As the Texas Longhorns headed to the locker room at halftime of Saturday afternoon’s game against Kansas State, it appeared that the hopes of a 14th-consecutive NCAA appearance could be circling the drain. The Wildcats had put on a late surge to build a 13-point lead heading into the break, thanks in large part to the fact that the Horns managed just two field goals in the final 16:28 of the half.

The first possession of the second half started off promising, as Clint Chapman blocked a shot and the Wildcats missed a short putback. But then another offensive rebound led to an easy hoop for K-State, and suddenly Texas was in a 15-point second-half hole on a day where they had yet to even manage that many points from the field. Even faced with those daunting odds, the Longhorns stormed back and kept their NCAA hopes alive, powered by a surprise performance from the unlikeliest of sources.

With 16:30 left in the game, Alexis Wangmene threw down a dunk off a missed layup by J’Covan Brown, breaking a 12-minute field goal drought for the Longhorns and bringing the Erwin Center crowd to life. It cut the Kansas State lead to 10 points and kick-started an 11-0 run that put the Longhorns back in the game. Following Wangmene’s dunk, Texas outscored KSU by a 43-20 count the rest of the way, cruising in the final minutes to an incredibly important win.

What looked good

While Wangmene provided the turning point for the Horns, he also chipped in his first career double-double, posting 15 points and 13 boards on the afternoon. His performance went beyond the stats, as his little hustle plays kept Texas in the game during a dismal first half and helped to lock up the game in the second. He added two blocks and a steal, but his active hands on defense disrupted many more plays than that.

The one possession that best exemplified Wangmene’s effort came in the first half when he was sprawled on the floor, stretched across the lane following a missed shot by Texas. Three Wildcats had chances to corral the rebound, but he kept tipping at the ball, knocking it out of their hands. Ultimately, a Kansas State player bobbled the ball out of bounds, giving it back to Texas on the baseline. He had no chance at actually securing the basketball himself, but Wangmene’s hustle forced a mistake by the opponents. That type of heads-up play defined Alexis’ performance on Saturday.

Myck Kabongo had set the tone early for Texas, picking up where he left off in the team’s first meeting at Bramlage Coliseum. The freshman consistently attacked the paint, as K-State’s Angel Rodriguez once again couldn’t keep up with his quick first step. Myck scored seven of Texas’ first 11 points, and added an assist on a nice interior bounce pass for a Wangmene dunk. His impact was short lived, however, as he picked up his second foul midway through the first and spent the rest of the half on the bench.

It took only three minutes of the second half for Kabongo to pick up his third foul, once again leaving the Horns without their point guard. Unlike the first half, the Texas offense remained aggressive with Kabongo off the floor, led by a revitalized Brown. The junior guard scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half, including a pair of buckets on nifty spin moves that froze Kansas State and electrified the crowd.

Brown’s commitment to driving the lane and attacking Kansas State spread to the team, and the Longhorns took advantage of an officiating crew that was calling everything tight. The two teams were called for nine fouls combined in the first four minutes of the game, and as a result both squads were shuffling players thanks to foul trouble. With the Wildcat frontcourt reduced to a platoon situation, the quick, athletic Longhorn guards and wings continually put the ball on the floor and made the defense react, earning easier looks inside and 28 trips to the line in the second half.

The Longhorns also continued their resurgence at the charity stripe, knocking down nearly 73% of their attempts for the game. In the first half, Texas was a questionable 13-of-20 from the line, but improved down the stretch when it mattered most. After making just 63.2% of their attempts in the games against Iowa State, Baylor, and Missouri, the Longhorns have made 75.5% of their free throws during their three-game winning streak.

While the aggressive play helped Texas storm back in the second half, the team’s dominating defensive performance made sure that Kansas State had no chance to stop the comeback. The Longhorns extended their pressure beyond the perimeter, with even Wangmene getting up in the shirt of K-State bigs when they would catch the ball on the arc. The Longhorns forced nine turnovers and held the Wildcats to just 32.3% shooting in the second half, while also shutting out top scorer Rodney McGruder for the final twenty minutes.

Texas also dominated the glass, making sure that their solid defensive possessions weren’t ruined by second chances for Kansas State. Led by Wangmene’s breakout performance, the Longhorns limited the Wildcats to just four offensive boards in the final 19:31 of the game. In tempo-free terms, that gave K-State an offensive rebounding mark of only 21% in crunch time, a far cry from their season average of 41.9%.

What needed work

When a team puts on such an inspiring comeback to save not just a game, but also a season, it can be hard to step back and take a look at what went wrong. Still, there were a few issues for Texas, particularly in the team’s flat first half.

The two first-half fouls by Kabongo were incredibly frustrating for Longhorn fans and coaches alike. The first came on a charge when he pushed the tempo into a trap, while the second was a hold on an inbounds play. While both likely wouldn’t have been called in a game where the refs weren’t working so hard to keep things under control, Kabongo needs to adjust to the situation. The Longhorns need him on the floor, so he can’t be picking up fouls on offense or when the ball isn’t even in play.

Without the freshman point guard on the floor, the Texas offense fizzled in the first half. As has been the case on many occasions this season, the Longhorns stood around, making lackluster cuts and setting weak screens. This team has shown that they can score without having both Brown and Kabongo on the floor, but fail to do it with any consistency. It seems at times like the youngsters just forget what they have to do off the ball to make the offense work.

Fortunately, the halftime adjustments in this game were perfect. The Texas coaching staff apparently said all the right things in the locker room, and the players took it to heart. The Longhorns have made it a habit to dig themselves deep holes in conference play before typically storming back late in the game. For much of the season, that has resulted in close losses. Although this time the team was able to salvage the win, it would be great for the hearts and stomachs of Longhorn Nation if the team could play solid first-half basketball in the future.

The big picture

The win levels Texas’ conference record at 6-6, establishing a tie for fifth with Kansas State. If Texas wants to claim fifth-place at season’s end, they will likely have to do it outright. With the two teams splitting their regular season games, the tiebreaker will come down to who has beaten a team higher in the standings. At the moment, K-State holds the edge by virtue of their home win against Missouri. Even if Texas beats Baylor, there’s little chance that the Bears will jump the Tigers in the standings.

If Texas can take care of business on the road in Oklahoma this week, their chances of finishing all alone in fifth are very good. The Wildcats now embark on a tough three-game stretch against Kansas, Missouri, and Baylor, with the latter two games coming on the road. If K-State can’t come up with some upsets, Texas has an excellent opportunity to make a big move in the standings.

Outside of the conference race, this game was also huge for Texas’ bubble prospects. The Longhorns have a favorable back-half of the league schedule that allows them to build momentum, but they also have a rather weak tournament profile. Texas owns just two wins against the RPI Top 50, with those coming at home against Temple and Iowa State. While the Wildcats will likely finish outside of that group, Top 100 wins are also used by the NCAA Selection Committee, and the Longhorns had yet to record a victory against teams ranked 51st to 100th. Winning games against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech wouldn’t impress anyone, so the Horns had to have this W.

With other bubble teams faltering over the last week, Texas now just needs to win the games it is supposed to. A loss in one of this week’s road games wouldn’t be deadly, but would certainly be damaging. What would be crippling is a sweep in the state of Oklahoma, which would put Texas back on the wrong side of the bubble with work left to do in the final three weeks. While the Horns earned a win they had to have on Saturday, they can’t afford to let their guard down as they hit the road.

Up next: at Oklahoma (13-11 overall, 3-9 Big 12)

The Texas Longhorns have very little margin for error as they come down the stretch of the 2011-12 season. Almost all major bracket projections have them hovering right on the dreaded bubble, so with just seven regular season games left, there’s little time to make rectify a mistake. This afternoon, the Longhorns have a rare chance to make up for an earlier missed opportunity, as they host the Kansas State Wildcats, a team that narrowly beat them earlier this season.

Currently just 2-8 against the RPI Top 100, Texas desperately needs to add some quality wins to the tournament résumé, something they can do with a victory over K-State this afternoon. The Wildcats were ranked 50th in Monday’s edition of the NCAA’s official RPI rankings, so while a win by Texas would likely knock KSU out of the vaunted Top 50, it would still provide an immediate boost to Texas’ tourney profile. Unfortunately, the Horns haven’t had much luck taking care of the Wildcats at home, as K-State owns a three-game winning streak over the Horns in Austin.

Meet the Wildcats

For a full look at the K-State roster, check out LRT’s game preview from the first time these two teams met.

The first game

In the first meeting between these two teams, Kansas State abused Texas inside early, piling up the fouls on Jaylen Bond and Jonathan Holmes. Big man Clint Chapman managed to avoid the whistles and stay on the court, thanks in large part to the team’s switch to a zone defense. Unfortunately, protecting the Texas frontcourt came at a cost, and Kansas State drilled 7-of-12 from long range in the first half. The Wildcats built a lead as large as 15 late in the first, but the Longhorns managed to erase the entire deficit in less than six minutes. At the break, K-State held just a one-point lead.

The second half was a closely contested affair until the final minutes, when the Wildcats once again stretched their advantage out to seven points with only 74 seconds left. The Longhorns took advantage of terrible free-throw shooting by K-State and executed nearly flawlessly on the offensive end. As a result, Texas had the ball and trailed by just two with 20 seconds left on the clock. When Myck Kabongo and J’Covan Brown tried a dribble handoff near midcourt, Martavious Irving stripped the ball, leading to a game-clinching dunk by Rodney McGruder.

Since then…

Freshman Angel Rodriguez has taken Manhattan by storm, starting all six games since facing the Longhorns. His secure hold on the point guard duties means that Will Spradling can now slide over to a shooting guard role, which fits his skill set much better. Rodriguez is now also the team’s most consistent threat to drive, and the offense often looks stagnant when he’s on the bench. Fortunately for the Horns, the freshman guard has a tendency to pick up dumb fouls, so that time on the bench comes more frequently than Coach Frank Martin would like. Texas fans may also remember that Rodriguez had issues keeping Kabongo in check during the first meeting, so the Texas point guard could get things going with penetration this afternoon.

Despite the emergence of Rodriguez, K-State has had a rather bumpy road since knocking off the Horns on January 18th, going 4-2 since that meeting. K-State took full advantage of a pair of games against league doormat Texas Tech, knocking off the Red Raiders by an average of 20.5 points in their two games. Between those two dominant performances were a pair of tough losses, however. The Wildcats were edged out at home by Oklahoma in an ugly game two weeks ago, giving the Sooners a season sweep of the Cats. Just three days later, KSU blew a second-half lead of 14 points, falling victim to a Royce White game-winner with 1.8 seconds to go.

Now, this afternoon’s game is as much a must-win for K-State as it is for Texas. After traveling to Austin, the Wildcats host league co-leader Kansas and then face stiff road tests against Baylor and Missouri. While Ken Pomeroy gives the Cats just a 22% cumulative chance to go winless, they are still the underdogs in each game. Kansas State has a strong tournament profile, but a four-game losing streak in February would certainly hurt seeding and could even put them back in the bubble discussion if other teams surge down the stretch. There is no doubt that they will come out motivated for a win this afternoon.

Keys to the game

1) Stay aggressive – The Longhorns did a great job spreading the floor, moving the ball well, and attacking the paint on Monday night against Texas A&M. It was a welcome change for an offense that had oftentimes degenerated into a team of four players waiting for J’Covan Brown to make something happen. As a result, the Longhorns posted 1.169 points per possession against the Aggies, their best offensive efficiency mark since beating up on an overmatched Nicholls State squad in December.

In their first meeting with the Wildcats, the Horns were also able to get a piece of the paint thanks to aggressive play by Kabongo and Sheldon McClellan. McClellan scored 19 points against Kansas State, his best output in a conference game. He’s also been hot as of late, scoring 32 points in wins over Tech and A&M, so there is hope he can replicate that performance this afternoon.

K-State used a great team effort to shut down Brown in the first game, throwing different defenders at the guard to keep their own players out of foul trouble. They frustrated J’Covan all night and gave him little space, limiting him to just an 8-of-28 line. If the Wildcats are just as effective against Brown tonight, other Longhorns like Kabongo and McClellan will have to be aggressive to keep the offense from stalling out.

2) Force mistakes – The first time these two teams met, the Longhorns forced the Wildcats into miscues on just 16.7% of their possessions. As a result, K-State had their most efficient offensive performance in conference play. Since then, the Cats have been rather careless with the ball, posting turnover marks of at least 22% in five out of six games. With Rodriguez now at the point, K-State has shown more life on the offensive end, but they have also made some crippling mistakes. If the Horns can actually force some turnovers this time around, they might be able to enact some revenge.

3) Limit second chance points – There’s no way to stop Kansas State from grabbing offensive rebounds, but the Longhorns can at least hope to limit the damage caused by those boards. The Wildcats grabbed more than 51% of their offensive rebounding chances against the Longhorns in Manhattan and turned those second chances into 16 points. Texas needs to not only do a much better job on the defensive glass in this one, but also keep the Wildcats from scoring on easy putbacks when they do reclaim the misses.

They say that you always remember the ones that got away. For the Texas Longhorns, last night’s loss will certainly be one that sticks with them for some time, especially if they are left out of the NCAA field on Selection Sunday. Trailing for much of the game, Texas clawed back into it in the final minutes, aided in no small part by horrendous free-throw shooting by Kansas State. After a furious comeback, Texas found itself down just two points on the final possession before Martavious Irving stripped the ball and the chance for victory away from Myck Kabongo and J’Covan Brown.

Against a bigger, more physical Kansas State team, the Longhorns found themselves in foul trouble quickly. Jonathan Holmes and Jaylen Bond picked up two personals in just a few minutes, and the Longhorns went to a zone to protect their interior players. For the second-straight year, Rodney McGruder made them pay with a pair of clutch threes to spark a first-half run. K-State made 7-of-12 from behind the arc before heading to the locker room, but the Longhorns still managed to keep it within one point at the break.

A nip and tuck second half got away from the Longhorns in the final minutes, as Kansas State rebuilt their lead to seven with just 1:14 left on the clock. The Wildcats missed six of eight free throws over the final 74 seconds, while the Longhorns executed well under pressure to find themselves down just two points with the ball and 20 seconds on the clock. After bringing it across the timeline, Kabongo and Brown tried to execute a dribble handoff beyond the arc, allowing Irving and the Wildcats to ice the game with a steal and McGruder fast-break dunk.

What looked good

For the first time in weeks, freshman Julien Lewis started hot out of the gate. He knocked down his only two shots in the game’s first seven minutes, but spent a majority of his time on the bench thanks to foul trouble. Lewis eventually did foul out of the game, seeing the court for only seven minutes.

While Lewis’ bounceback performance was hampered by the whistle, Sheldon McClellan broke through in a big way. He scored 19 points on the night courtesy of a 7-of-13 shooting line. The only major knock on McClellan’s performance was that he played a bit out of control at times, a rarity for a guy who has been among the best nationally when it comes to protecting the ball. Sheldon had just two turnovers, but there were a few other situations where he and the Longhorns were lucky to retain possession when he was going too fast or drove into a dangerous spot on the floor.

The offensive resurgence for Lewis and McClellan was a welcome change after the pair struggled in the team’s previous four games. Against Iowa State, Oklahoma State, A&M, and Missouri, the two freshmen were just 21-of-78 (26.9%) from the floor. In the losing effort against Kansas State, they combined to shoot 9-of-15 (60%) from the field. While J’Covan Brown has been scoring in bunches, the Longhorns clearly need more scoring options. If Lewis and McClellan can continue to provide that in the coming weeks, the prognosis for Texas will be much sunnier than it was a few days ago.

If Lewis and McClellan can’t keep up their hot shooting, Myck Kabongo could certainly be the team’s second scoring option. Just as he did against Missouri, Kabongo posted a double-double, scoring 14 points to go with 10 assists. Once again, he was aggressive right off the bat, as K-State’s Angel Rodriguez had a very difficult time keeping Myck in front of him. When the help defense tried to cut off Kabongo’s angle to the rim, he consistently found open teammates to set up easy looks or draw fouls.

One of the most-frequent recipients of those assists was Clint Chapman, who finished with 11 points, seven of them coming at the line. When he wasn’t getting the dumpoffs in the lane, Chapman was also doing a good job sealing post defenders to keep the driving lanes open for the Texas guards.

It was also key that Clint kept himself out of foul trouble in this one until late in the game. He spent quite a bit of time on the bench against Missouri, and the team’s post defense suffered without him on the floor in that game. Against Thomas Robinson and Kansas on Saturday, the Longhorns will need Clint to once again avoid the fouls and play big minutes.

Texas also benefited from great free throw shooting to keep themselves in the game. The Longhorns made their first 14 free throws, and finished 19-for-21 on the night. In a game where Kansas State nearly blew the game with a terrible performance at the line, the Longhorns took full advantage of the freebies. Now that Kabongo is attacking with more confidence, the points he and Brown generate at the line will be key to keeping the offense humming.

As the numbers predicted, Texas did also a great job on the offensive glass against Kansas State. The Horns grabbed 46.1% of their misses, and turned those second chances into 11 points. Texas has now posted offensive rebounding percentages of greater than 46% in the last two games, but the Longhorns will find it tough to continue to rebound that well against KU on Saturday.

What needed work

While the offensive rebounding numbers were solid, the defensive numbers were awful. Once again, the stats for the two teams predicted that this would happen, but the Wildcat offensive boards were still daggers in such a close game. What was especially crippling were the three times that Kansas State got the ball back on missed free throws. Twice those second chances came from offensive boards, while the third came in crunch time when the Longhorns simply bobbled the ball out of bounds.

Texas also struggled with turnovers throughout the game, particularly when they dug a huge hole in the first half. The Longhorns lost the ball 16 times on the night, with 10 of those miscues coming in the first half. Those mistakes ended 22.3% of the possessions that Texas had, which is a devastating number in a game decided by just four points.

Some of those turnovers came when the Horns tried to push the tempo and beat the Wildcats in transition, but ended up lofting the ball well over the head of their teammates downcourt. It’s definitely worth going after those easy transition points, but the Texas guards might want to work on their touch in the next few practices so they can be a little more accurate on those full-court passes.

The worst turnover was of course the final one, which erased Texas’ final possession and gave the Wildcats a game-clinching dunk. A big part of the problem was that the Horns were out of timeouts and couldn’t draw up a play, but the guards have to realize that a dribble handoff in that situation brings an extra defender to the ball and eliminates the good spacing that you want on a final iso set. If anything can be taken from that disastrous possession, you have to think Kabongo and Brown won’t make that mistake at the end of any future games.

Unfortunately, it was a rather inefficient night for Brown even beyond that last-second mistake. Kansas State did an excellent job defending him with different guards in an effort to spread out the inevitable fouls they would pick up guarding him. The variety of defenders also served a second purpose, as it seemed to make it tougher for Brown to consistently penetrate. McGruder did solid work defending the Texas guard, but Will Spradling came up particularly huge in the second half, sticking on Brown like a dryer sheet. Without much room to work with, J’Covan shot just 8-of-28, including 4-of-14 from behind the arc.

The big picture

This was a loss that Texas fans could be replaying in their head on Selection Sunday. With the Longhorns hovering right on the bubble in practically every major bracket projection, every single win is big, but road wins against contenders are like résumé gold.

Texas showed great poise in fighting back from a 15-point deficit and again when down seven in the waning minutes, but the Longhorns failed to execute when it mattered most. Unfortunately, when the selection committee sequesters itself in Indianapolis in a few weeks, all they will see on their Nitty Gritty reports is an L next to this game.

Even the most optimistic Longhorn fan probably looked at this difficult six-game stretch on the schedule and hoped for two wins. While moral victories don’t count for much in the grand scheme of things, hopefully the performances in Columbia and Manhattan will give the young Longhorns confidence that they can get revenge at home and split the season series with Missouri and Kansas State.

Up next: vs. #7/7 Kansas (15-3 overall, 5-0 Big 12); Saturday, 3 P.M. CT

The Texas Longhorns continue their brief road trip with yet another test, taking on a talented Kansas State team at the always-dangerous Bramlage Coliseum. This is just one more tough match-up for the Longhorns in the midst of a brutal six-game stretch that includes four games against teams currently ranked in the Top 10.

The Wildcats are much better than their conference record would indicate, as they’ve been forced to take on the league’s three best teams — Baylor, Kansas, and Missouri — in their first four games. Kansas State managed to defend their home court against the Tigers, but stumbled on the road against Oklahoma on Saturday.

Coach Frank Martin was so mad with his team prior to the loss against the Sooners that he made five players run stairs for more than two hours rather than practice. One can only imagine what the team has been put through in the three days since that loss, so you can be sure they will be angry and hungry for a win when they hit the court tonight against Texas.

By the numbers

The Wildcats are not a good shooting team, but still manage to be have one of the most efficient offenses in the country thanks to strong work on the glass and an ability to get to the line. High offensive rebounding percentages and free-throw rates are a trademark of Martin’s teams, and this year’s edition is no exception. The Wildcats are currently 5th-best in the land when it comes to reclaiming their misses, grabbing more than 42% of their opportunities. They also shoot nearly one free throw for every two field goal attempts, a free-throw rate that is 17th-best in Division I.

That success carries over to the defensive side of the ball, where Kansas State has one of the 20 best defensive efficiency marks in Division I, holding opponents to just 0.894 points per possession. Fortunately for the Longhorns, that defensive intensity has let up against the better opponents of the Big 12, as K-State’s conference opponents have scored nearly 1.05 points per possession. It was the suddenly spotty Wildcat defense that had Coach Martin angry enough to dole out that marathon stair session as punishment, so you’d have to think the team made some adjustments leading up to this game.

On paper, the strengths and weaknesses of these two teams match up in an interesting way. The Longhorns reclaim their missed shots with regularity, while K-State doesn’t close out defensive possessions. On the other end of the court, UT struggles to get defensive boards, while K-State is dominant on the offensive glass. With both teams so strong on the offensive boards, this could come down to who makes the most of their second chances.

Both teams also send their opponents to the line quite a bit, with their defensive free-throw rates ranking in the bottom 100 of Division I hoops. Just like the rebounding numbers, that weakness matches up poorly with the opposition’s strength, as both teams also get to the line quite often. While that’s a good sign for a Texas team that typically needs to manufacture points, it also means that on defense the Horns will likely be called for quite a few fouls, something that is problematic with such a short bench.

Meet the Wildcats

Kansas State has a rotation of eight players this season, and although Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly have exhausted their eligibility, there are still quite a few familiar faces. The Wildcats return three starters from last year’s team, where they were essentially role players supporting the team’s bearded star. This season, the focus is on a pair of those returning starters who have helped K-State exceed all preseason expectations.

The first of those two veterans is Rodney McGruder (No. 22), who Texas fans will remember all-too-well from his three-point barrage in Austin last season. McGruder was not only an excellent long-range shooter for K-State last year, but also actually led the team in rebounds. This season, he’s claimed the team lead in points, as he’s taken over the role of penetrating scorer from Pullen.

As a result of his new role, McGruder is taking far less threes this season and has seen his numbers drop off. This year, he’s only attempting about a third of his shots from behind the arc, and only connecting on 34.4% of them. Instead, the junior is putting the ball on the floor and attacking the paint, where he loves to elevate and put up soft floaters. He has excellent body control to avoid the charge, so there’s little that defenders can do when McGruder pulls up besides stand tall and hope that his touch is off.

Jamar Samuels (No. 32) is another of the returning starters for K-State, and like McGruder, his role with the team has changed. With Kelly on the roster last year, Samuels was able to use his face-up game with more regularity. As a guy who can blow by other big men yet also body up with them in the post, he offers excellent flexibility on the offensive end.

Without Kelly on the team, Samuels has had to take on more of the physical role, and as a result he’s now manufacturing a ton of his points. He’s tops on the team with nearly seven boards per game, and his hard work on the offensive glass leads to a ton of free throws. Jamar’s free-throw rate is just under 90%, meaning he nearly takes one free throw for every field goal attempt.

The third returning starter is guard Will Spradling (No. 55), and as you can probably guess, his role has changed as well. Used more as an off-guard last season, this year he’s taking over the point guard duties. The son of a coach, he’s proven to be an adept facilitator, leading the team in assists while still finding time to show off his deadly three-point shot. Spradling also moves really well without the ball, so Texas cannot afford to lose him after he passes it off.

Joining Spradling in the backcourt is Martavious Irving (No. 3), a good defender who pressures the ball and can create points with his D. Offensively, he’s not much of a threat, but is usually good for a nice feed or two through traffic. At the moment, it appears he’s in Martin’s doghouse, as he was limited to just 15 minutes against Oklahoma. The coach wouldn’t say which five players he put through the stair workout, but did say that the box score could shed some light on the mystery.

Another starter who was probably a part of the punished quintet is 7-footer Jordan Henriquez (No. 21). He played just eight minutes against the Sooners, but will see much more playing time tonight if Coach Martin has finished making a point. Henriquez is an excellent post defender with great shot-blocking skills, and has even started developing a face-up game on the offensive end. He’s shown the ability to knock down short and mid-range jumpers, but still lacks the consistency and confidence to make it a big part of his game.

The other big man for the Wildcats is freshman Thomas Gipson (No. 42), from Cedar Hill, Texas. At 6’7″, 275 pounds, Gipson looks nothing like an 18-year old, and that strong body has allowed him to immediately make an impact at the college level. The freshman doesn’t have much offensive game outside of the paint, but he has a nice jump hook and is a beast on the boards.

Sixth man Shane Southwell (No. 1) is used mostly for his rebounding and defensive work, but he’s also an excellent passer. The 6’6″ guard from Harlem has the vision of a point guard, and often sets up the big men with great feeds from the perimeter. He can also put the ball on the floor and drive from the wings, but prefers to get looks for his teammates.

The other Wildcat seeing significant minutes off the bench is tiny guard Angel Rodriguez (No. 13), yet another talented Miami product brought to the Little Apple thanks to Martin’s past as a high school coach in the Magic City. Rodriguez is another active perimeter defender and penetrates the lane well despite not having blazing speed. He sat the entire Oklahoma game as a result of poor play against Baylor and a lack of effort in practice, so his role tonight could be limited.

With Coach Martin using the bench as a teaching tool, some of the lesser-used Wildcats have seen a recent spike in minutes. Guard Jeremy Jones (No. 24) had a strong first half against OU with 12 points, but hurt his ankle and hardly played in the second. Freshman wing Nino Williams (No. 11) could also see more playing time tonight, and could create match-up problems with his ability to attack off the dribble.

Keys to the game

1) Limit second chance points – Kansas State often needs second and third chances to make their offensive trips count, so the Longhorns will have to work hard to keep the Wildcats off the glass. K-State clearly has the advantage inside, so there’s no doubt that they will still get their share of offensive rebounds. Texas will just have to try to limit those boards, and also prevent K-State from getting easy putbacks when they do reclaim their misses.

2) Avoid foul trouble – The physical Kansas State frontline is a match-up nightmare for Texas, and their ability to draw fouls and get to the line could really expose the thin Texas frontcourt. The Longhorns were decimated inside by Ricardo Ratliffe on Saturday when Clint Chapman was on the bench with foul trouble, so he’ll have to avoid the whistles tonight. Jaylen Bond and Jonathan Holmes will have to do the same, as Texas needs all the rebounding help it can get.

3) Be aggressive with the ball – While Kansas State gets to the line quite often, they also frequently send their opponents there. The Longhorn guards and wings need to be aggressive with the basketball and attack the defense. The Wildcats have been uncharacteristically weak with their perimeter defense of late, so the opportunity is there. Texas finally has a good free-throw shooting team this season, so the Horns can overcome some of their offensive woes by earning their points the hard way.

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.