns continued their February blues, as they closed out their home schedule with a disappointing loss to Kansas State, the team’s third defeat in its last four games.

Kansas State stifled Texas with stout interior defense, while the Longhorns went completely cold from long range. On the offensive end, the Wildcats rode a strong second-half performance from Jacob Pullen and the hot shooting of Rodney McGruder to win their seventh game in the last eight.

What looked good

The Longhorns attacked the strong K-State frontcourt early and often. Tristan Thompson played nothing like a freshman, scoring 18 first-half points to carry Texas through the first half. The big man even made four out of his five free throw attempts, a shocking number considering his season average was just south of 48% coming into the game.

The Longhorns also benefited from strong rebounding in the first twenty minutes, reclaiming 48% of their misses. With the team shooting so poorly, the offensive rebounds helped to mask the inefficiency and allowed Texas to earn second-chance points that kept them ahead for nearly the entire first half.

The early defense from Dogus Balbay and Cory Joseph on All-American Jacob Pullen also helped Texas maintain their narrow lead. While big man Curtis Kelly was hitting fadeaway jumpers like they were layups, Pullen was practically a non-factor. Balbay and Joseph fought through screens and stayed right in his shirt, limiting him to a 2-of-7 start from the field.

What needed work

Unfortunately, the game was once again a tale of two halves. While the first half was far from great for the Longhorns, the second one was a complete disaster. Texas opened the second stanza with a scoring drought of nearly five minutes, letting the Wildcats claim the lead and build it as large as six points before Jordan Hamilton finally made a bucket with his foot on the three-point line.

That basket was only Hamilton’s second of the entire game, and it came after he had already missed ten shots and turned it over three times. His offensive attack consisted of trying to shake his man off the dribble, but the Wildcats were prepared every time. When Hamilton attacked from the wings, he was met with extra defensive resistance, but never knew what he was doing with the ball. It would be nice to give him credit for not forcing up a shot every time, but in the rare cases he did try to make a pass, he waited until he was already in midair or tried to throw it through the legs of about 18 different people.

In the last five games, Hamilton is just 26-of-85 from the floor (30.6%). In the three losses to Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State, the sophomore is just 9-of-28 from behind the arc (32.1%), a far cry from the 41.5% mark he posted in Texas’ first ten conference wins.

The key difference is that Hamilton’s three-point attempts now mostly come off of the dribble, oftentimes with a defender nearby. When the Texas offense was clicking through the month of January, Hamilton was coming off of curls for lightning-quick catch-and-shoot plays, which he was knocking down with regularity. Now, Hamilton is having to create his looks with his hands instead of his feet, and it’s killing the Longhorn offense.

The rest of the Longhorns were just as cold from the field. While Thompson was carrying the team, the rest of the Texas lineup combined to shoot just 25.9% from the field. The Longhorns made just three of their first 14 three-pointers, before J’Covan Brown drilled a pair in the final minute to make things interesting. The 27.8% mark behind the arc was the worst for Texas since going 2-of-8 in a blowout win over A&M at Reed Arena.

Defensively, the second half was an embarrassment. For a team that was posting historic defensive efficiency numbers just three weeks ago, the abundance of complete breakdowns in the half-court set was completely unacceptable. The Wildcats were able to get to the rack with no problem in the second half, scoring 14 points in the paint during the final 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, Rodney McGruder, a 42% career three-point shooter, constantly found himself wide open in the corner on kickouts. While the Longhorns were selling out to stop the drive, they seemingly forgot how to close out on shooters, and McGruder drilled four key three-pointers to make them pay. Just as with Colorado’s Levi Knutson on Saturday, Texas completely ignored the scouting report and consistently lost the best pure shooter on the floor.

A final point to illustrate the defensive collapse of the Longhorns is the sudden ballooning of their opponents’ effective field goal percentage. Fellow tempo-free stat nerds will already be familiar with the concept, but allow me a brief explanation. Essentially, eFG is an alteration of the classic field goal percentage that gives extra weight to the three point shot. Since a three is worth 1.5 times the points of a regular shot, it is worth that much in the calculation of the shooting percentage.

During Texas’ 11-game winning streak to open conference play, the Longhorns held opponents to an eFG of just 39.2%. In their three losses to Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State, the Longhorns have allowed an eFG of 55.5%. Texas is not just losing games. The team is having an outright defensive collapse.

Next up: at Baylor (18-10 overall, 7-7 Big 12); Saturday, 8 P.M.

For the second consecutive Saturday, the Texas Longhorns walked quietly to the locker room as students rushed the court behind them. This afternoon, the overjoyed co-eds were clad in gold and black, as Colorado notched their third victory over a Top 25 opponent by shocking Texas, 91-89.

On its own merits, a Colorado win at home wouldn’t be that shocking this season, even against a vaunted opponent. It was the way in which the Buffaloes won this afternoon, though, that has the college basketball world buzzing. Alec Burks and Levi Knutson combined for 54 points — 37 of them in the second half — to erase a 22-point Texas lead en route to the win.

The win puts Colorado in good position to close the regular season on a high note, and gives the Buffs another quality win to add to the ever-important résumé. With a road game against Iowa State and a home date with Nebraska left on the docket, there’s no reason that Colorado shouldn’t finish the season with 20 wins and a 9-7 mark in the Big 12.

Throw in a pair of victories over Kansas State and wins against Texas and Missouri, and suddenly the Buffaloes look like they could make the Big Dance despite a completely empty non-con profile.

For Texas, the post-season picture lost some of its shine with today’s loss. The Longhorns are now in a first-place tie with Kansas in the Big 12, although they do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker for the conference tournament’s No. 1 seed if the two teams remain tied at the end of the season. To win the title outright, Texas must now knock off both Kansas State and Baylor, plus get help from Texas A&M or Missouri in their games against KU.

At the national level, the loss also could alter the team’s route through the NCAAs. While the loss to Nebraska already put a dent in Texas’ hopes for a No. 1 seed in the tournament, this loss will likely guarantee that the Longhorns will be slotted no higher than a 2-seed. Things could certainly change between now and Selection Sunday, but unless the Longhorns knock off Kansas a second time in the conference tournament, the 1-seed seems out of the question.

That also means that instead of a short trip to San Antonio for possible second weekend action in the NCAA tournament, the Horns could end up in Anaheim, New Orleans, or Newark. There’s certainly the chance that the Longhorns could still be put in the closest region as a 2-seed, which happened for Texas in 2008 when they were slotted in the Houston regional. Of course, it’s all speculation at this point, but had Texas not dropped these two games, there would be nothing to speculate about.

What looked good

In the early going, Texas did a fantastic job working the ball inside against a smaller Colorado team and taking advantage of open threes when the Buffaloes collapsed inside. Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph combined for seven of Texas’ first 11 points, while Gary Johnson scored at will inside and finished the game with 17 points.

After being tied at 11 coming out of the under-16 media timeout, J’Covan Brown fueled a 14-0 run for Texas with hot shooting from behind the arc. He looked unstoppable early, combining his great shooting with excellent court vision. Brown kept the offense churning early, consistently finding his teammates for good looks inside, and he finished the game with five assists. Unfortunately, things went downhill late in the first half.

What needed work

The first inklings of trouble cropped up late in the first, as Colorado chipped away at a 22-point Texas lead just before the half. The Buffs broke out a zone, and the Longhorns seemed completely confounded by the simple 2-3, despite the fact that they had decimated Baylor’s zone just a few weeks prior.

On one particular possession late in the first half, Gary Johnson received an entry pass at the free-throw line, the softest part of a zone defense. Instead of making a quick read and kicking to an open teammate as the defense trapped down on him, he made repeated pass fakes as Buffaloes swarmed around him, and he ultimately had to kick it back out to a guard at the top of the key.

The offensive troubles continued into the second half, as the same Longhorn team that put up 48 points in the first 20 minutes could manage just 14 points in the first 11:15 of the second half. Colorado shut down driving lanes, and Texas could do nothing more than back the ball out and settle for jump shots. When the team made it to the line, they simply couldn’t convert. The Longhorns finished just 20-of-38 at the line.

Meanwhile, the Texas defense was having a meltdown of epic proportions. Burks and Knutson went off on their 37-point outburst in the second half, with the Longhorns seemingly unable to stop anything. Burks needed just inches to get off — and drill — shots in front of Texas defenders, but the Longhorns constantly left Knutson wide open as they scrambled to stop ball penetration. Knutson entered the game as the Big 12’s best three-point shooter with a success rate of 47%, and he made 3-of-5 in a 2:50 span that put Colorado up for good.

Even down the stretch, Texas failed to put the clamp down on defense. With the game still in doubt, the Longhorns managed to come up with a few key stops, only to then give up weak offensive rebounds and easy tip-ins., Sometimes, the Horns simply turned the ball right back over with sloppy play.

On one particularly crushing possession, Texas played 34 seconds of excellent defense, only to have Jordan Hamilton step out of bounds trying to catch the airballed shot. With one second left on the shot clock, Knutson missed a three off the inbounds, but Colorado grabbed the miss and ended the possession with a three by Burks.

As the second half wound down, it seemed that there was no stopping Colorado. Not only were they scoring at will while Texas couldn’t buy a bucket, but the ball was bouncing their way. Still, Texas somehow put on another furious late rally, as they did in Nebraska a week prior. Once again, the Longhorns fell short, and the questionable shot selection certainly didn’t help matters.

After Colorado’s Cory Higgins stepped out of bounds with the Buffaloes up four and just 29 seconds left on the clock, Hamilton launched a line drive from 25-feet that clanked off the iron and essentially sealed the game. Earlier, Brown had wasted a Colorado turnover on an over-and-back call by jacking up a contested shot off a curl just seconds into the possession.

While the Longhorn shooters have often showed poise in tough road environments, the latest trend is for them to try to silence the crowd with ill-advised looks. In the team’s back-to-back road losses, Hamilton was a combined 10-of-40 from the field, including an 8-of-24 mark from behind the arc. If the sophomore star is going to lead Texas through adversity, he needs to create open looks, not just rifle it up from behind the arc.

Before fans jump off of the bandwagon, though, they should take a brief glance at the history book. The last Longhorn team to lose in Boulder was the 2003 squad, one that also lost in their Big 12 tournament opener against Texas Tech. That Texas team bounced back quickly and made it all the way to the Final Four. If this year’s Longhorn team can simply re-discover their killer instinct, the future can still be promising.

Next up: vs. Kansas State (20-9 overall, 8-6 Big 12); 8 P.M. CT, Monday

With just four games left in the regular season, Texas was in dire need a bounce-back win after suffering their first conference loss of the season on Saturday. Fortunately for Rick Barnes and the Longhorns, the schedule-makers helped out in that department. Texas had the good fortune of hosting the Iowa State Cyclones, Big 12 cellar dwellers, and took care of business in fashion. The Longhorns turned in another brilliant defensive performance and stifled the short-handed Cyclones, coasting to a 76-53 win.

While fans shouldn’t get too excited about thumping the worst team in the conference, the win allowed the team a chance to iron out some wrinkles that had popped up in Lincoln. Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson took advantage of favorable matchups to have great games, while Dogus Balbay played out of his mind for 23 minutes. The Longhorns certainly have much bigger challenges waiting in the next three games, but it’s reassuring to see that the team was able to rebound quickly from one of their most disappointing performances of the season.

What looked good

Hamilton was the Texas player who most needed a shot in the arm, and he found it in a big way on Tuesday night. After shooting just 24% from the field in the team’s previous two games, Hamilton lit up the scoreboard against the Cyclones. He made 50% of his attempts, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc. His two threes in the second half helped fuel a Texas run that extended the team’s lead from just nine at half to more than 20 in a matter of minutes. In the first half, Hamilton even added the rare four-point play after being fouled by Melvin Ejim on a made three.

Thompson also had a breakout night against a smaller Iowa State frontcourt that was without its big defensive presence, 6’11” Jamie Vanderbeken. Tristan posted a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while piling up the fouls on the Cyclone bigs. Calvin Godfrey fouled out of the game, while Ejim and Jordan Railey finished with four personals each. Most teams will provide a much stiffer test for Thompson in the post, but it’s a good sign that the team identified the mismatches and mercilessly exploited them.

Gary Johnson also had a double-double against Iowa State, scoring 14 points to go with his 12 rebounds. Perhaps most importantly, Johnson finally took the opportunity to step out and knock down a three-pointer in this game.

As we mentioned last month, Gary is one of the nation’s best shooters when it comes to shooting in the “danger zone,” located from 17-feet out to the three-point arc. It’s the furthest shot on the court that isn’t worth an extra point, so the risk is much greater than the reward. When we ran the numbers back on January 15th, Johnson was scoring 1.2 points per shot in that “danger zone.” It seems a natural progression for the senior to take a few steps back and earn an extra point for the team.

Another senior that chipped in with a quality outing was Dogus Balbay, who kept the Longhorn machine churning in the second half with hustle play all over the court. With the Cyclones sagging off of him in ways not seen since the 2009-10 season, Balbay attacked the paint off the dribble and contributed six points and two assists. More importantly, his active hands on defense deflected numerous passes out of bounds to disrupt the Cyclones, while he added a steal and a pair of impressive blocks late in the game.

As far as the numbers go, the Longhorn performance was absolutely dominant. Texas scored just 11 points in the final 11 minutes of the game, yet still finished with an impressive 23-point victory. The defense, meanwhile, squashed any hopes of an upset by holding the Cyclones scoreless for a combined 7:39 to open and close out the first half.

In terms of efficiency, the Longhorns put up the second-best outing against Iowa State all season. They held the Cyclones to just 0.767 points per possession, thanks largely in part to excellent perimeter defense. Although Iowa State had some open long-range looks early, they missed many of them, and Texas quickly adjusted to lock down the arc. The Cyclones, who were one of the nation’s top fifty teams from long range, managed to make just 25% of their three-point attempts against Texas.

Add in the fact that the Longhorns had a brief stretch in the first half where they were unable to stop Iowa State’s dribble-drive, and those stifling defensive numbers are even more impressive. After grabbing a 4-0 lead out of the gate, Texas allowed the Cyclones to score 13 points in just seven possessions, thanks to four layups and a dunk. Once the Longhorns made the effort to shut down the dribble penetration, Iowa State was limited to mostly contested jumpers. Excluding that four-minute stretch of porous defense, Texas held the Cyclones to an unbelievable 0.656 points per possession.

What needed work

In all honesty, there was very little to nitpick in Tuesday night’s game. The Longhorns had that four-minute stretch of weak defense which we just addressed, but otherwise they appeared impenetrable.

From the free-throw line, the team actually started 10-for-13 before finishing just 3-for-8 down the stretch. That gave the Longhorns a 61.9% success rate at the line, which has unfortunately become par for the course at this point. As usual, Thompson was the main offender, making just one of his six attempts.

Jai Lucas had a disappointing 1-of-7 night from the field, finally breaking through late in the game with a pull-up jumper a few feet inside the arc. Fortunately, the Iowa State game gave Jai a harmless opportunity to work on his shot at game speed. Unfortunately, the extra time didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

It’s essentially a given that Lucas will have to chew up some minutes down the stretch to give the starters some rest. Hopefully, he will be more of a floor manager and less of a shooter in games that are a little more tightly contested. Limiting his playing time to stints in which other scorers are on the floor should help to limit the damage during those stretches.

Up next: at Colorado (16-11 overall, 5-7 Big 12); Saturday, 3 P.M. CT

Saturday was the day the streaks died. The Longhorns came into Lincoln, Nebraska boasting a perfect 11-0 mark in the Big 12, a streak of 264 minutes without trailing, and a seven-game winning streak on the road. The Cornhuskers wiped away all of that with an incredible second-half performance, neutralizing the vaunted Texas defense en route to a 70-67 win.

For the Cornhuskers, the win was the marquee victory they have needed to pad their NCAA tournament résumé. At 18-8 overall, they now have wins over Texas and Texas A&M, plus upcoming opportunities to knock off Kansas State and Missouri at home. While Nebraska was on the fringes of the bubble discussion before Saturday, now they find themselves squarely in the middle of a very soft bubble. The Cornhuskers have not made the NCAA field since 1998, and have not won a game in their six tournament appearances.

For Texas, the loss was simply a speedbump. Quality teams often lose on the road in college basketball. In fact, the Longhorns’ loss was the third road loss this week by a team ranked in the top five of both major polls. While Texas certainly has big tests ahead in Kansas State and road trips to Colorado and Baylor, if they can recover and once again play up to their potential, they should be just fine.

What looked good

Perhaps the only thing that looked good for the Longhorns yesterday were the first and last few minutes of the game. Texas built an eight-point lead over the first twelve minutes of the game, powered by 47% shooting from the field, including 57% behind the arc. After that, Texas would shoot only 33% from three-point range, and 31.5% from the field.

In the final minutes, Texas refused to quit. Down 11 points with just 2:35 left, the Longhorns took advantage of missed free throws by Nebraska and a terrible job by the towel boys to tie the game just 1:25 later. Jordan Hamilton made three free throws after being fouled on an attempt in the corner, then added a three from the wing after Jorge Brian Diaz missed a pair of free throws for the Huskers.

Following a made free throw by Houston product Toney McCray, Texas then scored six straight points to force the tie. During that run, a Nebraska player slipped on the inbounds pass, allowing Alexis Wangmene to grab the ball and make two free throws after he was fouled inside. That was the end of the Longhorn rally, though, as Brandon Richardson made a pair of free throws just 28 seconds later to put Nebraska up for good.

In all honesty, the Longhorns had no business being in the game at that point. They were flat-out whipped during the second half, but showed tenacity in refusing to give up. Texas even had a shot to go ahead with 33 seconds left, and another attempt to tie it at the buzzer. While there was very little to take away from Saturday’s game, fans can at least rest assured that Texas is far more resilient than a year ago, when the team crumbled in the face of any adversity.

What needed work

The most glaring deficiencies for Texas on Saturday afternoon came on the defensive side of the ball. The Longhorn bigs were absolutely abused inside by Diaz and Andre Almeida, who combined to score 21 points. A big part of this was the early foul trouble for Gary Johnson, which forced Matt Hill and Wangmene to play a combined 16 minutes even though they couldn’t contain the Nebraska frontcourt.

With Diaz and Almeida playing so well inside, the Cornhuskers isolated the Texas bigs on the blocks and let their guards go to work. Eight of Nebraska’s 15 second-half baskets came in the form of layups or dunks, as Richardson and Lance Jeter were able to drive to the rack with hardly any resistance, while Diaz and Almeida provided seals on the Longhorn forwards.

All told, the defensive performance by Texas was the worst against Nebraska all season. The only teams who posted poorer defensive efficiency numbers against the Cornhuskers this year were North Dakota, Jackson State, and Arkansas Pine Bluff. To say that the Longhorns are more talented than those three teams would be a gross understatement. The Texas defense that pundits have been raving about for the last two months was nowhere to be found on Saturday.

Another big reason for Nebraska’s success on the offensive end was the fact that Texas could not grab a rebound when it mattered. The Cornhuskers grabbed a whopping 43.3% of their misses in this game, a stat made even more shocking when you consider that they were reclaiming just 28% of their misses in conference play coming into the game.

Connecticut beat Texas on the strength of their offensive rebounding, and Nebraska did the same thing on Saturday. Add in the fact that Texas nearly lost to North Carolina thanks to offensive putbacks, and it’s easy to see what the plan of attack will be for teams playing the Longhorns in the future.

Offensively, the performance by the Texas players was nothing to write home about. Hamilton had a terrible shooting day, making just 3-of-16 from the field. You can give him some credit for making it to the line 11 times to earn points, but it also has to be noted that he only attempted six free throws in the first 38 minutes of the game.

Hamilton put up 11 three-pointers on the afternoon and missed all five of his two-point attempts. Many of those misses were good looks that just weren’t falling, but he needs to recognize when it’s just not his day and then make the effort to attack off the dribble and manufacture points.

In addition, this game underscored early-season concerns about the frontcourt depth. While Hill and Wangmene will never be confused with Johnson, the fact that they had to play extended minutes also hurt the Texas defense in an unexpected way.

The Cornhuskers were packing the lane defensively, a tactic made even more effective because Hill and Wangmene are generally non-threats on the offensive end. The Longhorns simply could not afford to also have Balbay on the floor, because it would leave them with only three scorers. Without Dogus limited to just 15 minutes, the Nebraska guards found it even easier to drive the lane with impunity. In a domino effect, losing a post player to foul trouble actually weakened the perimeter defense.

Next up: vs. Iowa State (14-13 overall, 1-11 Big 12); Tuesday, 7 P.M. CT

“Our biggest concern is keeping our foot on the pedal,” senior Gary Johnson told reporters last night. “We haven’t been in a situation where we’ve been behind. We don’t want to start it now.”

The Longhorns didn’t start it on Wednesday night, as they lambasted Oklahoma State, 73-55, in the sixth-straight game that Texas led wire-to-wire. Although Oklahoma State controlled the tip, the Texas defense forced a miss from Markel Brown and the Longhorns took an early 2-0 lead just 31 seconds into the game. After the win, Texas’ impressive streak of never trailing has been extended to more than 264 minutes.

The 18-point victory also marked the 10th time in Texas’ 11 conference wins that the Horns have defeated their opponents by double-digits. With that 11th conference win coming by nine points over Baylor, Texas’ average margin of victory in their 11 conference games is 17.3 points.

The Longhorns also set a school record by winning their 11th consecutive Big 12 game, and remained in pursuit of the best conference start in school history. The 1962-63 Texas team ran out to a 13-0 mark in Southwest Conference play before losing their final league game of the season. If the Longhorns can get past Nebraska on the road on Saturday, they should have no problem tying that mark against Iowa State next Tuesday.

Finally, the win sealed a first-round bye for the Longhorns in next month’s Big 12 tournament. With Missouri hosting Baylor next Wednesday, one of those teams is guaranteed to finish with at least six conference losses. That leaves only Kansas, Texas A&M, and the winner of that Baylor/Mizzou tilt as teams that could potentially finish with a record equal to or better than 11-5. At this point, Texas would have to lose all of its remaining games to tie with an 11-5 team.

What looked good

Texas jumped out to an early lead by attacking the Cowboys inside. They racked up fouls on the OSU big men, and the added attention inside meant that the Longhorn shooters were being left wide open open the perimeter. The inside-out attack allowed Texas to go 5-for-11 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, and the Longhorns took an 11-point lead to the locker room.

In the second half, Gary Johnson and Cory Joseph fueled a run that put Texas up by 21 points. Johnson knocked down a jumper, posted up for a 3-point play, and tipped in another bucket before Joseph added a three-pointer and a breakaway layup on his own steal.

Johnson was nearly flawless in the game, going 7-of-8 from the field. He finished the night with 17 points, and added 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the year. Joseph, meanwhile, finished with 11 points despite shooting just 30.7%. The rest of the starting five also found it easy to score, with Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton combining for 29 points and 11 rebounds.

The easy win also allowed the starters to get some much-needed rest. Besides Joseph’s 30 minutes on the court, no other starter had to play more than 28 minutes. Jai Lucas and J’Covan Brown picked up much of the slack, combining for 44 minutes off the bench. In conference play, the two guards were averaging just 28 minutes per game. If Lucas can continue to eat up minutes off the bench as the regular season winds down, that added rest for the starters could be huge when the schedule becomes much more compact in March.

The Texas defense also continued to impress, holding the Cowboys to only 0.792 points per possession, well off their season average of 1.06 per trip. All season long, the Horns have utilized strong defensive rebounding to limit opponents to one-shot possessions. While Texas continued that trend against OSU, holding the Pokes to a 27.6% mark on the offensive glass, the most impressive stat was the 24.5% turnover rate Texas forced. The Longhorns are not a team that causes many miscues, but they made the Cowboys look utterly lost as they coughed it up 12 times in the first half.

Off the bench, Matt Hill had a good effort, grabbing five boards in his 18 minutes on the floor. He also added three points on a hook shot and a free throw. While neither Hill or Alexis Wangmene will be on any All-American teams any time soon, the Longhorns are benefiting from the fact that in nearly every game, they are getting a solid bench effort from one of their two backup big men.

What needed work

While Hill had a solid game off the bench, Alexis Wangmene unfortunately struggled. He had issues handling passes inside, was called for a travel, and picked up four fouls in just 11 minutes of play. Wangmene did have a nice block, though. Fortunately, his struggles in this one made very little difference in the outcome.

As always, free throws were a major issue for the Longhorns. As a team, they shot just 57.1% from the line, but once again a majority of the blame fell upon freshman Tristan Thompson. The big man went to the line 13 times and made just six of his attempts, while the rest of the team combined to go 10-of-15. At some point, Texas is going to be in a close game. Is there anyone that Rick Barnes can rely upon to make clutch free throws to ice it?

Next up: at Nebraska (17-8 overall, 5-6 Big 12)