AUSTIN, Texas — The promise of back-to-back wins over top-15 opponents gave way to another disappointing home loss in conference play for the Texas Longhorns on Saturday at the Moody Center in a 74-70 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies that featured too many of the same issues that have plagued first-year head coach Sean Miller’s team this season on the way to a an 11-7 record.
“They outclassed us — they were the better team from start to finish,” Miller said after the loss.
Some aspects of the performance
were impressive in a difficult matchup against the full-court pressure employed by first-year A&M head coach Bucky McMillan — the Longhorns largely handled that pressure well in turning the ball over only eight times, half of the season average for the Aggies and 60 percent of the average turnover rate forced by A&M this year, and limited the visitors to eight made threes, 3.5 threes below their season average. A&M guard Ruben Dominguez, who entered the game seventh nationally at 3.6 made threes per game on 7.8 attempts, went 1-of-4 shooting from distance.
Given those key statistics that fuel success for the Aggies, the Longhorns should have won the game, but several key areas and moments determined the outcome.
The first area mentioned by Miller was the disparity in bench production — A&M’s reserves outscored the Texas reserves 20-6, led by eight points from guard Ali Dibba.
“If you look at our bench versus their bench, it was a heavy, heavy lean, and in no way did we lose the game just because of that, but if one team really is playing those nine or 10 guys, and they’re getting great production, it’s really important that on our end, that we can get some quality production from our bench. And if you look at it, it was heavily favored in on their end, just in terms of the overall play from the bench,” Miller said.
The Texas head coach said that he’s comfortable with the eight-man rotation the Horns are employing in conference play as sophomore forward Nic Codie seeks to break into it, but it’s the combination of the lack of production and impact on the game beyond conventional counting stats stood out.
“Our bench was 1-for-10 from the floor. We were 0-for-4 from three. And you look at that plus-minus deal, we’re minus-13,” Miller said.
Graduate forward Lassina Traore is currently the only frontcourt player that Miller brings off the bench. On Saturday, Traore went scoreless without a shot attempt or free-throw attempt in 10 minutes, though he did have four rebounds, two offensive, an assist, a block, and a steal.
Contrast that to former Texas center Jamie Vinson, who posterized Longhorns sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis twice on dunks and also had a block while making it difficult for Vokietaitis to score in the paint, committing four physical fouls that made Vokietaitis earn his points at the free-throw line.
The backup guard play for the Horns didn’t just lack impactful play, it was positively abysmal.
In 17 minutes, senior guard Chendall Weaver finished minus-16 with three fouls and a turnover, making only 1-of-4 shot attempts and regularly turning down open threes, an understandable response to a 6-of-30 start to the season (20 percent) after spending the offseason working tirelessly to improve in that area of his game. But even if declining those shot attempts is understandable, it’s also detrimental to the offense to have to then create another open look after Weaver’s opportunity.
After Weaver only played 20 games last season due to a hip injury that limited him throughout most of conference play, the hope this season was that he could take a step forward with his box-score contributions instead of his more intangible impacts on the game. And although Weaver did have nine rebounds in the win over Vanderbilt, his lack of scoring ability is disappointing, especially after shooting 40.2 percent from three on 82 attempts as a freshman at UTA.
Junior guard Simeon Wilcher isn’t providing the impact that the Horns need, either, missing all three of his three-point attempts and all three of his two-point attempts in an 0-of-6 performance.
The St. John’s transfer did record three assists and a steal, but one sequence highlighted his issues — as A&M surged early in the second half, Wilcher gave up a three by Rylen Griffen and then turned the ball over when he committed an obvious push-off foul trying to get open against the press of the Aggies.
That’s simply bad basketball from a player who spent two seasons under Rick Pitino.
Those back-t0-back mistakes came during what Miller viewed as the decisive stretch of the game — the four minutes after halftime when A&M turned a tie game at the break into a 10-point lead with the help of three threes by Griffen and two layups by forward Rashaun Agee, including a three-point play.
“I’m telling you right now, in the first four minutes of the second half, we were not ready to play. There was one team that was running fast and there was one team that was not running nearly as fast as they could. There was one team that was came out of halftime ready to play all the way to the end, from start to finish, and one team that, for whatever reason, just couldn’t quite get up and get after it like you’re capable of in the SEC in a game of this meaning in that first four-minute segment of the second half,” Miller said.
The poor segment before the first media timeout after halftime was compounded by a poor finish to the first half by Texas as A&M went on an 11-2 run before Longhorns graduate guard Tramon Mark hit a three at the buzzer.
“If you add up the last three or four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half, that’s where the game was won and lost. They crushed us in those two segments,” Miller said.
The difference between the end of the first half and the start of the second half was “effort, readiness, concentration, toughness,” in Miller’s estimation.
“What happened in that four-minute segment was a reflection of us not understanding the stakes here, and from that point on, we just don’t have that luxury and room for error to overcome a four-minute segment like that in any game of the 18 in the SEC,” Miller said.
A&M’s first basket of that segment was illustrative of the Texas issues this season, which have included regularly fouling jump shooters, which is exactly what junior forward Cam Heide did against Griffen on a fast-break three that turned into a four-point play.
After Wilcher’s turnover, Agee drove against Longhorns junior wing Dailyn Swain for a three-point play that pushed the lead to double digits for the Aggies.
Heide’s foul on Griffen wasn’t the only time that Texas was whistled for contact against a three-point shooter in the second half when senior guard Jordan Pope fouled Dominguez beyond the arc at the 13:21 mark of the second half, just outside that critical four-minute segment to open it.
Dominguez made all three to respond to a four-point surge by Swain that included a highlight steal and breakaway dunk — so it wasn’t just the outcome of Pope’s foul that had such an influence on the game, it was the moment in the game that it came at that sapped energy from the home crowd.
“I thought one time we may have done it on purpose. We almost tackled them. You could have caught a flagrant foul. You just you can’t tackle the three-point shooter. I’m telling you, again, it’s an undisciplined player or a team is coached by an undisciplined coach or staff,” Miller said.
In a four-point loss, the Longhorns gave up four points on fouls against three-point shooters in addition to the made three by Griffen on Heide’s foul.
“I didn’t think it was characteristic of our recent play — we regressed a little bit,” Miller said.
Four layups given up by Texas on backdoor cuts from flex action by A&M also stuck with the Longhorns head coach.
“Just nobody around, like somebody fell down on our team, and that’s on me, that’s on us, you can’t give up shots like that on set play calls. At least it’s if it’s challenged, if a guy makes a great play, that’s one thing. It was like somebody fell down, right?” Miller said.
“That was a big that was a big reason we lost today. It was too easy for them. They were 15-of-25 from the floor in the second half. Four of those came on the plays I’m talking about. I call them bingo plays. It’s like, man, can you steal two, four points, six, eight points and they did against us, and we weren’t able to do that to them.”
