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Though they played pretty sloppily at times, Texas emerged victorious from their season opener with UTEP, winning 72-57 behind 18 points from Tyrese Hunter and 14 points from Sir'Jabari Rice. Marcus Carr and Dylan Disu both ended up in double figures as well, with 12 and 10, respectively. They have now won their last 21 home openers in a row.
The first half for Texas started off pretty rough – they scored just three points in the first five minutes. They also missed their first five three-pointers and turned the ball over nine times. Much of this can be attributed to opening night jitters, as they looked stiff and nervous for the first few minutes. Eventually, they found their stride, and hit three deep shots in a row. They went on an 8-0 run to give themselves some room, and held a 13-point lead at the half.
This didn't stop UTEP from hanging around, though. With seven minutes left in the game, UTEP was only down by eight points. Tyrese Hunter countered with three straight assists in transition to get the lead back to 14, and to basically put the game away.
Hunter proved all game that he is potentially Texas' best player. He was getting in the lane on drives, beating people off of the dribble, and hit a three as well. His game was so important and something that was sorely missed by last year's Longhorns team: efficient scoring. He shot 6/8 (1/3 on threes). He also shot 5/6 from the free-throw line.
When I asked Coach Beard about how important it is to have a guy who can deal with ball-pressure defenses like Hunter can, he responded by saying: "I don't think it was just Tyrese; some of our secondary play-makers tonight [impacted the game]. We played through Timmy; I thought Dylan Disu had a great second half...I agree, UTEP's defensive identity is their ball pressure and their denial. We really played about 22 minutes, a little bit in the first half and most of the second half, where I didn't think the pressure bothered us as much as I thought it might. I thought we had pretty good composure."
The guard play in general was very impressive – Sir'Jabari Rice was excellent with his aforementioned 14 points as well as six rebounds and two assists. The front court played well enough: Timmy Allen had nine points on 3/7 and Dylan Disu went 4/5 from the field for his 10 points.
The issues for Texas came with rebounding: UTEP outscored Texas 17-4 on second-chance points. They also had 12 offensive boards to the Longhorns' five. These are things that can absolutely derail a game when Texas plays better opponents; if they allow Gonzaga or Creighton to dominate the glass, those will be long nights. Still, they managed a fairly comfortable margin of victory against a team that played really well and had an excellent game plan.
"Joe Golding knows what he's doing," said Beard in the presser.
"This is not the number 12 team in the nation," said UTEP's Coach Golding after the game. "That's a team that's gonna be scary in March...There are a few teams that can win a national championship this year, and that's one of them."
Overall, it wasn't the prettiest victory, but a double-digit victory nonetheless. According to the players interviewed as well as Chris Beard, the crowd had a major impact on the game, something they stressed to the fanbase all offseason. Hopefully, Texas can build off of this and fix some of their issues before they take on some of the big dogs on their non-conference slate.
Though they played pretty sloppily at times, Texas emerged victorious from their season opener with UTEP, winning 72-57 behind 18 points from Tyrese Hunter and 14 points from Sir'Jabari Rice. Marcus Carr and Dylan Disu both ended up in double figures as well, with 12 and 10, respectively. They have now won their last 21 home openers in a row.
The first half for Texas started off pretty rough – they scored just three points in the first five minutes. They also missed their first five three-pointers and turned the ball over nine times. Much of this can be attributed to opening night jitters, as they looked stiff and nervous for the first few minutes. Eventually, they found their stride, and hit three deep shots in a row. They went on an 8-0 run to give themselves some room, and held a 13-point lead at the half.
This didn't stop UTEP from hanging around, though. With seven minutes left in the game, UTEP was only down by eight points. Tyrese Hunter countered with three straight assists in transition to get the lead back to 14, and to basically put the game away.
Hunter proved all game that he is potentially Texas' best player. He was getting in the lane on drives, beating people off of the dribble, and hit a three as well. His game was so important and something that was sorely missed by last year's Longhorns team: efficient scoring. He shot 6/8 (1/3 on threes). He also shot 5/6 from the free-throw line.
When I asked Coach Beard about how important it is to have a guy who can deal with ball-pressure defenses like Hunter can, he responded by saying: "I don't think it was just Tyrese; some of our secondary play-makers tonight [impacted the game]. We played through Timmy; I thought Dylan Disu had a great second half...I agree, UTEP's defensive identity is their ball pressure and their denial. We really played about 22 minutes, a little bit in the first half and most of the second half, where I didn't think the pressure bothered us as much as I thought it might. I thought we had pretty good composure."
The guard play in general was very impressive – Sir'Jabari Rice was excellent with his aforementioned 14 points as well as six rebounds and two assists. The front court played well enough: Timmy Allen had nine points on 3/7 and Dylan Disu went 4/5 from the field for his 10 points.
The issues for Texas came with rebounding: UTEP outscored Texas 17-4 on second-chance points. They also had 12 offensive boards to the Longhorns' five. These are things that can absolutely derail a game when Texas plays better opponents; if they allow Gonzaga or Creighton to dominate the glass, those will be long nights. Still, they managed a fairly comfortable margin of victory against a team that played really well and had an excellent game plan.
"Joe Golding knows what he's doing," said Beard in the presser.
"This is not the number 12 team in the nation," said UTEP's Coach Golding after the game. "That's a team that's gonna be scary in March...There are a few teams that can win a national championship this year, and that's one of them."
Overall, it wasn't the prettiest victory, but a double-digit victory nonetheless. According to the players interviewed as well as Chris Beard, the crowd had a major impact on the game, something they stressed to the fanbase all offseason. Hopefully, Texas can build off of this and fix some of their issues before they take on some of the big dogs on their non-conference slate.
