No time for a full-fledged post-game, as we still have nine hours of interstate ahead of us and want to be somewhere at 5 P.M. where we can catch the Selection Show. The vast wasteland between OKC and Denton really makes that hard to do, so we’ll keep this brief.

We’ve known all season that frontcourt depth was going to be an issue, but last night was certainly an extreme example of it. Tristan Thompson played just 21 minutes thanks to foul trouble, while Gary Johnson was going through his fifth-straight rough game on the offensive end. Johnson was just 1-of-9 from the floor, giving him a 5-for-24 line during the Big 12 Tournament that included three missed dunks. In the team’s last five games, Gary is shooting just 26%.

Thompson’s foul trouble also underscored his importance to the offense even when he isn’t scoring. The team managed to grab just 25.9% of their offensive rebounding opportunities, well off their 37.9% season average. In the first half, the Longhorns only secured 20% of their offensive boards, limiting them to numerous one-and-done possessions while the Jayhawks were building a massive lead on the strength of a ridiculous 58% shooting mark. Texas was able to grab more offensive rebounds when the Morris twins were in second-half foul trouble, and Texas was able to chip away at the lead as a result.

In a tournament where one bad game can end your season, the Longhorns are going to have to hope for a draw with less physical frontcourts than the one the Jayhawks sport. Texas has competed in the past against similar teams, and even beat Kansas in Lawrence. But the chances are good that Thompson could run into the same foul trouble as he did yesterday, and then the Longhorns will likely be sunk.

Texas also made the mistake of making far too many light fouls inside. That wasn’t the difference in this game, as there was simply no beating Kansas on Saturday afternoon. But the Longhorns gave up so many and-one opportunities that it’s a troubling trend going forward. The last time Texas and Kansas played, Matt Hill did a great job making his fouls count and ensuring that the Jayhawks would have to earn both points at the line. Last night, the Longhorns not only allowed the buckets, but compounded the issue by piling up fouls and giving Kansas extra points from the charity stripe.

All the credit in the world has to go to Tyshawn Taylor. He broke down the defense off the dribble, time after time. When he wasn’t finishing at the rack, he was drawing enough defensive attention to get Thomas Robinson or the Brothers Morrii wide open dunks and layups. Taylor played his best game in ages, scoring 20 points while dishing out five dimes.

Kansas executed so well on Saturday afternoon, it’s hard to imagine a team that could have beat them. They broke down the Texas defense, moved the ball extremely well, and shut down the driving lanes on defense. If Penn State does the unthinkable this afternoon and knocks off Ohio State, there’s no question that the Jayhawks are your overall No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. After yesterday’s performance, they still have an argument even if Ohio State does win.

We’ll be checking in again via Twitter during the Selection Show. At this point, Texas is practically assured a first-weekend trip to Tulsa. They are likely a 2-seed, but there is still the chance they could slip down to the top of the 3-seed line. That wouldn’t be a result of losing to Kansas, but rather just upward trends from teams currently slotted behind the Longhorns.

The big question for LRT is where the Longhorns head for the second weekend. Texas is essentially locked out of San Antonio now that Kansas will likely be there, with Pitt in New Orleans. But with Newark being one of the four regional sites this season, we ask that for our sake, you keep all of your fingers crossed that Texas lands in Anaheim or New Orleans.

Before the newspaper ink was even dry on January 23rd, people were already taking about March 12th. Jayhawk fans, still stinging from a shocking home loss to Texas the night before, were eager for a rematch in the conference tournament.

That rematch seemed all but destined, as the teams continued their march through conference play, with the Longhorns sprinting out to an 11-0 start and the Jayhawks staying just a game behind them. Texas stumbled on the road in the final weeks of the season, opening the door for Kansas to claim a seventh-straight league title and raising questions about the Longhorns’ moxie.

A win in Waco to close out the regular season was a step in the right direction for Texas, and they built upon that with solid tournament victories over Oklahoma and A&M to set up the long-awaited championship re-match. Beating the Bears, Sooners, and Aggies definitely bolsters fan confidence, but this game with Kansas gives Texas a chance to prove that their earlier win was no fluke, and that this year’s team won’t be collapsing in March.

Then there’s the big picture. When the weekend started, Texas was fourth in line for the final two 1-seeds in the NCAA tournament. Pitt, Notre Dame, and Duke all had stronger résumés, and adding to those with victories in the conference tournament would only solidify their elite status. Longhorn wins over the mediocre middle of the league wouldn’t do much to help their profile, so a 2-seed was practically assured.

Then the Big East Tournament mixed things up. Pitt lost in its first game, falling victim to Kemba Walker and his heroics. Notre Dame looked impressive in thumping Cincinnati, but stumbled in overtime against Louisville last night. Throw in the toe troubles for Duke’s Nolan Smith, and suddenly Texas is back in the conversation.

Of course, that all becomes irrelevant if the Longhorns can’t top the Jayhawks for a second time.

Meet the Jayhawks

If you aren’t already familiar with the Kansas roster or style of play, we invite you to re-visit our in-depth game preview from the first meeting in Lawrence.

The first meeting

Kansas jumped out to an early lead in Lawrence, riding the hot hand of Tyrel Reed to a 12-2 lead at the first media timeout. The Longhorns had not even scored their first bucket until three minutes had elapsed, and it looked like another KU rout was in progress.

The Longhorn defense quickly stiffened, though, limiting dribble penetration from the Jayhawk guards and turning them into a one-dimensional team. Kansas settled for a simple high-low game with Thomas Robinson and Marcus and Markieff Morris constantly being fed inside. The three big men combined for 28 points, but did it at inefficient rate. Marcus was 6-of-17 from the field, while Markieff managed to sink just two of seven attempts.

Texas was able to keep the Jayhawks within striking distance, heading to the locker room trailing by just 12 points. Coach Rick Barnes then broke out his magic sharpshooter sauce, and gave a healthy dose to the entire team. The Longhorns shot an incredible 63.6% from the field in the second half — including 4-of-6 from behind the arc — and dropped 51 more points on Kansas.

With J’Covan Brown playing like a man possessed and Cory Joseph banking in three-pointers, it seemed like there was no way to stop Texas. But in the face of those long odds, Kansas displayed the poise of a champion down the stretch. Trailing by 12 with 3:45 to play, the Jayhawks sliced the lead to five with just over 90 seconds to go. Responding to the challenge, Gary Johnson drilled a clutch jumper from the baseline on the next possession to stop the rally and clinch the win for Texas.

Since then…

The Jayhawks had a close call in their next game at Colorado, but looked practically unstoppable after that. Kansas won nine of their next ten games, all by double digits, with six of those wins coming by more than 20 points. If not for an uncharacteristically poor game in Manhattan, the Jayhawks would have finished the conference season on a 12-game winning streak.

In Kansas City, though, the Jayhawks have once again looked human. Poor shooting against a packed-in Oklahoma State defense nearly led to a quarterfinal exit for Kansas. Against Colorado in last night’s semifinal, poor perimeter defense let the Buffaloes hang around in a game they had no business competing in.

Just like Texas, the Jayhawks have had some bi-polar tendencies. And just like the Longhorns, Kansas has won based on pure talent in some of their poorer performances this season. If both teams show up tonight, we are in store for a highly entertaining championship game. But if either team lets their bad habits peek through the armor, you can be sure that their opponents will take full advantage.

Keys to the game

Unlike our typical game previews, there’s no way to limit ourselves to three keys for this one. Against a team as talented, deep, and disciplined as Kansas, the Longhorns have a lot of things to worry about if they expect to leave Missouri with the tournament title.

Most importantly, Johnson and Thompson must avoid foul trouble. In their win over Colorado last night, Kansas immediately put the Buffalo big men in foul trouble, leading to a revolving door of ineffectiveness that let Markieff and Marcus combine for 40 points and 21 rebounds. Not only do the Longhorns need Gary and Tristan for their scoring punch, but also to contain the big, athletic Kansas frontcourt.

Unfortunately, the Jayhawks are a team that can score in a variety of ways, which is precisely what makes it so hard to beat them. They move the ball incredibly well, which often leads to open looks when opponents choose to double down on the Morris brothers in the post. Just like in Lawrence, Texas needs to play conservative defense and avoid the temptation to jump passing lanes or double down from the guard positions.

The Longhorns will also need Good Jordan and Good J’Covan to show up this evening. Both players poured on the points in the first game, combining for 40 points. Brown was 3-of-6 behind the arc and provided the spark for Texas’ second-half surge. Late in the season, both players struggled for the Longhorns, but have picked it up in the team’s first two tournament games. If they can avoid forcing things and continue to take smart shots, Texas has a chance to pull off the sweep.

In Lawrence, the Longhorns were able to limit the damage from the Brothers Morrii thanks to a solid effort from Hill. His lack of scoring was more than made up for by the fact that he used all five fouls, and most of his fouls were hard enough to avoid and-one situations. The Longhorns don’t need much from Hill and Alexis Wangmene, but they need adequate minutes from the post reserves. Avoiding defensive lapses against the Morris brothers and limiting turnovers on the offensive end are really the only things Texas needs from them.

Finally, Texas must fight through the crowd. The Sprint Center is essentially Allen Fieldhouse East, and today will be no exception. Although the roof isn’t touching the top row like at the Phog, there are 2,000 more seats in the Sprint Center, and 99% of them will be occupied by folks in blue and red.

While this Longhorn team seems to feed off of the energy of road crowds, there’s no doubt that Jayhawk Nation will be exceptionally loud as they look for revenge tonight. When Kansas makes their runs — and rest assured, they will have a few — Texas cannot let the energy in the building lead to more mistakes.

On Thursday, the Longhorns finished off a three-game sweep of their rivals from Oklahoma. A night later, Texas repeated the feat against their most-hated in-state foes. The Longhorns scrapped their way to a 70-58 win over Texas A&M in last night’s Big 12 semifinal, earning their first three-game sweep of the Aggies since the 1991-92 season, when both schools were still in the Southwest Conference.

Unlike the first two games between these two teams, this one was never a laugher. There were four ties and ten lead changes, and neither team led by more than seven points until midway through the second half. Even then, the Aggies were able to trim the margin back down to four points with just five minutes to play. A 10-2 run by the Longhorns finally put the game out of reach, with Gary Johnson icing it at the free-throw line in the final two minutes.

Although this game had the exact same number of possessions as the first game in Austin, it felt completely different. A&M’s defense did an excellent job turning back the drivers and trapping Tristan Thompson when he caught the entry pass a few feet off the block. Texas turned it over on 20.9% of its possessions and missed a handful of easy finishes at the rim in the first half. Despite all of that, the Longhorns had one of their most efficient offensive performances of the season.

The key was another strong performance on the glass. On top of an excellent 49% shooting percentage for the game, the Longhorns also grabbed 52.4% of their missed shots. That number was so good, in fact, that it was the team’s third-best performance of the season, behind only their drubbings of Coppin State and Texas State. With the Longhorns making nearly half of their shots and adding 20 second-chance points, Texas A&M’s upset hopes were dashed.

On defense, the Longhorns allowed a respectable 1.01 points per possession. The Aggies managed that level of efficiency largely by drawing fouls and getting to the line. Texas A&M had a free-throw rate of 56.3% — the second-highest allowed by Texas all year — and they converted on 21 of their 27 attempts.

That strategy of manufacturing points obscured the fact that Texas did an excellent job defending in the half-court. After falling behind 14-7 just seven minutes into the game, the Longhorn defense held the Aggies to just one field goal over the next eight minutes, allowing Texas to reclaim the lead. For the game, the Horns limited A&M to just 35.4% from the field and 27.3% behind the arc, just one night after the Aggies had shot 57.8% against Missouri and made 50% of their threes.

Jordan Hamilton had his second-straight solid performance, scoring 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. After making just 31.4% of his shots in the team’s final six regular season games, Hamilton has a field-goal percentage of 51.6% in the two Big 12 tournament games, including a 40% success rate behind the arc. Having a more-efficient Hamilton was Texas’ number-one concern heading into March. So far, things are looking up, but the true test will come for him today against Kansas.

Once again, Hamilton’s strong effort was matched by freshman Tristan Thompson. The big Canadian posted his third double-double in the team’s last four games, scoring 14 points to go with 13 rebounds. Of those, nine of Thompson’s boards came on the offensive glass. His individual offensive rebounding percentage was a whopping 32.8% for the game.

The biggest concern in the win was questionable play from the other big men. Johnson had a painful game until his six points in the final few minutes. He struggled with foul trouble most of the way, and missed his first six shots from the field, including a dunk attempt. Off the bench, Alexis Wangmene never got into the flow of the game, and only showed up in the box score thanks to his three fouls in six minutes.

Fortunately, J’Covan Brown played well off the bench, scoring 15 points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting night. He knocked down three triples, including two in a row midway through the second half that helped the Longhorns pull away momentarily. Like Hamilton, Brown’s resurgance is coming at just the right time. He’s shooting 62.5% in the Big 12 tournament after making just 31.3% of his shots in the team’s last eight conference games.

Next up: vs. Kansas (31-2); 5 P.M. CT, Saturday

Rivalry week continues for Texas this evening, as they follow up their quarterfinal win over Oklahoma with a semifinal battle against Texas A&M. The Longhorns are a perfect 5-0 against their two rivals this season, with their two victories over the Aggies coming by a combined 41 points.

As we discussed in yesterday’s game preview, there aren’t any “big picture” things on the line for Texas tonight. By beating Oklahoma, the Horns avoided a bad loss that might have dropped them to a 3-seed, while Ohio State, Kansas, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and Duke have the inside track on the four 1-seeds even if Texas manages to win the conference tournament. For the Longhorns, this weekend is more about getting the team back on track, playing the kind of basketball they did while dominating the first few weeks of Big 12 play.

The Aggies, meanwhile, still have a lot to play for. Prior to last night’s win over Missouri, The Bracket Matrix reported that Texas A&M’s averaged a 6-seed in 83 different bracket projections. With the potential to log massive résumé-boosting wins over Texas and Kansas in the conference tournament, the Aggies could earn themselves a significant seed bump this weekend.

Meet the Aggies

For a detailed look at the Texas A&M roster, please read our preview of the first game between the two teams.

The first meeting

The Longhorns never trailed when they defeated A&M in Austin by an 81-60 count. Texas attacked the Aggie frontcourt early, feeding Tristan Thompson for eight of the team’s first 12 points. Texas’ commitment to feeding the post led to early foul trouble for A&M, with Kourtney Roberson picking up three fouls in a 26-second span.

Thompson finished the night with 18 points, while Gary Johnson scored 14 of his own. Jordan Hamilton was the Horn who most enjoyed the Lone Star Showdown, though, scorching the Ags for 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

Defensively, Texas turned A&M into a one-man show. Khris Middleton dropped in 16 points, but no other Aggie scored more than eight. In terms of efficiency, the effort was actually one of Texas’ weaker outings. The Longhorns allowed 1.048 points per possession, a number buoyed by a flurry of late threes from A&M. Although that’s still a solid number against a good basketball team, it paled in comparison to the dominating sub-0.800 performances the Texas D was putting up early in conference play.

The second meeting

When the teams reconvened in College Station less than two weeks later, the Texas defense was much more oppressive. Once again, the Longhorns never trailed against their rivals, and dominated the first half so much that they took a 45-20 lead to the locker room. In the first twenty minutes, the Horns allowed just 0.559 points per Aggie possession. Texas was clicking so well, in fact, that their 17 first-half bench points nearly eclipsed those of the entire A&M offense.

Most impressive was the fact that the Longhorns completely shut out Middleton in the re-match. Texas played excellent team defense, sagging off the weak side and hedging to prevent Middleton jumpers off of curls. With their star player shut out, the Aggies were led by B.J. Holmes’ 19 points, many of which came at the expense of defender Jai Lucas.

Hamilton once again loved playing against the Aggies, scoring 20 points to go with eight rebounds. He constantly attacked off the dribble, going 6-of-10 from inside the arc, and he drew enough defensive attention on his baseline drives to add three assists.

The good passes and crisp ball movement was contagious, with the Longhorns dishing out 15 assists on 27 buckets. Cory Joseph and J’Covan Brown each matched Hamilton with three assists of their own, while big man Thompson even added a pair by making the extra pass inside.

Since then…

The Aggies have taken care of business since their last loss to Texas. They won six of their final eight regular season games, with the losses coming in tough back-to-back road games against Baylor and Kansas. The offense was able to get back on track, posting efficiency numbers of greater than a point per possession in five of the games.

Last night, however, A&M broke the scale. Long known as a defensive team under both Billy Gillispie and Turgeon, the Aggies simply could not miss in their quarterfinal against Missouri. Texas A&M scored an impressive 1.201 points per possession, shooting 57.8% from the field and 50% from behind the arc.

The scariest thing is that the Aggies were able to do all this with Middleton essentially relegated to a supporting role. The star sophomore only had to play 23 minutes in the blowout, and chipped in a modest nine points in the winning effort. Holmes was once again the catalyst, drilling 4-of-6 from long range to fuel his 20-point outburst. Down low, David Loubeau abused the overmatched Tiger frontcourt, scoring 20 points of his own.

Keys to the game

For the Longhorns, once again it will be important to play suffocating defense early. Just like Oklahoma, the Aggies come into this one fresh off of their best offensive game of the year. And also just like the Sooners, the Aggies were dominated by the Longhorns in the first two match-ups this season. If Texas can once again send an early message that things will be no different this time around, the Horns could squash A&M’s hopes for an upset.

Texas must also avoid foul trouble in tonight’s game. The Aggies have the 15th-best free throw rate in Division I basketball, with Middleton and Loubeau combining to draw more than 11 fouls per game. Last night was no different, with Texas A&M frustrating the Tigers and their fans by drawing 25 fouls and 34 free throws. The Longhorns are not nearly as deep as the Tigers, and the drop-off in frontcourt talent is a steep one. Having Thompson, Gary Johnson, or Hamilton in early foul trouble could spell disaster for Texas.

Finally, the Longhorns must limit the perimeter scoring. The Aggies drilled eight threes against the Tigers last night, and made six against Texas when the teams played in Austin. If the Texas offense is struggling against a solid A&M defense, a sudden frenzy of three-pointers could change the complexion of the game in an instant.

The Longhorns must close out on Holmes and Middleton, and play another sound team game on the defensive end. Good communication should eliminate the breakdowns we saw when Levi Knuston and Rodney McGruder torched Texas from long range in losses to Colorado and Kansas State.

The Texas Longhorns badly needed a shot in the arm. After storming through conference play with an 11-0 mark and a efficiency differential of greater than 0.20 points per possession, Texas looked nearly unstoppable. But in their final five games of the season, the Longhorn offense stalled out at the exact time that their impenetrable defense began to lose its luster.

After holding 10 of their first 11 conference opponents to less than 0.80 points per possession, the Longhorn defense turned into a sieve during the final three weeks of the season. In losses to Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State, Texas allowed an average of 1.174 points per defensive possession.

It was a stroke of luck, then, that the Longhorns and Sooners were matched up in last night’s quarterfinal. In the first two meetings between the teams, Texas held Oklahoma to just .797 points per possession and an effective field goal percentage of only 38.3%, while winning by an average of 12.5 points.

It was more of the same last night, as Texas built upon their strong defensive showing in the regular-season finale against Baylor. The Longhorn defense held Oklahoma to just six points in the first 10-plus minutes of the game, and jumped out to another early lead that they would never relinquish. Texas put it on auto-pilot at halftime, coasting to a 74-54 win, their third victory of the season over the Sooners.

A night after the Oklahoma offense had run roughshod over Baylor, Texas completely shut down the Sooner attack. Oklahoma shot 50% from behind the arc against Baylor in the first round game, but were just 0-5 from long range in the first half against Texas. While OU did manage to knock down half of their two-point attempts in the first half, their inability to reclaim any of the misses doomed them to failure.

Texas held the Sooners to just three offensive rebounds in the entire game, with two of them coming in the final 62 seconds. The absolute clinic on the glass gave the Longhorns a defensive rebounding percentage of 89.5%, their best mark of the season by far. The only game that saw Texas come anywhere close to that level of dominance was the season opener against Navy, in which the Horns grabbed 84.3% of the Midshipmen’s misses.

On offense, the Longhorns looked more crisp than they had in weeks. J’Covan Brown and Jordan Hamilton drove baseline from the wings time and again, resulting in layups and wide-open interior passes for the bigs. Brown had a season-high five assists, while Hamilton added a pair of his own. The unselfish play was a team-wide attitude, as Texas logged 18 assists on 29 baskets.

The biggest surprise of the day came from Jai Lucas, who gave 20 minutes off the bench and gave the Longhorns an early spark with his eight points. Lucas had a very tough outing against Oklahoma in the home game on January 15th, playing just six minutes thanks to poor defense against OU’s Carl Blair. In this one, he kept the speedy guard in front of him, knocked down both of his three-point attempts, and logged three assists.

While Lucas is not going to be playing that many minutes against better opponents, the key takeaway from this one is that it appears his confidence has improved dramatically. In the last three games, Lucas shot 57% from the field, 3-of-4 behind the arc, and logged four steals. In the first 29 games of the year, he was 33.6% from the field, 20.5% from three-point range, and had three total steals.

Where Lucas was once just a spot-up shooter, he now has the confidence to drive for pull-up jumpers, and he finally seems capable on the defensive end. If Texas can just get at least 10 minutes of quality bench play from Lucas in tournament games, the team’s depth issues become less of a factor.

Inside, Tristan Thompson abused the Sooner frontcourt. He posted his eighth double-double of the season, grabbing 11 rebounds to go with his 13 points. In his last five games, Thompson is averaging 18.2 points, 11.2 boards, and 2.4 blocks per game. Without a doubt, the freshman has chosen the best time of the year to become an unstoppable force.

The most reassuring thing about the victory was the resurgence of sophomore star Jordan Hamilton. After shooting just 31.4% from the field over the team’s final five regular season games, Hamilton played a fantastic game against the Sooners. He was 9-of-18 from the field, with three of those misses coming on one particularly physical sequence inside. Hamilton seemed more willing to attack inside, wasn’t primarily focused on shooting, and used his teammates screens to come open for mid-range jumpers. If this is the Hamilton that shows up against better teams — instead of the one that dribbled the air out of the ball in recent weeks — Texas is once again a scary team.

Next up: vs. Texas A&M (24-7); Friday, 8:30 P.M. CT