Sponsorship.
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First Half.
The first half was a whirlwind of frenetic pace, as the two teams flew past each other repeatedly for impressive basket after impressive basket. The Longhorns shot 54% from the field and Miami shot 64% in what felt like an NBA game, as the level of shot-making was extremely high. It truly felt how an Elite Eight game is supposed to feel, where the referees didn't take over play and turn it into a sloppy free-throw fest.So Miami out-shot Texas in the first half, yet the score was 45-37 Longhorns going into the break. How did this happen?
The three ball.
Texas hit seven first-half threes, which lifted them to an eight-point lead. Timmy Allen and Marcus Carr had 10 points each, and off the bench, Arterio Morris had six, Brock Cunningham had seven, and SirJabari Rice had eight.
As smooth as the Hurricanes offense looked, the Longhorns still limited their ability to hit shots from deep. They only had three attempts from beyond the arc because of the perimeter defense Texas displayed. They hit two of the three shots, so the percentage was obviously great. But when the team on the other side is hits 7/13 from deep, those two threes aren't as helpful.
Jordan Miller starred for the Hurricanes, scoring 13 points on 6/6 from the field, getting whatever he wanted offensively. As a 6'7 guard, Miller provides matchup problems for a team that doesn't have big guys on the perimeter outside of Timmy Allen.
Isaiah Wong and Nijel Pack didn't have the same first half they had against Houston – in fact, Wong scored just two points in the first half, while Pack scored seven. If Texas wanted to win this game, they'd have to contain the Hurricanes' guards in the second half as well.
Second Half.
They couldn't.The second half, Texas hung tough, keeping the Hurricanes at bay for the first 10 minutes, where they led by 12 points at the peak and never let Miami really make any kind of run. They played great offense, and the defense, though not great, was at least decent enough to keep the lead intact.
Then, everything changed. Fouls started to pile up (for both teams), and the slowing down of the game played into the Hurricanes' favor considering Texas' depth.
That's when the Texas offense just stopped working properly. A hard foul on Marcus Carr had him banged up, and he clearly wasn't himself for the rest of the game. After the team his seven threes in the first half, they hit just three total in the second.
From the 10:14 mark of the second half, Miami outscored Texas by 18. Texas managed 14 points in the last 10 minutes compared to 32 points for the Hurricanes. No, the officiating didn't help, but you can't blame it all on the officials. At a certain point, you just have to make shots and take care of the ball, neither of which Texas did.
Once Miami took the lead back finally at 5:26, you could just sense the team was shot. They played panicky basketball on offense, taking bad shots, overthinking open shots, and throwing wildly risky passes, many of which resulted in turnovers.
There is only so much a coach can do in that situation, as the Longhorns clearly knew the game was slipping away from them. Lacking Disu and a healthy Carr was a deathblow, as was the overturned foul that would have (a) fouled out Norchad Omier and (b) given Texas free-throws on the other end in a tie game. Instead, Brock Cunningham was assessed his fourth foul and Miami hit both frees to take the lead themselves.
A massive performance from Jordan Miller of Miami, who shot an unprecedented 7/7 on FGs and 13/13 at the line for 27 points, helped drive the Hurricanes past the struggling Longhorns.
In reality, Texas kind just wasn't very good for the last quarter of the game. They had several opportunities to keep the lead but just started lacking fundamental basketball when it counted most.
It was an absolutely brutal pill to swallow for a team that had national championship aspirations. The final from Kansas City was Miami 88, Texas 81.
Trends and Important Stats.
Texas led at the half by eight points. This season, when leading at the half, Texas was 22-0; this loss was their only blown halftime lead of the year, and really could not have come at a more painful time for players or fans.Part of the reason it hurt so badly is that this team doesn't lose games like that. They are a veteran unit that, for the first time in the last month, showed real vulnerability on the defensive end. They weren't as elite a unit as they were last year, of course, but this team could actually play offense too.
Today, that lacking elite defense killed them, as they gave up the most amount of points they have all season other than their loss to Kansas State at home. At certain points, it just felt as if Miami couldn't miss – they, for the game, shot 59%. Some of that is on the Texas defense, but some of it is just the fact that the Hurricanes were straight up unconscious.
I don't know that any defense Texas could have run would have stopped the onslaught; it felt helpless watching them just struggle to weather the storm as the Hurricanes overtook them.
Outside of Jordan Miller's 27-point, 100%-shooting night, they also got 16 from Poplar, 15 from Pack, 11 from Omier and 14 from Wong,. As I mentioned previously, they went 27/30 from the free-throw line. They just could not be stopped no matter what Texas did. At a certain point, it just felt like fate.
Texas' offense hung with them for most of the game, but in the end, they just couldn't anymore. It was truly a soul-crushing defeat that will, for a while, probably overshadow the season they had (it shouldn't, but it's not hard to see why people would feel that way).
Rodney Terry.
Rodney Terry should be and will be the next head coach for Texas MBB. You may hate the idea at the moment – how could Texas hire a guy that blew that lead?The truth is, when you give up nearly 60% from the field, you're not going to win. That is not on Terry. Were some of the lineups at the end strange? Maybe, but you have to realize that Texas was down essentially two starters after Carr suffered that strange fall when Omier fouled him going up (and no, this wasn't a dirty play – both were clearly going for the ball).
Carr isn't just a scorer; he's the team's best distributor as well, and when the defense knows he's banged up, it's easier to play off of him more and instead try to defend the paint better. They were letting Carr operate without playing him super tight, meaning the perimeter defenders could dig back into the paint and play help defense.
By doing this, they prevented Texas from getting good looks from the midrange, which they were able to get for the first 30 or so minutes. I said multiple times during and before the game that Miami struggles to defend the midrange shot, and when they were able to, it made the Texas offense pretty one-dimensional.
People have suggested other head coaches to hire instead of Rodney Terry. They (arrogantly) assumed they could sign Jay Wright, which was never really in play. Billy Donovan is not a realistic option either. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd has about 1,000 red flags, including the fact that he lost in the first round as a 2-seed to Princeton this season.
That's the guy people want to replace Terry with? A person who has had less success?
In his single season, Terry won more NCAA Tournament games than Lloyd did the last two seasons combined. Hiring Lloyd feels like hustling backwards.
Terry got further than Eric Musselman from Arkansas, who was rumored; he got further than Nate Oats did (not to mention the off-the-court issues the Crimson Tide suffered this year). He also got further than Beard did in his only full season at the helm.
I know you don't want to hear this right now, but Rodney Terry is the right guy for the job regardless of the heartbreak today. He has the locker room, and players love him. He will do well in the portal, I have no doubt, and has kept the recruiting class intact as well.
Obviously, you don't sign a coach to save a recruiting class. But hiring Terry as the full-time guy isn't some emotional overreaction. He has been fantastic this year; they just ran into a team that frankly played better than they did tonight. If nothing else, he's earned the job because of his handling of the off-the-court issues with his former HC.
Eliminating his name from the coaching pool would be the emotional overreaction, not the other way around.
Season Wrap-Up.
While it didn't end the way anyone wanted it to, this season was an absolute success in every way possible from an on-the-court perspective. A 2-seed and an Elite Eight ranks this season easily inside the top five they've ever had.If you'll remember back to December 12th, 2022, when you-know-what happened, this Texas team came out and nearly laid an egg against Rice. Though they ended up winning a close overtime game, the season looked as if it was going to come completely off the rails. Will they even make the tournament? Will everyone transfer mid-season a la Tre Mitchell or Jaylon Tyson?
In reality, none of that happened. Instead, they ran through one of the toughest schedules in the country, beat Kansas State on the road, dominated Kansas twice in a week, won the Big XII Tournament, earned a 2-seed, and fought their way to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008. Rodney Terry absolutely saved this program from going completely sideways. It looked like a dumpster fire waiting to happen, but Rodney Terry manned up and grabbed the fire extinguisher.
This was a great, great team. It may take a few days to wash this taste out of your mouth, but in retrospect, this team will be remembered fondly by the Texas Longhorns faithful.
Expectations shifted from December 12th to March, and a big part of that was the interim HC. Will he win a national title at Texas? Nobody can answer that. But should he (when he) takes the job, he'll be the reason there are high expectations in the first place.
It's been an absolute joy covering this team this season for all of you guys. I want to thank you for reading my content, engaging with me, and overall being the best message board out there for watching college basketball. I'll miss this team.
I can't wait to see what happens next for Texas basketball.
*****
@KeenanWomack
