In a Lone Star Showdown with NCAA Tournament implications, the Texas Longhorns travel to College Station on Saturday for a return matchup against the Texas A&M Aggies at Reed Arena on Saturday.
With two straight losses in the wake of a five-game winning streak, the Longhorns are sliding back onto the bubble as one of the last four byes in the latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, and in danger of sliding farther with a 32-percent win probability on Saturday against the Aggies and a 21-percent win probability for
Wednesday’s game in Fayetteville against the Razorbacks.
Texas is in an increasingly perilous postseason position after a poor effort in last Saturday’s loss at Georgia and a better effort on Wednesday against Florida at the Moody Center that nonetheless ended with the same result. In both games, Texas was close late, but finished poorly.
“I thought we folded down the stretch at home,” Texas head coach Sean Miller said after the Florida loss.
At the 7:27 mark of the second half, the Horns led the Gators 64-61 after a layup by senior guard Jordan Pope. Down the stretch, Florida ran away with the game just like Georgia did, going on a 23-3 run as Texas failed to make a shot from the field and turned the ball over five times.
“I would tell you that our inability to get a key stop in crunch time is is a significant thing for us, and we’re gonna have to pass that test here over these next couple weeks,” Miller said.
The Gators went 8-of-11 shooting (72.7 percent) after the under-eight timeout, scoring three times at the rim and making two threes.
“Some of their key scoring opportunities in this game stemmed from their elite defense,” Miller said.
Bothering Texas with their size and length, Florida had an 11-1 advantage in blocked shots that helped produce a 16-8 advantage in fast-break points as the Horns ran out of gas late as junior wing Dailyn Swain played 39 minutes and sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis played 34 minutes. Swain finished 7-of-18 shooting in an uncharacteristically inefficient performance.
In the 74-70 loss to the Aggies in Austin last month, the Longhorns lost control of the game earlier in the second half. After going into halftime tied at 29, Texas came out flat, giving up three threes to Rylan Griffen and two layups to Rashaun Agee, including a three-point play, to fall behind by 10 points before the under-16 timeout.
Late in the game, the Horns went on an 8-0 run to narrow the deficit to three point, but that was with seven seconds left, too little, too late for Texas.
Against the fast-paced Bucky Ball employed by the Aggies, the Longhorns were largely able to control the game’s tempo, limiting A&M to 11 fast-break points, but the visitors were opportunistic with a 15-5 edge in points off turnovers.
The Aggies also wore down Miller’s team with their depth, using 10 players and outscoring the Horns 20-6 in bench points as the three Texas reserves combined to go 1-of-10 shooting in 42 minutes with junior guard Simeon Wilcher missing all six of his shot attempts and senior guard Chendall Weaver finishing minus-16.
Griffen was efficient for A&M, scoring 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-5 shooting, and Agee notched a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The win over the Longhorns was the start of a four-game winning streak for the Aggies before the difficulties of surviving SEC play surfaced with four straight losses and five defeats over the last seven games, largely a consequence of a faltering defense. Now A&M is also one of the last four teams with a bye in Lunardi’s Bracketology.
But with the possibility that Texas graduate forward Lassina Traore could be unavailable once again, the Longhorns will have to avoid playing at the pace that the Aggies want and hope they can finish better than they have in the last two games.
Tip is at 3:00 p.m. Central on ESPN2.
