Shooting From the Corner: ISU/OU/TCU (3-0)

Are y'all still freaking out or nah

I am not good at savoring things. This statement is not a surprise to anyone who has watched me eat; my eating style isn’t ravenous, there is simply very little wasted motion. I don’t spend a bunch of time prepping my food or mulling over seasoning levels - I like sauce/spice, I just defer to the chef as it were - I just start eating and the conveyor belt between plate and mouth is constantly moving. There’s not much talking involved, and I don’t drink a lot of water while I eat so there’s little to interrupt the flow. It is brutal in its efficiency and probably a pretty joyless experience to watch from the outside; in my head I’m thinking about this burrito being great, from the other side of the table it probably looks like a boa constrictor swallowing its prey. My girlfriend knows how this goes and still goes in public with me, I do not deserve her.

As I get older I’m trying to learn to savor things more; a recognition that I’m pretty lucky to have this life and should soak things in a bit more rather than grind through the list of goals and move on with little reflection. A friend who is a therapist says I’m not very good at just being there. He’s right, which is why I don’t talk to him any more. (Just kidding, James; I don’t talk to you because I don’t talk to anyone.) Maybe I spend a moment enjoying that last bite of guacamole, or I absorb that I’m actually on a gondola in Venice rather than ticking it off the box and moving on, or I savor that for once in my goddamn life I was actually right about Texas basketball. After the double OT loss to Oklahoma State and again after the loss to Tech, a fair number of Texas fans were calling for Shaka to be let go because “same old Shaka” and/or “this team falling apart again”. For me, it was Texas taking some expected losses along the way. Here’s what I said in November:

Here we are in March with Texas 11-6 and one missing Baylor game that was probably going to be a loss.

Let the savoring commence.

Micro Level, Iowa State (W, 81-67)

It Was Over Early

Texas went on a 21-2 run midway through the first half that put Texas up for good, and Iowa State never seriously threatened the rest of the way. Unlike the last Iowa State game, this wasn’t a situation where Iowa State kept slowly draining the lead and Texas seemed like it was just trying to get a pinky over the finish line. Texas put up a double-digit lead that held for almost the entirety of the second half; Iowa State got it to nine twice…and that’s basically it. It was a very unexciting game, which is invariably good news when your team is the favorite.

Kai Jones

Jericho’s foul trouble led to Kai getting a lot of minutes and he made good use of them. His free throws were stout, his rebounding was significant, there were zero off-the-bounce threes; he played within himself. This is what you want out of him at this point.

Free Throws

Courtney Ramey, Kai Jones, and Greg Brown combined to go 20-21 from the line. It’s hard to lose a game when you’re hitting free throws at that rate.

Micro Level, Oklahoma (W, 69-65)

Matt Coleman, Murderer of Sooner Dreams

Coleman had a bad game, but he hit his one and only bucket in the last minute to doom the Sooners’ comeback. This is the second year in a row Coleman has put the dagger into the Sooners on the road, and were it not for a great Jamal Bienemy block two years ago Coleman might have three Norman daggers to his name. Find you something you love as much as Matt Coleman loves making Sooners sad.

Oklahoma Finished 7th

Aside from that just being a fun fact to say out loud, Texas beating them to put them into the first-day tournament games is enjoyable. I am whelmed.

Jericho Sims

As someone who has always tantalized us with potential, seeing him become a fully-realized weapon is nice to see. There are few teams in the country with a big like him and Texas is lucky to have him playing this well, that was a dominant 16 & 12 he put up on the Sooners. Did you catch his between the legs dribble in the paint? Any time in the past 3 years, if Jericho dribbles 3+ times it’s probably ending in a turnover; his handle is arguably tighter than Andrew Jones right now. His defense against guards is impressive as well, there aren’t many teams trying to get him switched onto a smaller player any more because the film library of him keeping guards in front of him is rapidly expanding.

Royce Hamm

He had two fouls in two minutes (we were 40% of the way there!) and nearly concussed Greg Brown on a rebound. It’s not accurate to call him a bull in a china shop because the bull takes a minute to get worked up enough to start destroying things; Hamm comes into the game ready to connect elbows to temples. He needs to go into MMA after college because his ability to hammer other humans at a moment’s notice is maybe his most elite skill. He’s the Tasmanian Devil entirely by accident, and it is magical.

UPDATE: HE ALREADY DID IT!! Dustin McComas mentioned to me that he thought Royce Hamm had already done the 5 fouls in 5 minutes so I looked back through the game logs and he’s correct. Royce had 5 fouls in 5 minutes against Sam Houston State.

Micro Level, TCU (W, 76-64)

Turnovers

Texas forced TCU into their season-high turnovers, 22 in total. TCU doesn’t take care of the ball very well and Texas took advantage. The turnovers were likely the difference in the game as TCU was hitting shots, and if they could have halved the turnovers this would have been a competitive game.

Courtney Ramey

13 points on 5-9 shooting (3-3 from three), 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, just an all-around good effort from Ramey. Maybe more than anyone else, he was the cooler; when things started to get even a little sketchy he would hit a big shot or assist on another or pick somebody’s pocket.

Andrew Jones

16 points on 7 shots is pretty great TBH.

Greg Brown’s Missed Dunk

Vaughn Dalzell @VmoneySports

Greg Brown 😳 “From @SportsCenter Top 10 to Not Top 10” 😂 Brown with the between the legs breakaway attempt versus TCU

I’ve seen him do that in a high school game and everybody went as nuts as you’d imagine; we were so damn close to seeing it at Texas. You will probably not see a more impressive missed dunk in a college game this year, just listen to how King McClure was reacting on the call. He had that thing, man.

No Bad Losses

This was the last possible bad loss on the schedule, barring some sort of crazy upset run by TCU/KSU/ISU in the tourney. Texas is 10-0 against Q3 & Q4 opponents, their sheet is pretty clean compared to some; for example, TCU sweeping Oklahoma State remains one of the weirdest things to happen in conference play. From here on out, every game is only a potential positive on the resume.

Macro Level

You Can Savor This, Too

I know the default state of Texas fans is unhappy with things - and for most of the last few seasons, it is a well-earned stance - but that’s also kinda how most Big 12 fans feel. After losing 4 straight Oklahoma fans are doomscrolling something fierce right now, Kansas fans are fuming at having to associate with the proletariat, West Virginia fans reacted to the OSU loss like somebody shot their dog. It might only be Baylor and Oklahoma State fans who are feeling positive right now. So I get it, but also Texas has won 6 of their last 8 games and is probably getting a protected seed so maybe a little perspective is in order? If I came to you in October and said “Texas will finish 3rd in the Big 12, be ranked in the top-15, and be in the mix for a 3 or 4 seed in March Madness”, I think most Texas fans would be pretty happy with that outcome.

It has been 7 years since Texas won a NCAA Tournament game and they’re probably going to be a heavy favorite to win their first game, they stand a solid chance of making the second weekend for the first time in 13 years. The last time Texas made the Sweet 16, Greg Brown was in kindergarten, Barack Obama was a senator, and most of us had never heard of mortgage derivatives trading. Texas has between two and nine games left in their season, we can deal with the “program trajectory” talk later. Enjoy the ride for however long it lasts.

Conference Tournament

I’m going to offer a potentially unpopular opinion: I’m pretty okay with Texas losing early and going home. There are no bad losses available for Texas in the tournament selection committee’s eyes, and the significant COVID testing/contact tracing requirements to get to Indiana are onerous enough that Texas going home and bubbling up for a week isn’t the worst outcome. Texas isn’t on the bubble, they’re relatively unlikely to move out of a 4-seed (see below), the conference tournament really doesn’t matter that much. Winning the tournament would be great, but not at the expense of missing March Madness due to a rash of positive tests.

March Madness Seeding

Texas doesn’t have a much room for movement at this point barring chaos at the Big Ten tournament. The 1-seeds are out of reach and most of the 2-seeds are pretty locked up, there is a chance Texas moves into a 3 if it makes a conference tournament run and/or one or more of Florida State, Arkansas, & Villanova stumble at their tournaments. I don’t think there’s anything Texas can do to fall to a 5, though with the rules about teams from the same conference not meeting before the Sweet 16 it’s possible Texas gets bumped down a line. (It’s also possible Kansas, OSU, and/or Tech gets bumped down for the same reason.) I would guess Texas is about as locked into a 4 as any team can be at this point.

(Theoretically) Upcoming Games:

Thursday, March 11th: vs Tech 8:30 PM CT (ESPN/ESPN2)

(if they win) Friday, March 12th: vs Kansas or ISU/OU winner 8:30 PM CT (ESPN/ESPN2)

(if they win Friday) Saturday, March 13th: vs TBD 5 PM CT (ESPN/ESPN2)

Please remember to check out Pretend We’re Football and/or our Twitter account. My next recap will come out after the last Texas Big 12 tournament game. Also, I have a Patreon if you want to tip me for telling you I was right about something.

Writing tunes provided by Danny Tenaglia's birthday stream.