It took three days, but the Texas Longhorns were finally able to earn a victory in the Maui Invitational, knocking off Mississippi State to take seventh place in the tournament. After an embarrassing loss to Division II host Chaminade and a narrow overtime defeat at the hands of USC, Texas came out of the gate with renewed energy and more of an offensive identity on Wednesday morning.

What looked good

Julien Lewis fueled the Longhorns from the opening tip, knocking down a pair of three-pointers in the first 2.5 minutes. Starting late in the USC loss, the Longhorns worked hard to free up Lewis, setting staggered screens to lose his defender. In the corner, at the elbow, and coming off of curls, Julien was consistently knocking down his shot. Against the Bulldogs, he finished 6-of-10 from the field. In his last two games, the sophomore made 66.7% of his shots.

Using Lewis as an off-the-ball shooter in the mold of former Horn A.J. Abrams is a welcome development. Last season, he would often try to create his own shots off the bounce, and he typically struggled to find any consistent success. With most of his makes coming off of catch-and-shoot situations in Maui, Lewis’ driving game improved, as well. On one particular bucket, the defender rushed out to challenge the shot, and Julien blew past him on the baseline for an easy finish.

Sheldon McClellan came off the bench for a second-straight game, but he responded to the challenge this time. While McClellan was clearly frustrated by the physical nature of the USC game and the tight defense the Trojans threw at him, he fought through the contact against Mississippi State. Sheldon knocked down more than 50% of his shots against the Bulldogs, and that offensive success helped him to stay more keyed-in on the defensive end.

Two of McClellan’s buckets came on the exact same baseline out-of-bounds play, and Mississippi State coach Rick Ray was screaming across the court to his defense when the Longhorns lined up to run it a third time. The Bulldogs still didn’t deny McClellan the ball, but he didn’t score easily that time around. Later, on the fourth attempt, Mississippi State finally stuck with the sophomore and forced the Longhorns to go to another option on the inbounds.

Freshman big man Cameron Ridley had the best game of his young career, just missing a double-double with eight points and 12 rebounds. He also led the Texas interior defense, swatting five of the 12 shots that the Horns blocked on the day. Ridley was confident and strong with the basketball inside, going up strong after most offensive rebounds, and making quick decisions when being fed in the post.

Prince Ibeh was also a big part of Texas’ formidable interior defense, blocking three shots of his own. When Ibeh and Ridley played together, it was almost unfair. While one provided steady on-ball defense, the other would come over to clean up the challenged shot. Ibeh still has a long way to go on the offensive end, and looks genuinely panicked at times when trying to post up. Still, his defense against Mississippi State and for most of the USC game will give fans and coaches a glimpse of the potential he has to alter the game inside.

What needed work

As it has been all season, the biggest issue for the Longhorns was a rash of turnovers. Although Lewis had an excellent shooting day, he coughed it up eight times, including one instance where he simply lost his dribble on the wing and just watched it bounce out of bounds. Texas continued to throw questionable passes and made lazy ones on the perimeter. For the game, Texas posted its second-worst turnover rate of the season, ending 34.1% of their possessions with a miscue.

Mississippi State took full advantage of these mistakes, scoring 20 points off of turnovers. Although that didn’t make a difference in this game, a late turnover and fast-break dunk led to overtime and a loss against USC. Texas did a good job forcing quite a few Mississippi State turnovers, which mitigated their own mistakes. But against tougher competition, those errors are going to result in losses.

Many of those mistakes came on transition opportunities where the Longhorns waited too long to make decisions and didn’t keep spacing coming down the court. Players often got themselves just a few feet from the rim before trying to make a decision, sometimes already airborne. Passes were thrown behind teammates, they were thrown when teammates weren’t expecting them, and multiple opportunities were wasted. This Texas team is very athletic and will need to score often in transition this season, but the youngsters clearly need to get some more reps in order to improve their decision-making skills on the break.

Demarcus Holland saw a major increase in minutes against USC and Mississippi State, but struggled when tasked when running the offense. He did knock down a nice pull-up jumper against the Bulldogs, but typically was far too loose with his dribble when trying to slice down the lane. Holland will learn how to adjust his pace as he plays more minutes, but right now he seems to only attack at one speed.

Defensively, you can see that he buys into the system and is constantly thinking, aware of where he is in relation to the ball and his teammates. However, in one-on-one situations, Holland played too tightly on guards that he could not keep in front of him. USC’s Jio Fontan was able to easy shake Holland and get to the rim on two occasions, while Ibeh had to bail out Holland with a block on one play against Mississippi State. If Holland can’t rapidly improve his lateral quickness, he needs to recognize his own limitations and scale back the pressure just a bit.

Ioannis Papapetrou also played quite a few minutes at the point, giving Javan Felix a nice breather in the team’s third game in three days. Mississippi State did a very poor job turning away Papapetrou’s drives down the lane, giving up some easy finishes at the rack. However, the offense lacked off-the-ball motion when he was at the point, so the second unit will need to avoid ball-watching when he’s running the show.

If Myck Kabongo is reinstated soon, this will likely not matter much this season. On the other hand, if he’s deemed ineligible and Papapetrou becomes the backup point by default, the second unit cannot be a one-man show.

Up next: vs. Sam Houston State; 7 P.M., Tuesday

There are so many things that can go wrong on a vacation: your flights can get delayed, luggage can be misplaced, local delicacies can disagree with your stomach, you can get the hotel room with the shower that won’t stop dripping. Or, you can lose to a Division II program on national television.

The Texas Longhorns did exactly that last night in Lahaina, falling to Chaminade, 86-73, and becoming just the seventh team to lose to the host school in 83 Maui Invitational games. For head coach Rick Barnes, it was his second loss to Chaminade, having dropped a game to the Silverswords when he was coaching Providence in 1991.

There is no sugar-coating this loss, no spin to put on the results. It was an ugly and uninspired game, plain and simple. You could call it the lowest point of the Barnes era, and there would be no argument from anywhere in the burnt orange fanbase. In fact, you could probably widen the scope just a bit when measuring the depths of this low point, as this was the first Texas defeat at the hands of a D-II opponent since the 1980’s.

Despite being much bigger than the Silverswords, the Longhorns were pushed around and out-muscled in this game. Chaminade has just two players listed at 6’7″ on their roster, and used only two others who are 6’6″. They challenged the Longhorns with physical play early, and the whistles were plentiful for both sides. But Texas backed down, failing to exploit their size advantage inside for easy points.

Chaminade took that aggressive, physical approach and used it to turn the tables on the glass, as well. The Silverswords grabbed 38.5% of their offensive rebounding opportunities and held the Longhorns to just 28.2% on their own offensive glass. Texas shot 46.4% from the field, much higher than the 36.8% that Chaminade could manage, but winning the rebounding battles kept the Silversword possessions alive and allowed them to overcome the shooting disparities.

The Silverswords also took advantage of their opportunities at the charity stripe, while the Longhorns continued to struggle. With Chaminade playing aggressively, they posted an impressive free-throw rate of 68.4%, which equates to roughly two free throws for every three field goal attempts. At the line, they logged a steady 34-of-39 performance, while the Longhorns struggled to make just 17 of 30. That number includes misses on the front ends of one-and-ones by both Cameron Ridley and Jonathan Holmes in the second half, costing the team not only two points, but two more free throw opportunities.

The Texas offense looked lost on most possessions until the final few minutes, as players stood anchored to the ground and hoped that others would make a play. There was no inside presence to speak of, as the Longhorns struggled against the physical nature of Chaminade’s undersized frontcourt. Guards waited around the perimeter for cuts and screens that never came, and simple passes were bobbled out of bounds.

On one second half possession, Coach Barnes called a timeout during an unproductive halfcourt set. The players came towards the huddle, arguing about who was supposed to go where. “It doesn’t matter!” Barnes screamed at the team. “It doesn’t matter! Don’t stand around!” After the vitriolic timeout, the Longhorns wasted the possession by turning it over on a shot clock violation.

If you must look for the silver linings in this disaster, there were a few slivers of hope for the future. Although Ridley continued to shoot like Shaq at the free throw line, picked up offensive fouls, and left a baseline drive completely undefended when he ran away from the ballhandler, he did show off some solid moves in the post. On two or three different occasions, he took the entry pass and made a quick, strong move for the bucket. He obviously has a long way to go, but the fundamentals and raw talent are clearly there.

The Longhorns also made a late charge as they tried to cobble together a futile and short-lived comeback bid. Texas turned up the backcourt pressure to force mistakes, and the Horns actually started knocking down long-range looks. Fans have to wonder why it took 30-plus minutes for Texas to put forth that effort and play with some intensity.

Coach Barnes didn’t feel encouraged by the late-game surge, telling reporters, “Sometimes there is such a thing as phony tough guys when you’re playing with house money now. You’re coming back saying ‘What the heck,’ and you play.”

The coach also shot down any excuses for his roster full of freshman and sophomores. “We’re not going to buy the youth thing. It chalks up to toughness. It chalks up to guys doing their job, chalks up to leadership or lack of.”

With Myck Kabongo still sidelined due to an NCAA investigation and Jaylen Bond limited due to injuries, Texas is still searching for that leader. Sheldon McClellan made some big plays late, but was held mostly in check by the Chaminade defense and had to grind out his points at the line. Freshman point guard Javan Felix led the team in scoring and logged five assists, but turned it over three times and couldn’t get the team running their halfcourt sets. With major-conference opponents looming in the next two days, the Longhorns will need to answer the leadership question immediately.

Up next: vs. USC; Tuesday, 4 P.M. CT

Under head coach Rick Barnes, the Longhorns have always focused on the defensive side of the ball. In fact, only once in the last ten seasons did the Horns finish outside of the top fifty in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric. While Barnes has long used a stingy man-to-man defense to achieve those impressive numbers, depth concerns have forced him to flip the script in the first two games this season.

“Defensively, we’re playing zone because of Myck Kabongo’s situation,” he told reporters after the game. “If we’re going to take advantage of the length of these guys, we’ve got to play some zone.”

That zone defense stifled Coppin State in last night’s victory, limiting the Eagles to just 24.6% shooting on the night. In tempo-free numbers, Texas held Coppin State to just .631 points per possession, the best single-game performance by a Longhorn team since limiting UT-Pan American to .523 PPP on December 15th, 2009.

A big part of that defensive success was due to the improved play by freshman Prince Ibeh. With Jonathan Holmes saddled by foul trouble, Ibeh logged 20 minutes against the Eagles and swatted three shots. On one block, Ibeh seemed to jump so far off the floor that he looked suspended in mid-air. He also was tied for the team lead with nine rebounds, three of them coming on the offensive glass.

At 6’10” and blessed with great length, Ibeh has so far shown great lateral quickness and springy hops. If Texas is going to utilize the 2-3 zone more often this season, Ibeh’s defensive presence is going to alter game plans for opponents.

Freshman Ioannis Papapetrou was the other Longhorn who snagged nine rebounds, but his impact on the game was far from one-dimensional. After not making a big offensive impact against Fresno State, Papi showed off a variety of skills in a 10-point performance. The Greek product knocked down 2-of-4 from behind the arc and also displayed a nice driving ability when the defense pressured him on the perimeter. When Javan Felix was getting a breather on the bench, Papi even brought the ball up as a point forward. Defensively, he harassed Coppin State players who handled the ball in the corners, and he hustled all over the floor for those nine boards.

For fellow freshman Felix, the second game was rough. Javan failed to score a point in the game and was responsible for eight of the team’s 26 turnovers. The most frustrating aspect of the turnovers by Felix and the Longhorns was that 18 of them came on steals. Lazy passes on the perimeter were intercepted and turned into fast break buckets. The Longhorns also repeatedly just held the ball in front of the nose of defenders while standing outside the arc, resulting in easy steals. Felix had major issues against the tough defense of Troy Franklin, getting so thoroughly embarrassed by one mid-court pickpocketing that Coach Barnes immediately took a timeout to dress him down.

With Felix held scoreless, even more of the offensive punch had to come from sophomore star Sheldon McClellan, and he rose to the challenge. After scoring 14 of his 20 points in the season opener from the stripe, McClellan only tallied 8 of his career-high 25 from the line against Coppin State. He led the team with a trio of three-pointers, missing just one long range attempt. Another basket came from just inside the arc, while his most impressive shot was on a baseline drive where he stopped on a dime and knocked down a turnaround jumper.

Although McClellan and Papapetrou both found success from outside, the team still had its share of struggles beyond the arc. After knocking down just 1-of-13 in the season opener, the Horns made only two of their first 10 attempts against Coppin State. Texas ultimately booked a 35% mark on the night, connecting on seven of 20. Julien Lewis and Connor Lammert were responsible for most of the misses, combining to make just one of their nine attempts.

In our Fresno State game wrap, we quantified just how poorly last year’s team performed from behind the arc. This year, there is clearly the potential for greater success with McClellan playing more aggressively, Papapetrou showing off some long range, and even Demarcus Holland looking like a sharpshooter off the bench. However, Lewis’ 1-for-9 mark on the season is a concerning one, as it reminds us just how often he was an indiscriminate and inaccurate shooter last year. If the Longhorns can get some long-range punch from McClellan and Papapetrou, there is no reason for Lewis to be leading the team in three-point attempts.

While some improvement was seen on threes, the Longhorns looked downright awful at the stripe. McClellan was once again steady at the line, pushing his season mark to 91.6% (22-of-24) on free throws. But for the rest of the team, the charity stripe was far from friendly, as they combined to make just 8-of-19 (42.1%) of their attempts. Ibeh and Cameron Ridley were the worst offenders, going 2-of-9 at the stripe. Ridley had numerous shots clank off the back iron, while Ibeh airballed a free throw and chucked another off the backboard, completely missing the rim. If the Texas bigs are this bad at the line all year, opponents will certainly take a few fouls to make them earn their points.

In addition to struggling at the stripe, Ridley also once again looked awkward and uncomfortable on offense. All three of his fouls came on the offensive end, and he coughed it up on another three occasions. Although Cam has big hands just made for basketball, he’s had major issues handling passes in his first two games. Opponents can already sense that nervousness, as Fresno State and Coppin State both were able to fluster and frustrate the big man with quick, pesky double teams. Ridley obviously still needs to adjust to the competition level, but it’s a very young season and plenty of time to improve. The Longhorns have to hope he takes advantage of that opportunity.

Although there were a lot of areas for Coach Barnes to address in the long week off before the Maui Invitational, Texas did look great in transition. The Horns consistently got out and ran the floor, and Felix repeatedly looked up to find his teammates for easy buckets. Texas also took advantage of defensive lapses by Coppin State, connecting for a handful of rim-rattling alley-oops. All told, the Longhorns logged 14 assists in this game, a vast improvement on the three-assist performance against Fresno State. In tempo-free terms, Texas jumped from 16.7% to 60.9% in the assist rate category.

Up next: vs. Chaminade (Maui Invitational); Monday, 8:30 P.M. CT

In the first 14 years of the Rick Barnes era, the Longhorns lost just two home openers. In fact, in the last ten years, no team had started their season with a road win at the Frank Erwin Center. Friday night, a Texas squad with no scholarship upperclassmen came perilously close to ending that streak and suffering an embarrassing upset at the hands of Fresno State.

Texas never led the visiting Bulldogs by more than five points, and did not take the edge for good until less than two minutes left in the game. Poor shooting and a rash of first-half turnovers rendered the Longhorn offense ineffective, making things interesting down to the final second. Fresno State’s desperation heave from the backcourt missed the mark at the buzzer, allowing the Longhorns to survive with a 55-53 opening night victory.

Sophomore Sheldon McClellan led the way for Texas, putting in 20 points — 18 of them in the second half — to carry his team to victory. Expectations were high for McClellan coming into the season, as fans and pundits both looked for the gifted scorer to have a breakout season. With Myck Kabongo sidelined during an NCAA investigation and Jaylen Bond suffering from an ankle injury, it was even more necessary that McClellan live up to those expectations against Fresno State.

For the first twenty minutes, it didn’t look like the sophomore was going to do so. He missed a trio of three-pointers to start the game, and didn’t even crack the scoresheet until notching a pair of free throws with 5:25 to go in the first half. Another missed three-pointer and a missed layup rounded out McClellan’s first twenty minutes, as he and the Longhorns headed to the locker room in a 25-all tie.

The poor start didn’t deter McClellan, as he turned up the aggressiveness in the second half. With Texas running staggered baseline screens to free him up, the sophomore repeatedly received the ball on the wing and immediately took it at the defense. Driving baseline and slashing to the lane, he put the Bulldogs on their heels and earned trip after trip to the line. McClellan finished the game with a perfect 14-of-14 mark at the charity stripe, grinding out the points to push Texas into the win column.

While Sheldon was struggling in the first half, freshman point guard Javan Felix was making an early splash. The New Orleans native scored six of Texas’ first eight points, showing off his soft touch on runners in the lane before pulling up for a jumper from the elbow. The hot start was short-lived, though, as Felix quickly tailed off and finished the game just 5-of-15 from the field. He lost his touch on the floater, and the Fresno State defense was able to challenge and sometimes even block that free-throw line jumper.

Although Felix only finished with one assist on the night, he set up his teammates numerous times with nice feeds into the post and kickouts for wide-open threes. Unfortunately, the Longhorns simply couldn’t knock anything down and wasted some great opportunities. On many possessions, Texas was fouled down low and had to earn their points from the line, something that doesn’t show up when looking in the assist column. Although Texas had just three assists on eighteen made buckets, the team posted a solid free-throw rate of 49%, essentially earning one free throw for every two field goal attempts.

Though Felix was the one who turned heads on Friday night, the freshman who entered the game with all of the hype was McDonald’s All-American Cameron Ridley. His defensive performance was promising, as he stood tall in the paint, didn’t bite on fakes, and challenged the Fresno State bigs. Despite being limited to just 13 minutes, Ridley logged three blocks and owned the paint with the steady resolve of recent Longhorn standout Tristan Thompson.

As encouraging as Ridley’s performance was on the defensive end, his struggles on the other end of the court kept him on the bench down the stretch. The 6’9″ big man was called for a pair of offensive fouls, had trouble handling post feeds, and was very slow to react to double teams from the Bulldog defenders. His one offensive highlight came on Felix’s lone assist, when the point guard spun in the lane before dumping a jump pass to Ridley on the baseline. Cameron took one powerful step and flushed it home for an and-one opportunity, but missed the ensuing free throw.

The Longhorns were led on the boards by sophomore Jonathan Holmes, who consistently crashed the glass from the wings and high post. He snagged 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, making up for the huge hole left by Bond’s injury. While Jonathan didn’t have much success scoring inside, his ability to extend possessions was key on a night that Texas had trouble putting the ball in the hoop.

Texas’ 44.1% mark on the offensive glass kept possessions alive, but it was the Longhorn defense that kept Fresno State within reach. Texas opened both halves in a 2-3 zone that surprised the Bulldogs and led to long possessions with questionable shot selection. However, the second-teamers let the Fresno State guards find cracks to exploit with dribble penetration, leading to some easy buckets in the first half.

For the game, Texas limited Fresno State to just .914 points per possession. Getting that many freshmen to buy into a defense-first concept is certainly a big deal, but exuberance should be tempered by looking back at the FSU offense from a year ago. The Bulldogs were in the bottom half of D-I hoops according to Ken Pomeroy, whose adjusted offensive efficiency rating gave them just .989 points per possession. Their effective field-goal percentage was one of the 100 worst in Division I, checking in at only 46%. Texas’ defensive performance was definitely stout on Friday night, but fans should limit their excitement until after the Horns face tougher competition in the second and third days of the Maui Invitational.

While the bad shooting was certainly a big culprit, the Longhorns also had issues running their sets early in this one. The Longhorns worked hard in the first half to get their scorers open with baseline screens, but the Texas bigs repeatedly allowed the sets to get too stretched out. On different possessions, Holmes, Connor Lammert, and Ioannis Papapetrou all found themselves holding the ball four or five feet beyond the perimeter, hoping to make an entry pass against tight Fresno ball pressure. Even with perfect execution on the baseline, that feed would have been far too difficult and dangerous to make.

The Longhorns also struggled to make any long jumpers, hitting just one of their 13 three-point attempts. The numbers aren’t worth panicking over after just one game, but outside shooting could prove to once again be a major issue for Texas this season. Last year’s squad held the ignominious distinction of being the school’s worst three-point shooting team (32.78%) in the last 13 years, and the Horns lost the top two shooters from that team in J’Covan Brown and Sterling Gibbs. Their departures leave Coach Barnes with five rotation guys who combined for a hideous 30.7% mark from long range in 2011-12. If this young Texas team actually challenges last year’s marks for three-point futility, the Horns are going to struggle to score against a ton of packed-in defenses.

Up next: vs. Coppin State (0-1); Monday, 7 P.M. CT

All week, the buzz in Kansas City surrounded the impending final game of the famous Border War, a rare third meeting between Kansas and Missouri in the Big 12 Championship. This time, it would be for more than just bragging rights, with the possible prize being a favorable NCAA path through the St. Louis regional. Unfortunately, the Jayhawks didn’t hold up their end of the bargain, falling short against Baylor in the first semifinal on Friday night.

Although Missouri was denied the chance to face their rivals one last time, it didn’t seem to affect their motivation. The Tigers looked like a well-oiled machine against the Longhorns in the second semifinal of the night, coasting to an 81-67 win behind 23 points each from Kim English and Flip Pressey.

What looked good

The best offense for Texas on Friday night was the putback, as the Horns dominated the second-chance scoring department by a 22-11 count. Texas missed numerous short-range shots, but strong play inside led to gobs of offensive rebounds and extended possessions. The Horns posted an offensive rebounding mark of 50%, their third-best output of the year, and best since a February 4th win over Texas Tech.

Jonathan Holmes, Jaylen Bond, and Clint Chapman were the workhorses on the glass, combining to grab 35% of the offensive rebounding opportunities by themselves. Holmes racked up the putbacks, chalking up 11 points as a result. Bond missed some easy looks inside and finished with just four points, but his tenacity on the glass was huge. Chapman, meanwhile, seemed to always come up with key tip-ins when shots rimmed out.

The Horns also had some flashes of brilliance on the offensive end from Sheldon McClellan. It only happened on a few possessions, but when he took the defender baseline, the Tigers couldn’t keep him in front of them. He finished the night with 10 points in 30 minutes off the bench.

There aren’t many games left in this season, but the key to McClellan’s growth will be whether or not he becomes more aggressive and assertive. This team needs more players pressuring the defense, and he has the skillset to do it. Wherever the Horns head next week for postseason play, they will need McClellan to help Myck Kabongo and J’Covan Brown by attacking the defense with the bounce.

Brown posted 21 points against the Tigers with yet another strong second half, although he gave Texas fans a huge scare in the process. J’Covan made a layup with 16:27 to go that pulled the Horns to within four points, but fell into the row of photographers on the baseline and slammed his head into a camera. Brown was on the floor for what felt like an eternity, but ended up missing only about two minutes of game time. He was still aggressive following his return, scoring 12 of his points after the injury.

Kabongo’s performance was a mixed bag, but he seemed to get better as the game went on. He finished with five assists to just one turnover, but he seemed frazzled by the Missouri defense as the Tigers put on a run in the middle of the first half. After that bad stretch, he played a much more controlled game at the point, and the Longhorns tightened up their ball control.

What needed work

The big problem for Myck on Friday night was an inability to finish inside. That’s been a sticking point for the guard all season long, and quite frankly is the main reason we feel he’d benefit from another year at Texas. Kabongo needs to add some strength to finish through contact, instead of having to try — and usually miss — acrobatic shots through traffic.

As for those turnovers, it felt like a repeat of the game between the two teams in Columbia. Texas coughed it up six times in the first 12 minutes of last night’s game, including four times in a 2:42 stretch. During that brief span, Missouri expanded their lead from two points all the way out to 10, and kept the Longhorns at arm’s reach for the rest of the half. As we mentioned, Texas did a much better job controlling the ball after that disastrous stretch, but the team has very little margin for error against elite teams like Missouri. Every possession has to count if Texas wants to grind out wins against better competition.

On the other end of the court, the Texas defense really struggled. There were a few possessions early in the game where the Horns denied dribble penetration and forced Ricardo Ratliffe off the block, but otherwise the Tigers put on a clinic. Early on, the Longhorns went under the screens for Flip Pressey, a repeat of the deadly mistake they made in Columbia. Once again, the sophomore made Texas pay, drilling three early threes as part of his 23-point night.

The Longhorns also consistently failed to deny penetration, to stop the ball in transition, and to rotate quickly. The poor rotation allowed Missouri to kill them with crisp ball movement all around the court. The Texas defense was always a few seconds behind the ball and the play, leading to tons of open looks for the great Tiger shooters. As a result, they finished 45.5% from behind the arc and posted a 52.6% mark from the field.

In tempo-free terms, Mizzou scored 1.288 points per possession, the second-worst defensive performance for Texas all year. The worst came when the two teams met in Columbia, where the Tigers posted an offensive efficiency mark of 1.306 PPP.

The big picture

Fortunately, it appears that Texas did enough in beating Iowa State on Friday night to make their 14th-consecutive NCAA tournament. Barring any major bid thievery in the next 30 hours, Texas should be safely in the field and could possibly even avoid the First Four in Dayton. While a win over Missouri would have sewn up a bid and eliminated any of the drama from Selection Sunday, Texas at least was able to avoid a demoralizing blowout that could have raised questions about their tournament-worthiness.

Next up: NCAA Bracket Unveiling; Sunday, 5 P.M. CT, CBS