Heading into Saturday’s matchup against the Kansas City Roos at the Moody Center, first-year Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller emphasized respecting the game and maintaining the team’s effort level,
regardless of opponent quality.
Facing a bad Kansas City team, Texas failed to impress in a 71-55 victory — projected to win by 28 points, the Horns never led by more than 22 points and only managed to outscore the Roos by four points in the second half.
Kansas City shot a better percentage from the floor than Texas in the final 20 minutes as the Longhorns defense failed to provide enough resistance or playmaking, forcing just two turnovers. In shooting 38.2 percent, Texas struggled to execute offensively, including continued struggles at the free-throw line and beyond the arc, making 6-of-11 at the line and only 1-of-10 from three.
Those struggles were consistent throughout the game as the Horns shot 4-of-20 from three (20 percent) and 17-of-28 from the free-throw line (60.7 percent).
The primary culprits for the lack of offensive success were senior guard Jordan Pope and graduate guard Tramon Mark.
Pope was ineffective in 25 minutes, scoring two points on 1-0f-11 shooting, missing all six of his three-point attempts. And while Pope didn’t turnt he ball over — Texas only turned it over five times in the game — the Oregon State transfer also failed to record an assist.
Mark got off to a strong start, hitting a three less than two minutes into the game and turning a steal into a breakaway dunk as part of a 10-2 start for the Longhorns, who never trailed in the game. But those were the only two made baskets for Mark in his 27 minutes, missing his final seven shot attempts, including four three-point attempts.
For sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis, it was a frustrating performance written all over his face and body language throughout. Foul trouble marred the first half, but the bigger issues were his inability to finish through contact against overmatched defenders and his subsequent struggles to convert his opportunities at the free-throw line.
Vokietaitis ultimately scored 12 points on 3-of-7 shooting, missing chances to finish around the rim and hitting 6-of-12 free throws, an area to monitor because the Florida Atlantic transfer projects as the highest-volume free-throw shooter on the team by a significant margin. With eight rebounds, a block, and a steal, Vokietaitis did do a solid job impacting the game in other ways beyond scoring.
With 15 fast-break points and 38 points in the paint, Texas did a solid job of playing with pace and getting the ball around the basket as the bigs fought for position and the their teammates did well to find entry passes.
Two other players joined Vokietaitis in reaching double digits. Junior wing Dailyn Swain was efficient inside the arc in making 6-of-7 tw0-point attempts for a team-high 13 points, but also missed both of his three-point attempts despite some positive early signs of improvement from beyond the arc. and graduate forward Lassina Traore notched a double-double, scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and dominating the glass with 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
Texas plays another tuneup at the Moody Center, hosting Rider on Tuesday, before heading to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational over the Thanksgiving break.
