What you missed: The Auburn Tigers show the nation why they’re soon to be the #1 Team in the nation (via. AP) after a 87-82 win over the Horns on the road.
The participants: #2 Auburn Tigers @ Texas Longhorns
Hardwood MVP: Despite a poor outing from the Horns, Arthur Kaluma was a menace against Auburn, not only did Kaluma have a career high 34 points, but the Forward posted 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 5 threes, an impressive stat line to say the least against one of the top teams in the nation. All stats aside, Arthur showed true resiliency on both ends of the floor, when the offense was at a stale point he’d take initiative in making sure possessions weren’t wasted, and although star Senior Johni Broome for the Auburn Tigers had himself a night as well, Kaluma’s help defense was solid to say the least making him the Hardwood MVP of the night.
Tale of the Tape: All the flowers are deserved when discussing Bruce Pearl’s Tigers and despite showing a bit more fight in the second half and cutting the lead to single digits at one point, hell even almost completing a miracle in Austin, the Horns might have a first half issue which can best be identified as how they start contests. While the ball movement in tonight’s matchup wasn’t anything to hang your hat on, the sense of urgency in the Horns has been more of a concern when they tip-off ball games. Now, while those issues will be glaring to fans, don’t worry I’ll get to those, the fight Texas showed to close out this game can not go unnoticed. To not only erase a 20+ point deficit, but to do it against an elite coach in Bruce Pearl and this Auburn team is definitely something that can be carried on to future matchups.
Question, Where’s Tre? Is what most Longhorn fans will be asking after the Freshman’s first two SEC contests. In Johnson’s first two SEC games of his career, he has averaged 11.0ppg, 2.5rpg, 2apg, while shooting a combined 7/26 from the field and shooting a combined TS% of 36.9%, if Texas wants to be a legit threat to not only compete night in and night out in what is known to be a loaded SEC Conference, players like Tramon Mark, and especially Tre Johnson will have to figure out how they can consistently contribute to a tranfer centric team in the Longhorns and will have to do it fast as the Longhorns’ next contest in SEC play is against former Texas Head Coach, Rick Barnes and the Tennessee Volunteers in the Moody Center on Saturday, January 11th at 5PM CT on ESPN.
Share the sugar, it taste’s stale: Understandably, Auburn ranked second in the nation in opponents assists per game allowing only 8.4 a game. Tonight, Texas only had 6 in the entire game. For a team who put up 82 points in a game and only recording 6 assists is, as simply put, allowing bad habits. Texas fans and Texas basketball should feel good about putting up a scoring outing like that against Auburn but do not get complacent with allowing that specific stat to coast by into future matchups, A.K.A cut it out before it gets worse.
Keeping it a buck: Overall these are back-to-back games where the Texas offense looks lost, no half court set offenses, no motion sets, and show signs of struggling against zone looks at time. I mean this in the most polite/respectful way possible to both the Longhorns, and my middle-aged men out there who still hoop and are active, but I get the same feeling watching Texas’ offense as I do watching A 40 year old play ball at Lifetime Fitness, for the majority of the time just chucking up a prayer after a dead possession. Now is that to say Rodney Terry and Texas can’t change it around of course not but, they will have to integrate an offense that complements the playstyles of Tre Johnson, Arthur Kaluma, and Jordan Pope, because as of right now against power conference opponents I would not say there is a game where them three collectively had themselves a night which is alarming in my eyes, truly wishing for a bounce back in that area.
Texas Report Card vs Auburn:
- Ball Movement: F
- Attacking the rim: B-
- Shot selection: C
- Perimeter Offense: D+
- Interior Offense: C+
- Perimeter Defense: C+
- Interior Defense: B-
- Ball security: C
- Overall Performance: C+
Last edited:
