After the first twenty minutes of Saturday’s game, it looked like the Longhorns were well on their way to another double-digit rout of a conference opponent. Texas held Baylor to just 0.64 points per possession in the first half, well off their season mark of 1.095, while the Longhorns knocked down more than 53% of their shots. Texas built a lead as large as 19 points and headed to the locker room up by 16.

Things changed rather quickly. LaceDarius Dunn scored 22 points in the second half, while Texas endured a painful stretch of 6:18 without a field goal. The Longhorns also left points on the line, making just six of 11 free throw attempts during the field-goal drought, allowing Baylor to hang around until the final minutes. The Bears were able to trim the lead down to just three points with 2:06 to play, but Texas ultimately iced the game with six free throws down the stretch.

The victory moves the Longhorns to a perfect 10-0 in Big 12 play, still just one game ahead of a Jayhawk team that waxed Iowa State in Lawrence on Saturday. With only six games left to play, even the slightest slip-up by Texas will practically guarantee Kansas a share of the conference championship. There are few games left on the Jayhawks’ schedule that look like possible losses, so it is becoming increasingly likely that the Horns must run the table to secure an outright Big 12 title. Even though this victory ended Texas’ nine-game run of double-digit conference wins, at this point all that matters are the Ws.

What looked good

A big part of Texas’ stifling first-half defense was a dominant effort on the glass. The Longhorns allowed Baylor to reclaim just 22.2% of their misses in the first half, limiting them to only a handful of second-chance opportunities. That strong effort continued in the second half, as the Bears finished with a 23.8% mark on the offensive glass. If not for Dunn’s impressive second half, the Baylor offense still would have been on lockdown.

The overall defensive effort was incredibly impressive for the Longhorns, especially considering how outsized they were in the post. Even with Dunn going off in the second half, the Bears managed just 0.843 points per possession on the afternoon. The Bears had only been held below 0.900 PPP one other time all season, in a neutral-site loss to Gonzaga back in December.

On offense, Texas did a great job of attacking the Baylor zone in the first half. The team knocked down their open jumpers and made quick passes for easy looks inside. Texas’ zone offense was so good, the Bears actually switched to their hardly-used man-to-man defense in the second half and settled for a hack attack inside defensively.

Texas’ execution against the zone was a welcome sight after a few seasons in which the team has struggled mightily against even average zone defenses. Rather than settle for outside looks as they would have in past years, Texas put on a clinic on how to attack the zone, and it worked to the tune of 38 first-half points.

For the Longhorns, the MVP was freshman Tristan Thompson, who was a beast inside. He blocked three shots, scored 17 points, and grabbed 13 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive end. Unfortunately, he had his typical 50% performance at the line, knocking down just 7-of-14 on the afternoon.

Thompson’s impact was biggest in the final minutes of the game, as the Longhorns struggled to hold off Baylor. He knocked down a pair free throws to put Texas up five with 94 seconds left, then batted a Baylor lob pass out of bounds on the following possession, preventing an easy layup for the Bears.

What needed work

Part of what caused the Texas drought in the second half was poor shooting just feet from the rim. Time and again, layups and short jumpers rimmed out, allowing Baylor to slowly chip away at the Texas lead. It is easy to chalk these kinds of misses up to bad luck, but luck or not, the Longhorns simply have to convert when they are that close to the basket.

For the Horns, the 0.969 points they scored per possession was their lowest offensive output since the Michigan State game. While that’s not a terrible number, the strong first half for Texas buoyed that average, masking just how abysmal the second half was. During the final twenty minutes, the Longhorns managed just 0.795 points each time down the floor.

A big part of that offensive ineptitude was terrible free throw shooting. While that’s nothing new for this Texas team, their inability to hit the easy ones when they counted the most nearly allowed Baylor to come back for an improbable win. As previously mentioned, Thompson was the biggest offender with his 50% effort at the line, but the problem was team-wide. J’Covan Brown, normally one of the team’s steadiest free-throw shooters, hit just 4-of-7, including 2-of-4 after Baylor had been tagged with an intentional foul and technical foul.

If the Longhorns are truly the national title contender that many pundits think they are, we must bring up the cautionary tale of the 2008 Memphis Tigers. That team was just 61.4% from the line on the season, and their poor shooting down the stretch in the national championship game allowed Kansas to force overtime and ultimately win the title. One can’t help but think a similar fate is in store for Texas at some point in March if they cannot improve their 64.7% mark at the line.

On defense, the backcourt assignments were interesting. Shutdown artist Dogus Balbay was primarily assigned to A.J. Walton, while freshman Cory Joseph had the tough task of stopping Dunn. Despite the 26-point outburst by Baylor’s superstar, you can’t really knock Joseph for how he defended him. LaceDarius drilled multiple threes with Joseph just inches away from him, and he managed to sink quite a few layups and runners after making acrobatic finishes among the Texas bigs.

The defense on Dunn certainly isn’t something that “needed work.” After all, he scored just four points in the first half before his superhuman effort in the second stanza. But, unfortunately the dichotomy of our post-games doesn’t really allow for a better place for this note. You simply have to applaud Joseph for his effort and tip your hat to Dunn on an impressive performance.

Up next: vs. Oklahoma State (16-8 overall, 4-6 Big 12)

With snow outside and temperatures in the teens, Oklahoma opened the doors of the Lloyd Noble Center, allowing any and all to enter the building for a game against the hated Texas Longhorns. The laissez-faire admission policy led to an overflow crowd, with 12,000-plus Sooner fans filling the seating bowl and spilling into the upper concourse, clad in their free white “Cheer Like a Champion” t-shirts.

Unfortunately for the Sooner faithful, the Longhorns made sure there was little to cheer for, champion-like or not. Texas once again rolled into a hostile road environment and silenced the crowd, which included Heisman-trophy winner Sam Bradford and “musician” Toby Keith. The Longhorns led from wire-to-wire, cruising to a 68-52 win in front of their own star, NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant.

What looked good

As it has been all season, the Longhorns relied on their trademark defense to build an early lead that they would never relinquish. Texas held the Sooners to just four field goals on their first 17 attempts, allowing the Horns to race out to a 15-point lead after just 10 minutes of play.

While the Sooners managed to attack the paint early, the Texas bigs created enough havoc to force OU to miss eight shots within just a few feet of the rim. For the ballgame, the Sooners managed to shoot just 30% from inside the arc, well off of their season average of 53%.

With so many missed shots early, the Longhorns were able to exploit their advantage on the boards. Oklahoma managed just one offensive rebound in the first half, and were held to a paltry 23.1% offensive rebounding percentage. In the midst of a tough shooting night, OU was rendered practically useless on the offensive end without the benefit of second opportunities.

On the offensive end, Dogus Balbay set the tone early for Texas, as he continued his recent trend of aggressively attacking the rim. With teams now forced to stop Balbay as he pushes the ball up the floor, Texas has an even more potent secondary break. If the initial defender doesn’t stop the ball, opponents are having to help and rotate before the defense is even fully set. That defensive scrambling leads to wide-open jumpers and three-pointers for the rest of Texas’ starting five, and this new wrinkle in the Longhorn offense is helping the team jump on opponents early.

Balbay even knocked down a mid-range jumper in this one, something that will be a huge boost to the offense if it becomes a more common occurrence. Without the threat of a jumper, defenses can still sag off of Balbay, an issue that made Texas’ inside game incredibly ugly last season. If Dogus can mix in a nice jumper here and there, the Longhorn frontcourt will have even more success inside.

With Balbay leading the team in scoring early, it allowed Jordan Hamilton time to warm up on a night where his outside shot wasn’t falling. Hamilton was just 3-of-9 from long range, but adjusted and used the dribble-drive along the baseline. He also capitalized on some great interior passing from Tristan Thompson and Gary Johnson to add a pair of easy layups. By the final buzzer, Hamilton led all scorers with 20 points.

It wasn’t just Hamilton that benefited from extra passes inside. Texas scored 28 points in the paint against the Sooners, thanks in large part to four assists from Johnson, who also added 14 points in a well-rounded performance. The solid post feeds also allowed Thompson to log an efficient 4-of-5 shooting night and an 11-point effort.

What needed work

Writing this section of the game reports has grown a little tougher as the season goes on. With the Longhorns winning 15 of their last 16 games, including nine conference wins by an average of 18.1 points, sometimes it can be hard to find things to nitpick. That being said, there is no such thing as a perfect performance, so pick nits we must.

While the Longhorns dominated the defensive glass, they did have issues giving up easy putbacks. When the Sooners did manage to grab an offensive board, they actually capitalized at a fairly high rate. OU turned nine offensive rebounds into 10 second chance points. Those easy buckets usually came when the Longhorns failed to box out on the weak side, and missed shots fell right into the hands of a Sooner waiting for the tip-in. Against a better rebounding team, allowing 1.11 points per offensive board could be disastrous.

The Longhorns also played a little loose with the basketball, perhaps a result of being in control the entire way. Texas coughed it up 14 times, giving them a turnover rate of 22.6%, a significant jump from their season average of 18 percent. Most of the Longhorn turnovers seemed to be a result of lazy passes or of the intended recipient simply not being awake. Just like the offensive rebounding, this won’t matter against much of Texas’ remaining schedule, but it definitely needs to be drilled down before the Horns face tougher opponents.

The bench was also largely absent in this game, although Matt Hill had some solid defensive possessions against OU big man Andrew Fitzgerald and grabbed five boards. But aside from Hill’s contributions, the bench was practically non-existent. Hill, Jai Lucas, Alexis Wangmene, and J’Covan Brown combined to play just 38 minutes, failed to score a point, and turned it over twice. It’s certainly a positive to have all five starters score at least 11 points, but Texas will need more bench production in future games.

Up next: vs. Baylor (16-7 overall, 6-4 Big 12); Saturday, 3 P.M. CT

When the calendar turned to 2010, the once-invincible Texas Longhorns unraveled in a fashion rarely seen in sports. After starting 17-0, last year’s team sputtered down the homestretch, winning just 7 of their last 17 games. This year’s batch of Longhorns have clearly learned from their past mistakes. Instead of wilting down the stretch, they are visibly improving as the season goes along. While Texas was a dominant defensive team during a very tough non-conference run, they have turned it up another notch in conference play.

Last night was more of the same, as the Longhorn defense forced 17 turnovers and held Texas Tech to 38.2% shooting from the field en route to a 76-60 win over the Red Raiders in Austin. The victory moved Texas to 8-0 in Big 12 play, one game ahead of Kansas, and 3.5 games ahead of third-place Baylor.

It looked like yet another blowout in the early going, as Texas held the Red Raiders to just 11 points in their first 20 possessions. At the same time, the Horns were finding open shots everywhere they looked. They built a lead as large as 21 points in the waning minutes of the first half, powered by 6-of-11 shooting from behind the arc.

The second half was a different story, and it resulted in a much closer game than anyone could have expected. The Longhorns took six minutes and 46 seconds to make their first field goal in the second half, letting the Red Raiders slice the lead to just six points with 11:20 to go. But J’Covan Brown sandwiched a pair of threes around a mid-range jumper from Gary Johnson, and the Horns cruised to victory.

What looked good

In the first half, everything looked good for Texas. Jordan Hamilton knocked down his first four attempts from three-point range, while the Longhorn defense held Tech to just 0.55 points per possession over the first 12 minutes. Tristan Thompson was getting great position on the blocks and taking perfect angles to score once his teammates fed him the ball.

One of the main men dishing out assists was J’Covan Brown, who had another solid game off the bench. His two three-pointers stopped the bleeding in the second half, and he finished with 10 points and three assists in 26 minutes on the court.

The two-headed monster of Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill also chipped in from the bench, taking advantage of their smaller Tech opponents. Wangmene earned three points at the line, while Hill had a pair of putbacks and an easy layup off an assist from Jai Lucas. Hill also grabbed six rebounds against an undersized Tech squad.

What needed work

While Hill grabbed six rebounds, the Longhorns did a poor job rebounding against a Tech team that is routinely abused on the glass. In Lubbock, Texas won the rebounding battle by 19. In Austin, they only outrebounded Tech by three. The Longhorns allowed the Red Raiders to grab 37.3% of their missed shots, after allowing them to win just 19.2% of the offensive rebounds in Lubbock. The 37.3% mark was the sixth-highest OR% for the Red Raiders in their 24 games this season.

A big cause of the rebounding woes was Gary Johnson’s absence on the glass. While GJ scored 16 points, largely on the strength of his smooth long-range jumper, he was a ghost on the boards. The team obviously benefits from his 17-footer, as he typically sinks that shot, while pulling bigger defenders out of the lane. But the failure to grab even a single board on the defensive end could prove to be critical against a better ballclub than Tech.

On defense, the Horns gave up far too many easy looks during the last three-quarters of the game. It may seem ridiculous to harp on the defense when they allowed just 0.873 points per possession. But a big reason why Texas was able to post good point-per-possession numbers is because they forced a lot of Tech turnovers.

The Red Raiders coughed it up on 24.7% of their possessions, meaning that they were making a very high percentage of their shots when they managed to hang on to the basketball. The reason? Easy layups and jumpers coming off of curls when the Longhorn defenders completely lost their men. That smacks of lazy defense with too much ball-watching and not enough rotation.

Perhaps the Horns played down to their competition, knowing they could give partial effort on defense and still win. A fair argument, but still a troubling one. If they have a similar lack of effort in Colorado, against a team that hardly ever turns the ball over, Texas will leave Boulder with a loss.

Finally, it must be noted that the sloppy effort wasn’t limited just to the defense over the last thirty minutes. The Longhorns also had just as much trouble hanging on to the basketball, piling up more turnovers (16) than assists (15), many of them on boneheaded errors. Cory Joseph had a pair of double-dribble calls, while the Longhorns fumbled numerous passes just feet from the basket.

Thankfully, this weak effort came against one of the worst teams in the conference. It’s a true luxury to play one of your worst games of the year and still come away with a 16-point win. The trajectory this team has taken so far this year leads us to believe that this effort will only lead to improvement in the near future. Expect the Longhorns to once again be firing on all cylinders by tip-off on Wednesday night.

Next up: at Oklahoma (12-10 overall, 4-4 Big 12); Wednesday, 8 P.M. CT

After six years of frustration in College Station, the Longhorns finally left Reed Arena with a victory. Texas led from wire to wire against the Aggies on Monday night, building a lead as large as 27 points before cruising to a dominating 69-49 win over their in-state rivals.

The victory moved the Longhorns to 7-0 in Big 12 play, while the Aggies fell into a third-place tie with Baylor at 4-3. With Texas now holding the tiebreaker over Texas A&M by virtue of sweeping the season series, the Aggies are essentially eliminated from any discussion of a conference title.

To claim the Big 12 crown, Texas A&M would need to run the table — which includes a road trip to Kansas — while the Longhorns would have to lose four of their final nine games, and the Jayhawks would have to lose to another opponent in addition to the Aggies. Not even Lloyd Christmas would like those odds.

What looked good

The story all season has been the superhuman numbers being posted by the Longhorn defense, and against the Aggies it was no different. Texas held A&M to just 0.559 points per possession in the first half, and allowed 0.790 per possession for the game. In conference play alone, Texas is allowing just 0.835 points each time down the court, a number made even more impressive by the fact that it includes four games against the league’s three best teams.

For the third straight game, the Texas defense also completely shut down one of the top scoring threats for the opposition. Khris Middleton couldn’t even manage a point against the Texas defense, despite coming into the game averaging 15.5 a night. Against A&M, Missouri, and Oklahoma State, the Longhorns held Middleton, Marcus Denmon, and Keiton Page to a total of seven points. That trio had combined to average 45.5 points per game prior to facing the Horns.

An early catalyst for the Longhorns was the aggressive play of Dogus Balbay, who has attacked the basket much more in the last few games. Balbay seems to be more aware of when defenses aren’t prepared to stop the ball in transition, and he’s collecting a few easy layups in each game as a result. Against the Aggies, that led to six points for Dogus, who has scored 29 points in Texas’ last four games. In the nine games prior to his offensive outburst, Balbay chalked up a grand total of 28 points.

Jordan Hamilton posted yet another impressive stat line, scoring 20 points with ease. He recognized mismatches and sunk midrange jumpers over Dash Harris and B.J. Holmes, grabbed six rebounds, and added three assists. While Hamilton made only three-pointers against Oklahoma State last week, he was attacking off the dribble in this one and creating good looks for himself inside the arc.

The bench also provided a huge spark in the first half, as the four Longhorn reserves scored 17 points in the first 20 minutes of the game. That alone was nearly enough to eclipse Texas A&M’s 20 first-half points. Big men Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill finally both had a solid game on the same night, with the pair scoring nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, while they combined to grab 12 rebounds. J’Covan Brown chipped in eight points with three assists, and actually did not attempt a three the entire night.

What needed work

As always, free throws were a major issue for the Longhorns. The team shot 59.1% from the line, which at the very least was a marked improvement from the abysmal 47% mark they posted against Missouri on Saturday. Tristan Thompson was once again the main offender, making just four of his 10 attempts at the line. The rest of the Longhorns actually shot 75% from the stripe, although Hill missed the front-end of a one-and-one in the first half.

The offense in the second half left a little to be desired, but it’s hard to fault a team for letting off the gas when they take a 25-point lead to the locker room. Texas managed just 24 points in the second half, but still shot 44% from the field over that stretch. All told, the Longhorns scored 1.087 points per possession, a number any fan would be pleased with in conference play. If the biggest complaint you can make about a team is that they didn’t win by 30 points, then it seems you don’t have that much to worry about.

Unfortunately, the one Longhorn who did had a rough night was reserve guard Jai Lucas. He had a nice early drive for a layup, but also picked up three fouls (one of which was 85 feet from the basket), bricked his only three-point attempt, and was abused defensively by B.J. Holmes. It’s great that Jai was able to play 12 minutes in this one, but it’s hard to believe this performance earned himself any extra minutes in the future.

Next up: vs. Texas Tech (11-11 overall, 3-4 Big 12); 8 P.M, Saturday

For the second time in just five days, the Longhorns were the hated enemy in a sold-out, hostile gym. But as has become the norm this season, Texas fed off the negative energy and silenced the fans, emerging from Gallagher-Iba Arena with a 61-46 victory.

The win was the fifth on the road for the Longhorns, who have tripped up just once away from home this season. In early December, Texas was embarrassed by an average USC team in Los Angeles, losing by 17 points. Since then, the Horns have been undefeated on the road, winning by an average margin of 14.2 points.

With the victory, the Horns keep their perfect conference mark intact, moving to 5-0 in Big 12 play. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, dropped to 2-4 in the conference, falling into a tie for 9th place with Kansas State.

What looked good

The most-hated Longhorn in Stillwater wasn’t Jordan Hamilton or Tristan Thompson. Instead, it was Dogus Balbay, who responded to the jeers by having a career night. Balbay more than doubled his scoring average, putting in 10 points, all in the first half. Along with Cory Joseph, the Turkish guard also prevented OSU’s sharpshooting Keiton Page from even scoring a point.

Balbay’s hustle was visible everywhere on the court Wednesday night. He grabbed five boards and had four assists in the winning effort, and constantly batted away Oklahoma State passes. Even with most of those deflections ending up out of bounds, Balbay still came up with two steals.

As it has been all season, Balbay’s staunch defense was just one part of Texas’ stifling performance on D. As a team, the Longhorns held Oklahoma State to 32.1% shooting from the field and limited the Pokes to only 0.793 points per possession. Coming into the game, OSU was averaging roughly 1.04 points each time down the floor.

Freshman big man Tristan Thompson worked through a difficult first half and ended up with a very productive night. He scored all 14 of his points in the second half, including a seven-minute stretch where he scored 11 straight points for Texas. On defense, he frustrated the Cowboy bigs with three blocks.

Another reassuring sight in the win was the clear effort Jordan Hamilton and J’Covan Brown were making in looking for open teammates. In addition to his 12 points — all coming behind the arc — Hamilton was credited with two assists. When not taking open threes, he was attacking off the dribble and looking for open teammates as the defense collapsed on him. If not for fumbled passes by other Longhorns, Hamilton would have had another few assists.

Brown, meanwhile, seemed to be quite aware that it wasn’t his night to shoot. Although he forced up a bad three near the end of the first half, he mostly played within the flow of the offense. After a few misses, he was content with passing off to other guards coming off of screens and curls. His deferential attitude didn’t result in any assists against Oklahoma State, but it is definitely preferable to poor shot selection.

In addition, the alternating big games from Matt Hill and Alexis Wangmene continued, with the big man from Cameroon providing the quality PT against the Cowboys. Wangmene played just 11 minutes, but worked hard inside and earned two trips to the line, which he turned into four points. He grabbed a pair of rebounds as well, and only turned it over once, on a bobbled one-time pass from Hamilton.

What needed work

Unfortunately, the Texas offense was very sloppy with the ball in the first half, particularly in transition. The team’s 23.7% turnover percentage was its third-highest of the season, behind only the neutral-site loss to Pitt and a very sloppy win against Lamar.

With Missouri coming to town on Saturday, that lack of ball control in high-tempo situations is cause for concern. The Longhorns may have won this one by 16 points, but had they simply held on to the ball, the margin of victory likely would have crept past twenty. The Tigers are going to push the tempo and pressure the ball, so Texas cannot afford to have a repeat performance on Saturday.

In the half-court, Oklahoma State was very committed to limiting Texas’ points in the paint, and that often led to double- and triple-teams when Thompson and Gary Johnson would get the ball in the lane. When they would manage to put up a shot against the army of defenders, there was never an orange jersey anywhere near the rim.

Not only did this cost Texas a bunch of offensive rebounding opportunities, but it also meant that Thompson and Johnson had very few options to dish it off when OSU collapsed. With the Cowboys focused on the ball, Texas could have capitalized with easy layups by players cutting from the wings, and it would have resulted in more putbacks on Johnson and Thompson’s missed jumpers.

Next up: vs. #13/11 Missouri (17-3 overall, 3-2 Big 12); 8 P.M. CT, Saturday