Shooting From the Corner: TCU (1-0)
It wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't pretty
Chris Beard took none of my advice re: Devin Askew - clearly the first time he hasn’t read this blog - and as a result Texas trailed most of the game. With about 12 minutes left in the game, somebody in the stands reminded TCU that they’ve gone far too long without mercilessly punching themselves in the dick with turnovers to which Jamie Dixon thanked them then immediately & repeatedly called The Turnover Play until they got back to their season average. Very courteous of him, and Texas was happy to help force turnovers to get them back to their preferred style of play. With the Horned Frogs turning the ball over every other possession or so, Texas went on a run?
The game went from an ugly slog where Texas was losing to a marginally less ugly slog where Texas was leading to a Texas win, which is a sentence I feel I could have typed about 16 times this season. Regardless, it’s a win, and it keeps Texas on track for a winning Big 12 record.
Micro Level, TCU (W, 75-66)
Andrew Jones & Marcus Carr
One of them went 6-11 from two, 0-3 from three, 7-8 from the line, and dished out two assists.
One of them went 7-11 from two, 0-4 from three, 7-8 from the line, and dished out two assists.
I bring them up as a pair because I think Marcus Carr was playing closer (to borrow a phrase from Longhorns fans) to Minnesota Carr than he has in awhile, but mostly because that means Andrew Jones is playing close to the level of the player tabbed as the top transfer in the country and the preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. If Texas has designs on getting out of the first weekend of March Madness, they’re going to need Andrew Jones to keep playing at this level for another month.
Free Throws
Teams don’t tend to lose games where they’re +16 from the line; Texas shot 24-29 to TCU’s 8-11 and it was the line that kept TCU from running away from Texas. If Texas makes a run in March, their collective ability to hit free throws is probably going to play a prominent role.
Offensive Rebounding
It was pretty obvious that Eddie Lampkin was literally and metaphorically gutting it out - ha ha, big tummy humor! - on a knee that isn’t fully healthy; his defensive reactions were less slide step than Grandpa Does the Electric Slide. This hurt TCU’s normally elite rebounding, and Texas actually beat TCU at their own game on the offensive boards. I am not going to say any other negative things about Eddie Lampkin because he will fuck me up. Don’t take it from me:
Macro Level
Three-Point Shooting
Courtney Ramey hit the first three of the evening, little did we know it would be the last made three for Texas. They ended the night 1-14, thus allowing Texas to practice its offensive rebounding drills significantly more than anyone imagined. Texas is down to 260th in D-I in three-point shooting at 32.1% & they’re at 30.3% in conference play; they haven’t topped 40% in a game since Tennessee. As a point of reference, Purdue is averaging 40.3% from three and they’re shooting a higher percentage of threes than Texas. The Longhorns simply cannot rely on their three-point shooters to hit from deep; in a given game one or two of them might go off, but given Beard is unlikely to materially adjust his offense to get better looks their other option is to get into the paint. They did that against TCU, but higher-level teams are going to make that difficult. This staff is going to need to get creative.
Still 4th Place
There is a small chance Texas could move to 3rd place, but at this point it’s really unlikely. Most likely Texas faces either Kansas State or TCU in their first tournament game, with Kansas lurking in the next round. Is now a good time to mention that Chris Beard is 1-3 all-time in the Big 12 tournament? It might get brought up again next week.
(it will definitely get brought up again next week)
Tre Mitchell
I would be surprised if Mitchell plays for Texas again this year..or maybe ever. I’m reading the tea leaves here. I’m kidding, I’m reading his father’s tweets.
#BeardChurn appears to have reared its head again, and I think it’s worth pointing out that if Mitchell is in fact gone - nothing is official right now, maybe fences get mended - that’s a junior who has already burned his 1-time transfer deciding to leave. He’s either got to sit a year or go pro (probably international ball), so it’s not like a guy who can bolt and immediately start elsewhere. It’s a higher threshold to make a guy like that move on unless he thinks he can get a waiver, which is fairly unlikely.
Jaskaran Singh
Dude won a quarter-mil on a game show, got a shout out on ESPN2, and is living his best life. Good for you, man, bask in that glow and be as smart with that money as you were with your game show tactics. (I am begging you to not put that cash into Bitcoin.)
Upcoming Games:
Saturday, February 26th: at West Virginia 3:00 PM CT (ESPN2)
Monday, February 28th: vs Baylor 8:00 PM CT (ESPN)
Saturday, March 5th: at Kansas 3:00 PM CT (ESPN)
Please remember to check out Pretend We’re Football - where you can hear Tim call Chris Beard an asshole - and/or our Twitter account. My next recap is TBD; I’ll be out of town while the Kansas game is happening, so either I’ll write a one-off for Baylor or will skip this week. I’ll also be out of town for most of the Big 12 tournament, but I’ll have a write-up going into the NCAA Tournament. I have a Patreon if you want to tip me for my incompatible life-planning.
Writing tunes provided by Doc Brown.
I was impressed with Miles' [TCU} tenacity, physicality, and will. He reminded me of a raw Jimmy Butler. It helped that TCU got tired.
Bishop came here to avoid playing Center. With Mitchell gone, Bishop is our 6-7 Center. Allen is 6-5 at most. Disu has not regained his Vandy form. Carr cannot see when he is defended by a bigger faster guard.
Defense might carry this team past the opening round of the NCAAs.
V. Mitchell is being a helicopter dad. He is not completely off base in his criticism, which many of us share, but his son is not NBA talent and really needed to learn D, not O in the paint, just for his future in G League or overseas.
But your actual life plan is fabulous! B-ball takes the back seat to awesomeness.