Rodney Terry shares areas where Texas must improve to compete in Big 12

Texas put up 103 points in Tuesday’s Big 12 matchup. But Kansas State scored 116 points — and that’s why Rodney Terry called on the Longhorns to improve on defense if they want to be competitive in conference play.

K-State shot 60% from the field and 54.2% from three-point territory as the offense dominated against Texas. That performance came a few days after Oklahoma shot 48.1% from the field against the Longhorns before they Marcus Carr’s free throws sealed the 70-69 Texas victory.

Terry realizes his team has been playing with fire on defense as of late, and that’s why he issued a call to the players to strengthen that part of their games.

“We’ve got to continue to buy in and understand how important that end of the floor is for us,” Terry said. “We can score the basketball. We have a number of different guys who can score the ball. We’re working on our defense. Our defense is a work in progress. But we have to take a little bit more ownership and try to continue to get better and understand that in the Big 12, you’re not going to outscore guys in the Big 12. You have to get stops and have a defensive mindset to win in this league night in and night out.”

Rodney Terry: ‘We weren’t guarding at the level that we were capable of guarding them’

Texas allowed 58 points in each half of the game, and Terry mentioned that number in his press conference. He reaffirmed his stance that defense will be a point of emphasis as the season rolls along and Big 12 play heats up.

“We don’t want to give up that many (points),” Terry said. “We gave up 58 points in a half. Again, we weren’t guarding at the level that we are capable of guarding them. And we have a chance to have an elite defensive team, and we’ve worked on our defense since we’ve gotten back from Christmas. We knew we needed to work on our one-on-one defense and try to keep guys out of the paint.

“It’ll be an emphasis for the rest of the year in terms of trying to guard your guy. We’re going to do a great job of scouting and knowing what the other opponent is going to do. And when it breaks down, and it’s one-on-one, we’ve gotta sit down guard and finish possessions. But we’re going to work at it and continue to get better, and obviously, we know it’s an area we have to improve as a team.”