The last three weeks have been dicey for the Texas Longhorns. Considered the trendy pick for National Champion by many pundits back in early February, the Longhorns struggled through three losses in their last five regular season games. Even in a road win over Baylor in the season finale, the Texas offense was painful to watch.

But now, the real season begins. Sure, college basketball’s November-to-March regular season is much more exciting than practically every other sport. But once Championship Week tips off, the rules are the same for everyone. From the one-time title favorites to the NJITs of the world, all you have to do is win. Win and advance.

Fortunately for Texas, the Big 12 Tournament isn’t a must-win. They are safely in the NCAA’s field of 68, and are likely locked into a 2-seed. A loss today could make things interesting, and perhaps slide them down the S-curve into the 3-seed range. But even if the Longhorns reel off a three-game streak to claim the tournament title, there are other teams that would likely shut them out of a 1-seed. What is at stake for Texas is a chance to reclaim momentum and to rediscover the things that made their offense so scary in January and early February.

They will get their first chance to do that against the Oklahoma Sooners this evening. Texas knocked off the Sooners in both games this year, and have won 10 out of the last 12 games against their Red River rivals. An old college hoops cliché holds that it’s tough to beat the same team three times in one season. Teams learn tendencies and have more chances to adjust, making each rematch a little tougher for the victor to defend their crown.

Of course, if you’re a Texas fan that puts stock into historical numbers, you can shrug that off with smug satisfaction. In 2008, the last time Texas and Oklahoma met three times on the hardwood, the Longhorns swept the series and went on to the Elite Eight.

Meet the Sooners

For a full look at the Oklahoma roster, please read the preview of the first game between the two teams.

The first meeting

The Longhorns knocked off the Sooners 66-46 in Austin on January 15th, a game in which Texas led wire to wire. The Horns jumped out to an early lead by holding OU to just three field goals in their first 13 attempts, and allowed the Sooners just 19 points in the first half.

On the offensive end, the Longhorns were given numerous open looks from long range, and they were able to knock down seven of 12 from behind the arc on the afternoon. Jordan Hamilton was the biggest beneficiary of the poor perimeter D, and he knocked down five threes as part of his 17-point performance.

For the Sooners, Andrew Fitzgerald was the lone bright spot in an embarrassing loss. The big man had 18 points, scoring at will inside. Tiny guard Carl Blair also had a pair of easy layups when defended by Texas’ Jai Lucas, who couldn’t match Blair’s speed. Unfortunately for Blair, Lucas only played six minutes in the game.

All told, the 0.747 points per possession that Texas allowed was OU’s worst offensive performance of the year. The Sooners were just 1-of-15 from long range, leading to an effective field-goal percentage of just 40.2%, their lowest mark at that point of the season.

The second meeting

Texas’ excellent field goal defense would actually get even better when the two teams squared off again on February 9th. The Longhorns limited the Sooners to an eFG of only 36.6% on that night in Norman, as Oklahoma actually shot better beyond the arc (38.5%) than inside it (30.2%).

The Texas defense set the tone early, holding Oklahoma to just four buckets on their first 17 attempts. Like the first meeting, the Longhorns never trailed, and this time they actually built a massive 15-point advantage in the first ten minutes.

Offensively, the Longhorns had a well-balanced attack in which all five starters scored at least 11 points. Dogus Balbay opened the scoring by constantly attacking the rim, and the Sooners seemed disinterested in stopping the Turkish guard in transition. He finished with 12 points and four rebounds, and even knocked down a mid-range jumper.

The rest of the Longhorns simply toyed with the Sooners for most of the first half. Excellent ball movement and great interior passing led to numerous easy layups and dunks, with Gary Johnson logging four assists to go with his 14 points.

Since then…

The home loss to Texas was only the beginning of the slide for the Sooners. They dropped their next six, suffering through a seemingly interminable eight-game losing streak. Last year, Oklahoma lost their last eight regular season games before bowing out in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Unlike that team, these Sooners managed to stop the bleeding by defending their home court against Oklahoma State for a narrow three-point win in the season finale.

Last night, the Sooners built upon that OSU game and started an actual winning streak, dominating Baylor — sans Perry Jones III — for an 84-67 victory. Cade Davis led the way for Oklahoma, scoring 24 points in just 30 minutes thanks to 4-of-8 shooting behind the arc.

The Sooners scored an amazing 1.29 points per possession against the Bears, a stat made even more impressive when you consider that Oklahoma was so careless with the ball that they posted a 21.5% turnover rate.

Keys to the game

First and foremost, Texas needs to set the defensive tone early. The Longhorns raced out to early leads in the first two games with Oklahoma, largely on the back of their stingy defense. With the Sooners coming off an incredible shooting night against Baylor, Texas needs to send an early message that today is going to be very different.

The Longhorns also need to exploit the rebounding advantage this evening. Texas outrebounded the Sooners in both previous meetings, but they really wreaked havoc by limiting Oklahoma to just one offensive rebound in the first half of the game in Norman. If Texas can keep Andrew Fitzgerald and Cameron Clark from extending Oklahoma’s possessions, they should be able to finish off the sweep.

Finally, we’ll be looking to see if this is the game that gets Jordan Hamilton out of his slump. Although he is averaging 17 points per game over his last six games, those points have come on 31.4% shooting from the field.

Hamilton and the Longhorns need to rediscover the offensive mojo they had at the beginning of the conference season. At that point, the sophomore took most of his outside shots off of curls or coming around solid screens. For the last few weeks, most of his three-point attempts come as he’s dribbling against a defender and decides he has enough space to suddenly pop one.

In the two games against Oklahoma, Hamilton scored 37 points on 46% shooting, including an 8-of-17 mark from behind the arc. If there’s any opponent left in the tournament field that can help Jordan bust out of his slump, Oklahoma would be it.

It was far from pretty. But after losing three of their last four games, the Longhorns were willing to take any win they could get.

Texas finally ended its road woes last night, winning in Waco for the team’s first victory away from the Erwin Center since beating Oklahoma in Norman on February 9th. The Horns overcame 35% shooting from the field, capitalizing on an excellent rebounding performance to gut out a 60-54 win over Baylor.

The loss was much bigger for the Bears than the win was for the Longhorns. Texas was already locked into the Big 12’s second seed in the upcoming conference tournament, while the Bears entered the game as one of Joe Lunardi’s projected “First Four Out” of the NCAA field. Following the defeat, Baylor was still entrenched in that dreaded group, as other bubble teams failed to secure convincing wins.

Fortunately for the Bears, they can get another crack at Texas. Thanks to a late season win against Nebraska, Baylor owned the tiebreaker over the Cornhuskers and earned the league’s 7th seed in the conference tournament. Now they only have to beat 10th-seeded Oklahoma in order to face Texas in the tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night. At just 7-9 in league play, with just a pair of victories over Texas A&M to hang their hat on, even a win in that game might not be enough for the Bears.

What looked good

In a game that had just 45 combined points in the first half, there wasn’t much that looked exceptionally good. Much of the ugliness on the court was caused by the long-awaited return of Texas’ stifling defense. The Longhorns limited Baylor to just 0.915 points per possession, only the second time in the last five games that Texas was able to keep an opponent under one point per trip. The other came against the league’s cellar-dweller, Iowa State, who managed only 0.767 points per possession in Austin last week.

While the Texas defense was finally making its reappearance, the offense was struggling. Tristan Thompson managed to keep Texas afloat in the first half, however, dominating the offensive glass and piling up second chance points. Thompson finished the game with 19 points and 13 rebounds, with eight of those boards coming on the offensive end.

Thompson’s rebounding percentage on the offensive glass was an insane 22.8%, the first time he had even cracked the 15% mark since beating Missouri in early January. As a point of reference, the nation’s best offensive rebounder — Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried — is averaging a 20.1% success rate on offensive rebounding opportunities against his overmatched Ohio Valley foes.

Thompson wasn’t the only one dominating the rebounding battle. As a team, the Longhorns grabbed more than 51% of their missed shots, which resulted in quite a few boards thanks to their 38 missed shots on the night. In the first half, Texas reclaimed 44% of their offensive rebounding opportunities, and did an even better job out-muscling the Bears in the second half. The Longhorns secured 12 offensive boards in the final twenty minutes, while Baylor grabbed just eight defensive rebounds.

A big part of Texas’ late-game success was clutch play from Alexis Wangmene. He played only 11 minutes in the game, but grabbed five offensive boards, including three in the final three minutes. He earned four attempts at the line, and sunk all of them, a huge feat for any Longhorn. The team made just 59.3% of their free throw attempts on the night, and just 52.2% if you take Wangmene’s makes out of the equation.

With the game still in doubt and less than a minute on the clock, Wangmene managed to grab his most important rebound off a missed jumper by Cory Joseph. The Horns kicked it out to the sure-shooting J’Covan Brown, who essentially iced the game with a pair of free throws. Although Alexis doesn’t get credit on the stat sheet for those points, the much-maligned reserve was instrumental in preserving the win.

The other player who must be singled out for an impressive performance is Gary Johnson. Playing in his final regular season game, Johnson did it all on both ends of the court. In addition to eight big rebounds, Johnson also had a pair of clutch jumpers that kept Texas in the game early in the second half when it looked like Baylor was going to run away with it. Most important, however, was his surprising defense on Baylor’s LaceDarius Dunn, who was becoming a one-man wrecking crew coming out of halftime.

Early in the second half, Dunn drilled a three-pointer with Balbay in his face. Texas responded on the next possession, as Joseph left A.J. Walton to double Dunn. The extra attention backfired, as it allowed Walton to get an easy putback on a weakside rebound. Two possessions later, Anthony Jones had a wide-open three because Joseph again elected to double Dunn instead of sticking with Walton, and Baylor’s quick ball reversal around the perimeter led to the easy triple. LaceDarius followed all of that with another bucket on the ensuing possession, and the Bears were suddenly up by nine.

Coming out of the under-16 media timeout, Rick Barnes gave Gary Johnson the difficult task of sticking with Baylor’s superstar. Where Dunn could once pop ridiculous shots with Balbay in his face, he now had to deal with a 6’6″ defender. Beyond just the height advantage, Johnson also showed incredible athleticism and hustle in sticking with Dunn through screen after screen, limiting his ability to find the space to shoot. With Johnson defending him, Dunn had a scoreless stretch of more than seven minutes, and went just 2-for-9 the rest of the game.

What needed work

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, a big part of their early struggles was the continued difficulty for Jordan Hamilton on the offensive end. He was just 1-for-7 from the field in the first half, with his only basket coming on a dunk. Two of his misses were on ugly, forced shots, and he passed up open looks inside by trying to make unnecessary interior passes to the blocks.

Those extra passes inside were indicative of a larger problem for Texas, namely that the team looked incredibly tight in the first half. The Longhorns had a few early possessions where they actually penetrated the zone or made the pass into the soft middle. But instead of being assertive with the basketball and taking the shot or making the quick pass, the players seemed to be too concerned with not making mistakes. That indecision let Baylor recover, and Texas was forced into long, ugly possessions that typically ended in bad looks.

As always, free throws were an albatross for the Longhorns. As previously mentioned, the team shot below 60% at the line, the 11th time they have been below that watermark in their 31 games. Add in the fact that Texas missed the front end on three different one-and-one attempts, and that’s a ton of potential points the team left on the line.

While it’s a known fact that Thompson is going to struggle from the line — and that he gets to the line more frequently than the rest of the team — the troubling thing is that J’Covan Brown and Cory Joseph were the culprits on two of those wasted one-and-ones. When even the guards are struggling at the line, Texas is going to have some major issues with offensive efficiency.

Up next: Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinal vs. Baylor or Oklahoma (in Kansas City); Thursday, 6 P.M. CT

With Kansas winning at Missouri and Texas A&M knocking off Tech at home, the top four seeds in the Big 12 tournament are already decided. The Jayhawks have claimed their seventh-straight conference championship with a 14-2 league record, and for the fourth time during that run, Kansas has earned sole possession of the conference crown. A&M’s victory locked them into the 3-seed, while resurgent Kansas State is now the league’s fourth-place team. The Longhorns, who opened league play with a sparkling 11-0 mark, are now guaranteed to finish in second place thanks to a 1-3 mark in their last four games.

While that means Texas has nothing to play for in terms of conference seeding, the Horns still have the NCAA tournament to worry about. Their recent slide has eliminated any hopes of securing a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance, and another loss tonight could end their tenuous hold on a 2-seed. Baylor, meanwhile, is still one of the “First Four Out” in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket projection at ESPN. Like Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas State before them, the Bears will be desperate for a résumé-building win over Texas.

The first meeting

After Texas had won their first nine league games by double-digits, the Baylor Bears finally ended that streak in the season’s first meeting between the two teams. The Longhorns sprinted out to an early lead, which grew to 19 at one point in the first half. Baylor’s LaceDarius Dunn made things interesting, though, scoring 22 points in the second half to get the Bears within three points in the final minutes. The Longhorns managed to ice things at the line, and escaped with a 69-60 win.

Tristan Thompson was the headliner for Texas, posting a double-double with 17 points and 13 boards. He even blocked three Baylor shots, and managed to outshine vaunted freshman Perry Jones III in a head-to-head battle. For the Bears, Dunn’s 26-point outburst led the way, with Jones’ 13 point performance the only other double-digit scoring output on the team.

Since then…

Since their impressive comeback fell just short against the Longhorns, the Bears have been something of a bi-polar team. I’d love to work in a timely joke about how Baylor has been bi-winning, but the fact of the matter is that they have had some very questionable losses over the last month.

Although the Bears completed a season sweep of Texas A&M with a win on Saturday night, they lost all three of their other conference games since facing Texas in Austin. Those losses included a head-scratching defeat to Texas Tech in Waco and a meltdown in the second half against Oklahoma State on Wednesday night. Perhaps they just needed more tiger blood.

Meet the Bears

For an in-depth look at the Baylor players and statistics, please read the preview from this season’s first meeting.

Keys to the game

While the offensive numbers have been ugly for Jordan Hamilton over the last two-plus weeks, his defense has been just as bad. In his final 2011 edition of the Power Rankings, SI’s Luke Winn published an excellent set of screenshots from the debacle in Colorado that underscored just how mercurial Hamilton’s defensive effort can be.

Without a doubt, Hamilton must bounce back for the Longhorns to win on the road tonight. He simply must improve the 30.6% shooting mark he has posted in the last five games, especially when you consider how Texas also suffers on the defensive end when his shot isn’t falling. Even if Hamilton is struggling from the floor, he has to remain mentally checked in on D against a loaded Baylor roster.

In addition, Texas needs to remain active on the glass. They did an excellent job in the first game, holding Baylor to a 23.8% mark on the offensive glass. Against the tall, talented frontline from Waco, that dominant of a performance was completely unexpected. While we aren’t holding our breath for a repeat of that performance tonight, if Texas can at least limit Baylor’s second chances, it will keep them in the game even when their own shots aren’t falling.

Finally, the Longhorn offense can’t grind to a halt. The first time these two teams played, Texas had one stretch of more than six minutes without a field goal. In the team’s recent losses to Colorado and Kansas State, they had similar droughts from the field.

Texas cannot allow their offense to devolve into four players standing around while Hamilton or J’Covan Brown make ill-advised drives from the corner that result in ugly, challenged shots. The Longhorns must get back to what worked for them earlier in the season, with motion off the ball and post players who could make the quick pass when defenses collapsed. If they can’t, the Texas offense will once again look like it has in the last two-plus weeks, and the Horns will likely be looking at another Saturday road loss to yet another bubble team.

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.

Just three weeks ago, Texas was the talk of the college basketball. The Longhorns stampeded through a brutal five-game stretch that included four games against ranked opponents, winning them all by double-digits. They ended Kansas’ seemingly interminable home-court winning streak at 69 games, and shot to the top line of every bracketologist’s S-curve.

The last two weekends changed all of that. Texas dropped back-to-back road games against Nebraska and Colorado, two teams mired in the middle of the Big 12 standings. While losing on the road in a major conference is never a shock, the manner in which the Longhorns stumbled in Lincoln and Boulder has fans concerned. Issues that plagued the team last season have suddenly reappeared, and Texas seems to have lost its killer instinct.

With two conference losses now on the ledger, Texas has lost its edge in the conference race. The Longhorns and Jayhawks are starting the final week of the season in a dead heat, but the two teams seem to be headed in decidedly different directions. If Texas has any designs on a conference title, they must bounce back against a nasty Kansas State team tonight. If Texas comes out with a stagnant offense and lackadaisical defense once more, it could be the harbinger of a very short March for the Horns.

By the numbers

As always, Frank Martin has his Wildcats playing excellent defense. Nationally, their adjusted defensive efficiency of 0.911 points per possession is ranked 25th, but they are just as strong in the tough Big 12. K-State is third in the league behind Texas and Kansas, allowing just 1.009 points each time down the floor.

The most surprising number for Kansas State’s defense is their turnover percentage. In a league with the high-pressure Missouri Tigers, the Wildcats actually have the best TO% mark in conference play. K-State has forced conference opponents into miscues on 22.7% of their possessions, and has forced turnover percentages north of 25% in six different league games.

Offensively, Kansas State uses an excellent frontcourt to fuel their scoring. While the Wildcats have an effective field goal percentage that is right in the middle of Division I hoops, their adjusted offensive efficiency is 57th nationally. The ‘Cats score 1.097 points each time down the floor, thanks in large part to the fact that their big men reclaim the misses. Kansas State’s 41.7% offensive rebounding percentage is fifth-best in the country.

Tonight’s game is bound to be a physical one, which is terrible news for fans of both teams. Kansas State and Texas are almost equally horrible when they get to the free throw line, with the Wildcats hitting 64.3% of their attempts and the Longhorns sinking 64.2% of theirs. While that means that interior fouling won’t hurt Texas as often on the scoreboard, their lack of frontcourt depth is something to be concerned with.

Meet the Wildcats

It has been a long and tortuous road for Coach Martin and the Wildcats this year. In the off-season, they lost big man Dominique Sutton when he transferred to UNC Central to be closer to his children. Then, after a troubling non-conference run in which Coach Martin openly questioned his team’s leadership, the Wildcats also lost Freddy Asprilla and Wally Judge to mid-season transfers.

With Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly both earning suspensions for taking discounts at a clothing store, and Pullen later declaring he wouldn’t play if the team was in the NIT, it has been a disjointed season to say the least.

Despite all of that, a huge home upset of Kansas two weeks ago seems to have righted the Wildcat ship. K-State has reeled off four straight wins, and if not for a loss by mere milliseconds in Boulder, the Wildcats would be riding a seven-game streak heading into tonight’s game.

As any college basketball fan knows, Jacob Pullen is the big man on campus in Manhattan. A preseason All-American, his career-high 38 points against Kansas fueled the Valentine’s Day upset. Since then, he’s averaged 26 points in wins over Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Pullen is a frightening match-up for any team because he can score in a variety of ways. He has an incredibly quick release on the catch-and-shoot, so the Wildcats are constantly running screens off the ball to free him up for the jumper. When Pullen gets open behind the arc, you can practically put the points on the scoreboard. In his last four games, the senior is shooting a blazing 65.2% behind the arc.

Unfortunately, the Longhorns can’t simply play him as a catch-and-shoot threat. With the ball in his hands, Pullen’s hesitation moves and powerful first step make him a constant threat to get to the rack. Even though he’s a smaller guard, he has the strength and athleticism to finish over and around bigger players, and easily scores through contact.

Kansas State’s other senior leader is big man Curtis Kelly, who came to Manhattan after a brief stint at Connecticut. He is a force inside, where he constantly comes down with offensive boards and sinks bunnies. Kelly is also a threat to score off the midrange jumper, though, and that ability allows him to pull opposing forwards out of the paint and open up driving lanes for Pullen and the other guards.

The main knock on Kelly’s game, though, is his raw emotion. He easily lets foul calls get in his head, and it can affect the other aspects of his game. If Kelly is clicking, he’s a tough player to stop. But frustrate him with the whistle or some solid post defense, and his performance typically goes downhill.

Joining Kelly in the frontcourt is Jamar Samuels, who was the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year last season. He’s a skilled offensive forward, who has the ability to face up post defenders and blow by them on the dribble. Samuels also can score with his back to the basket, as he often backs his man right down the lane for an easy two. On the glass, Samuels is one of the team’s best rebounders, claiming more than five boards a night.

The biggest surprise for the Wildcats this season has been the emergence of Rodney McGruder. An athletic swingman, the 6’4″ sophomore contributes all over the floor. He has a great three-point shot — it was his three-pointer that was just fractions of a second late in Boulder — but he can also body up bigger players inside. He leads the team with more than six rebounds per game, and is the team’s second-leading scorer with more than 11 points.

McGruder is a valuable hybrid player because while he contributes inside, he also has the handles and speed to attack from the wings or get out in transition. If Texas is able to limit the damage from Pullen tonight, it will be up to McGruder to pick up the slack for the Wildcats.

In the backcourt, the Wildcats have had another pleasant surprise from freshman Will Spradling. The son of a coach, he is a heady player who is averaging more than six points a game thanks in large part to his ability to read defenses and make smart cuts without the ball. Spradling also has a nice three-point shot, but his slow release makes it easier for defenses to close out on him behind the arc. Despite that, Spradling has still made 36% of his threes this season.

Another smart Wildcat is Shane Southwell, a sound defender who is practically a coach on the court. He can often be seen shouting out instructions to his teammates on the defensive end, or even physically pushing them in the right direction when things are breaking down. Offensively, he’s a non-threat, but is useful in setting screens to free Pullen or the cutting bigs. While he won’t fill up a stat sheet, Southwell’s high basketball IQ has earned him 12 starts in conference play.

Although the Wildcats have lost some players over the last few months, they still have a quality bench. In addition to Spradling, Coach Martin also employs a pair of quick guards in Martavious Irving and Nick Russell. Both can easily beat defenders off the dribble and have a knack for finding their way to the rim when the offense is stalling out. While the two guards each play less than 15 minutes a night in Big 12 games, they will likely chip in a few layups tonight.

Also coming off the bench is seven-footer Jordan Henriquez-Roberts, who has made massive strides in his sophomore year. As a freshman, he often looked stiff and awkward with the ball, but now is providing a few points and rebounds off the bench every night. At 7’0″, the one thing that has always come naturally to Henriquez-Roberts is post defense, and as a result he has a team-high 34 blocks despite playing less than 13 minutes per game.

Keys to the game

The biggest issue the Longhorns will face tonight is their inability to keep opponents off of the offensive glass. Kansas State is one of the best teams in the country at reclaiming their own misses, so Texas must limit second chance points in this one. In losses to Connecticut and Nebraska, the Horns allowed their opponents to snag more than 43% of their missed shots. If K-State can do the same thing tonight, it could push them to a huge road upset.

If the Longhorns want to get back on the right track, Jordan Hamilton must bounce back. In his last four games, Hamilton shot just 31% from the field, and was 8-of-24 behind the arc in losses to Nebraska and Colorado. If Hamilton can resist the urge to get into a game of one-upmanship with Pullen and instead take smart shots within the offense, his points will come naturally. If not, it’s very possible that the sophomore star could cripple the Texas offense.

On the other side of the ball, the Longhorns must communicate on defense. Kansas State will constantly set screens, oftentimes multiple ones just seconds apart, all in an effort to free up Pullen for the open looks. The Longhorns have to be on the same page when it comes to handling these screens, and they must also be alert to offer help defense when the K-State guards penetrate off the dribble.

Texas’ defense looked like a sieve on Saturday afternoon, and the Wildcats will have a field day if there is a repeat performance tonight. The Longhorns must get back to the sound team defense that carried them through the first five weeks of conference play.