After a midweek bye afforded the Texas Longhorns a chance to recover from the grind of SEC play, head coach Sean Miller’s team trips to Columbia to face the Missouri Tigers at Mizzou Arena on Saturday trying to extend the team’s winning streak to four games.
“This week gives us the opportunity to mentally and physically be fresh for what I think is the stretch run of the season, and also at the same time balancing that with getting better,” Miller said on Monday.
The break was particularly important
for junior wing Dailyn Swain, who has been carrying a heavy playmaking load for the Horns, and graduate forward Lassina Traore, held out of last Saturday’s win over Ole Miss after he took a knock on his surgically-repaired knee.
Miller hopes that the finish for Texas looks familiar — last year, his Xavier team made an unexpected run to the NCAA Tournament by winning its final seven regular-season games.
“The team that I had was super, super hungry to finish strong. We had a lot of older guys, this was their last chance in college, and they were like, we’re not going out any other way than the best way we can and practice became everything. We practiced as well in February as we would have in November. As a matter of fact, in some areas better,” Miller said.
After multiple Longhorns secured the first three-game conference winning streak of their career against the Rebels, the Texas head coach sees some similar attributes in this group.
“I think that we’re hungry and determined to be the best we can be down the stretch,” Miller said.
But the Horns face a more difficult path to the NCAA Tournament in the SEC than the Musketeers did in the Big East.
Narrow underdogs on the road against Missouri on Saturday before hosting LSU as heavy home favorites next Tuesday, Texas sees its schedule stiffen afterwards with three of the next four games on the road and as heavy underdogs when Florida comes to the Moody Center on the 25th.
The opportunity exists to significantly improve the team’s NCAA Tournament chances, which have only increased by about 10 percentage points over the three-game winning streak. But last year’s group under Rodney Terry is one of the most similar resumes for these Longhorns, and the upside of teams with similar profiles is limited historically — only three of the 10 comparable teams made it past the first round and none advanced to the Sweet 16.
Compared to where Texas was after an 0-2 start to SEC play, that statistical ceiling represents clear development that needs to continue individually to buoy Miller’s program-building efforts.
Sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis possesses the most untapped potential over the final seven regular-season games after bouncing back from his worst SEC performance to score a game-high 27 points in the 79-68 win over Ole Miss last Saturday.
In an effort that balanced the ability to finish through contact in the paint, Vokietaitis went 9-of-11 shooting from the field and 9-of-12 shooting from the floor in an emotionally-regulated 35 minutes that represented his career high, the big Lithuanian showcased his superior conditioning and what Miller hopes is a burgeoning capability to avoid bad fouls by limiting the physical contact that he creates offensively and maintaining his verticality defensively to force contested shots.
“We’re working with Matas to learn how to go vertically, straight up in the air, hands behind his head, where he can use his length and his size to our advantage defensively, but yet not foul,” Miller said. “It’s a different way of protecting the rim that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to block the shot, but it’s really just protecting that area that has been unkind to us so many games where drives and shots around the basket do us in.”
Despite his height, Vokietaitis has a 3.3-percent block rate that ranks as mediocre in college basketball that illustrates a lack of natural shot-blocking ability exacerbated by his breakdowns in fundamentals.
Offensively, however, Vokietaitis was remarkably efficient against the Rebels, getting the frontcourt for Ole Miss into foul trouble and taking advantage of a defensive game plan that trapped more than usual, opening up the lane for Vokietaits, who was also the beneficiary of the Ole Miss defense loading the strong side of the court with defenders to stop Swain’s penetration ability.
Because Vokietaitis was able to avoid foul trouble, he played a career-high 35 minutes, showcasing his superior conditioning.
“We talked to modest about being able, at this point in the season, to play longer stretches, which means foul less, be more in control of your emotions. But his conditioning is incredible. He’s one of the best-conditioned big guys that I’ve ever been around — he’s seven foot, 250, and I think his body fat is about five or six percent, and with that, he’s one of the hardest workers on our team,” Miller said after the Ole Miss win.
To beat Missouri, which has a 57-percent win probability, Texas will likely need to slow down bruising wing Mark Mitchell, a Duke transfer who is averaging 17.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
“He is a one-man wrecking crew. I’ll call him a bully in the most kind and good way I can — I mean that in a sports-specific way, like he just imposes his will on the opponent, rebounding, physicalit,y drives, living at the free-throw line, playing both the five and the four, using his quickness at the five, using his physicality at the four,” Miller said. “And the other thing about him, he’s an excellent passer, so when you try to bring help or double team, he sees the game, and he finds his teammates, and his teammates are very, very skilled.”
Guards Jayden Stone and Jacob Crews are particularly dangerous playing off of Mitchell with Stone shooting 41.2 percent from three, and Crews hitting at 46.7 percent. It’s a deep guard corps for the Tigers that also includes another good shooter in Trent Pierce and a secondary playmaker in Anthony Robinson II, a poor shooter even in the mid range.
Also in the midst of a three-game winning streak, Missouri does have some weaknesses — the Tigers don’t protect the ball particularly well on offense and aren’t a good defensive team with a pronounced difficulty defending the three-point line.
Tip is at 7:30 p.m. Central on ESPN2.
