Rodney Terry denies idea Texas was not prepared to start vs. Kansas

No. 5 Texas fell to No. 9 Kansas in their marquee Monday night Big 12 showdown 88-80. It seemed like the Jayhawks were one step ahead of the Longhorns all night, as Kansas was up by as many as 14 points and Texas didn’t obtain a lead for the entirety of the game. Longhorns interim head coach Rodney Terry spoke after the game about the preparedness of his squad heading into Monday’s matchup.

“I think our guys were ready to play,” Terry said. “I think in particular, maybe even the last two games, we’ve been really excited about playing. And I think you got to come out and settle into the game a little bit and it took us a little bit longer to do that tonight than we have.”

The Longhorns held the Big 12’s leading scorer Jalen Wilson to a season-low two points, shutting down one of the country’s best scorers and likely checking one of the biggest boxes in regard to keys to winning the game. But Texas had their own offensive struggles to start the game, getting off to a slow start that kept them behind all night.

“But I thought we closed the half on a good note defensively and offensively,” Terry said. “I mean it’s a two-possession almost game at halftime, seven points, we’ve been in worse shape throughout the course of the year so we’ve been there.”

Coming back down at halftime has been a calling card for the Longhorns all season, most notably coming back down 13 points versus TCU and down 11 to Kansas State just a game ago, both ending in Texas wins. But the Longhorns’ second half luck ran out for them in Lawrence on Monday.

“There’s no panic with us in terms of where we were at halftime, we knew we could play a whole lot better, we didn’t play as well as we were capable of playing obviously and taking care of the basketball,” Terry said.

Texas did give a valiant second-half effort, led by transfer guard Marcus Carr, who had just seven points in the first half and ended the night with a game-leading 29 points. Timmy Allen scored in double figures for the 15th time of the season with 18 points, leading the team’s first half scoring surge following a slow start.

“But there’s no quit over in that locker room over there man, it’s a lot of fight over there, it’s a lot of guys that want to do well, it’s a lot of guys I’m excited about the remainder of the season and tonight wasn’t our night,” Terry said.