In their season-opener, the No. 23/21 Longhorns (2-0) watched an 18-point lead early in the second half quickly disappear, and found themselves in a dogfight down the stretch. Tonight, with sophomores Kerwin Roach, Jr. and Tevin Mack back in the mix, the Longhorns did the opposite; they played with better defensive energy, and pulled away in thorough fashion to hammer Louisiana Monroe (1-1) 80-59 in what was a solid all-around performance. Here are 10 postgame thoughts:
1) Texas didn’t put together a perfect performance, but it wasn’t truly poor in any one area. Well, maybe offensive-rebounding because Texas gave up 17 of those. However, the Longhorns played a much cleaner game than the opener (just five turnovers and 11 total team fouls), and played with much better energy on defense.
“It was a huge point of emphasis. I thought the other day we were really inconsistent with our defensive energy,” Shaka Smart stated after his team’s win. “You know it helps to have two more guys out there too. When you look at the minutes, we have guys with Jarett and Kendal, and some of those guys, they had to play significantly less tonight. So they were able to get a break and you can play harder that way. We've still got a lot of things on the defensive end that we have to improve upon. It ends with rebounding, that's the most pressing one. But there's a lot of different areas that we'll look at the tape and what we want to improve on. Our process is where our focus needs to be. I think our guys are happy about the result tonight. You don't want to get too happy. You need to continue growing.”
Considering that Smart noted the poor defensive performance the previous game, it's encouraging for Texas that the defense looked better, and that the overall group appeared to take the floor with defense on the mind. The Warhawks shot 30.4 percent from the floor, 23.5 percent from three (8-of-34), and scored just 0.894 points per possession.
“When you have young guys, they don't always understand the sense of urgency that you have to have. It's no different than my daughter, really. She's five years old. I might say, ‘Hey, it's really important that you take a bath tonight.’ She doesn't feel like it's really important. For our guys, I do think they took a step tonight in terms of having a level of respect for the other team, respecting the opponent and understanding that if we don't take care of business doing the things that go into winning, doing the things that go into getting stops, we're going to have a real problem with these guys. Now, what we need to do is take a big step in that area.”
2) After the game, ULM’s coach noted how disruptive Texas’ length was. Even when the Longhorns had breakdowns, they, for the most part, sprinted around to try to recover or contest shots. Texas did a lot of switching around the perimeter, and their bigs slid their feet, used their length, and held their own in a solid manner. If they can do that on a consistent basis, it allows for a lot more flexibility from a schematic standpoint.
“We showed a lot of aggression tonight on defense. We really took pride in getting stops and not letting the other team score on us,” Andrew Jones said. “So in preparation for this game coach really emphasized ‘be the aggressors on defense,’ you know, ‘be dogs,’ as he would say and get a lot of stops, set we can get out and set up our offense.”
Early in the contest, ULM was able to hit a few shots deep in the shot clock, and also gain some offensive rebounds from those late-clock shots and one of the 34 three-pointers attempted. Instead of getting frustrated, Texas continued to defend with above-average urgency and kept its effort up.
“Yeah, he was definitely upset,” Tevin Mack said after tonight’s game about Smart’s thoughts on the defensive energy and effort against Incarnate Word in the season-opener. “We put a big emphasis on defense, made some changes, and carried that over.”
3) Very balanced approach on offense for Texas. Only Eric Davis, Jr. (2-of-10 from the floor; 1-of-6 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line) attempted 10 shots or more, and seven Texas players finished with seven points or more. The ball moved, didn’t stick much, and there weren’t many times when Texas looked out of sync and had to force a late-clock, isolation-type of shot. One of the few times that it did, Andrew Jones (12 points, six rebounds, four assists, and one turnover) used a quick spin move to blow by a man and get to the free throw line on an aggressive drive.
In addition to the scoring, no Texas player played more than 24 minutes, and all nine scholarship guys played 17 minutes or more.
4) As Smart said during the preseason, a key to follow with this Texas team is assist-to-turnover ratio. The Longhorns turned it over just five times (7.5 turnover percentage in 67 possessions), and four of the five came from Jarrett Allen and Shaquille Cleare.
Not only did Texas play under control in the half-court, for the most part, it made stellar decisions in the open floor when it was really able to get out and run after turnovers and misses in the second half.
5) Speaking of the transition offense, Texas scored 14 of its 18 fast-break points in the second half. It’s not a coincidence that once Texas started getting consecutive chances to run after ULM’s deep jumpers stopped falling, it put the game away.
At the 12:58 mark in the second half, Texas led just 46-40. Over the next nine minutes, the Warhawks made just three field goals as Texas’ length and energy started to overwhelm them, and the Longhorns went on a 30-7 run.
When Texas throws the ball inside and gets out and runs, good things happen. The Longhorns shot 50-percent from the floor (31.8 percent from three on 22 attempts and 13-of-21 at the charity stripe). They scored 1.21 points per possession, and the average possession length was, for the second-straight game, a very quick 14 seconds.
6) Jones, Davis, Roach, Kendal Yancy, Jacob Young and Mack combined to grab 24 of Texas’ 41 rebounds.
However, the most impressive rebounder was James Banks. The 6-10 freshman grabbed six in 17 minutes, and would have had more opportunities if he wasn’t blocking (two blocks) or changing shots with his length and effort. It’s just two games, so tiny sample size, but Banks is far-and-away Texas’ top defensive-rebounder right now with a 25.6 percent defensive rebounding percentage.
The four-star big also showed soft touch on a mid-range jumper off a nice feed. Prince Ibeh was a huge part of Texas’ success last season, but Banks is already ahead of what Ibeh could provide offensively.
7) After some very uncharacteristic moments and a poor shooting night rained on Yancy’s 19-point effort to open the season, he was outstanding against ULM. The box score isn’t as impressive, but his 23 minutes were more impressive, and exactly what Texas wants from him – aggression on both ends, energy, leadership, toughness, and providing some of that “nasty” Texas looks for in the form of things like rebounds and steals.
“Kendal is playing with a lot more energy and confidence than he did last year. I think he's really settled in the role of being a senior leader,” said Smart. “A guy who plays with a great motor, trying to make things happen for his team. A guy who is defensive-minded. He's set, I think, a really good example for our younger guys, all summer long, all preseason long. We're going to need him to continue doing that.”
The senior from Richardson finished with 12 points (5-of-6 shooting; 1-of-1 from three and 1-of-2 from the free throw line), three rebounds, just one foul, no turnovers, and one steal.
8) In their debuts, the sophomore duo of Roach and Mack impressed. Roach, a 6-4 guard, didn’t force the issue on offense and made an impact on defense. He finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor (0-of-1 from three and 3-of-4 from the free throw line), four rebounds, two assists, and one block. Mack showed the three-level scoring he’s known for, and finished with 14 points (5-of-9 from the floor; 4-of-6 from three-point range and 0-for-1 from the free throw line), two rebounds, one assist, and no turnovers.
The best example of Mack showing signs of more confidence and improvement came when the 6-7 sophomore received the ball in the corner, had a 6-11 big on him, gave a little fake and then aggressively attacked the rim to get by the slower defender for a tough layup with the foul. As soon as he heard the whistle and saw the ball drop through the net, Mack started flexing his arms like a wrestler that just body-slammed his opponent.
Against a ULM team that lacked some size and fired up a ton of perimeter shots, Mack played a good number of minutes as the four in a small lineup.
9) The dunk Allen had in the first half is one you’ll be seeing for a while. The five-star McDonald’s All-American fools people with his quiet demeanor off the floor. However, there’s something about him when the lights turn on, and he puts that jersey and headband on.
“He’s definitely a gamer. I feel like he’s definitely a gamer,” said Mack about Allen’s mentality when he hits the floor in the games that count.
After receiving the ball in the post, Allen raised it and surveyed the scene. That’s when he felt his defender, a 6-11 center, overplaying his right shoulder. A power-dribble into the body and spin move later, the freshman used that 7-5 wingspan and athleticism to deliver a ferocious tomahawk over his defender. Frankly, it was mean.
Click here for the dunk, which comes at the :50 mark.
Allen finished with eight points (4-of-5 from the floor; 0-of-1 from beyond the arc and 0-of-2 at the free throw line), three rebounds, two blocks, one steal and two turnovers. He did battle a little bit of foul trouble.
10) Texas is back in action at home on Thursday against Eastern Washington (7:00 p.m. on LHN). It’s the final home game before Texas departs for Brooklyn to face Northwestern and then either Colorado or Notre Dame.
Also, Smart offered an update on senior forward Mareik Isom, who is still recovering after surgery on his ankle to help remove a bacterial infection.
“I wish,” responded Smart when asked if he had a target date for Isom’s return.” He got his stitches out today. He will hopefully get his PICC Line out tomorrow, which is where he gets his IV treatment for the infection. So, we’re hoping as long as his white blood cell count is where it needs to be that he’ll get that out tomorrow. That’ll be a really big step for him… that’ll be a big step because he’s been having to wake up early in the morning, get the treatment, and then two other times a day. So once he has that out it’s just a matter of how quickly his ankle can recover. He’s off of the scooter he was on. He’s of crutches. He’s walking. I would say, I haven’t talked to the trainer recently, but I’m hopeful in the next couple of weeks.”
