Rodney Terry explains Texas' lack of defensive intensity
Texas‘ final four games of the regular season are a gauntlet, facing four straight ranked Big 12 conference opponents. The Longhorns dropped their second to last game of the stint on Wednesday, losing on the road to No. 22 TCU in a close 75-73 loss. And after the game, interim head coach Rodney Terry was asked about his team’s defensive intensity.
“Well it’s a good team on their home court, you know what I mean? We’re not playing a team that’s not very good, this team’s a good team, well coached, and we knew that they were going to come out and we were going to get their best game,” Terry said.
TCU celebrated a marvelous shooting night, making 46.4% of their shots from the field and 38.5% of their three-point attempts. They came out of the gate strong scoring 44 points in the first half and never looked back, leading by as many as 16 points and never letting the Longhorns secure a lead one time.
“We get a lot of team’s best game because this league is that good,” Terry said. “They came out, they played extremely well, they rebounded the ball well, they were tougher in the first half. Thought we were just as tough in the second half and they won the game tonight.”
The Longhorns took great care of the ball turning over the ball just 11 times compared to TCU’s 22. But the Horned Frogs elite scoring and rebounding couldn’t be matched, winning the rebounding battle 46-28.
TCU’s Damion Baugh had a career-high 24 points on the night, adding nine assists and three steals to his impressive performance. Forward Emmanuel Miller also had a solid night, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double and his third of the entire season.
Texas entered the matchup with a chance to share a piece of the Big 12 regular season title, but ended the night with TCU’s fans storming their home court at Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena. The Longhorns now fall to an 11-6 conference record, which puts them in a three-way tie for second place in the Big 12 standings.
The Longhorns face the conference’s top seen, No. 3 Kansas, in their final game of the regular season. The Jayhawks secured the Big 12 title outright, and the Longhorns now have a 58% chance of dropping to the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament according to PlayoffStatus.com.