Chris Beard reveals surprising fact Marcus Carr half-court shot

Texas guard Marcus Carr turned in an excellent performance in the Longhorns’ 81-73 win over No. 11-seeded Virginia Tech, turning in 15 points on 6-of-11 from the field, along with nine assists, a rebound and two steals, but perhaps no basket was more impactful for Chris Beard’s squad than his end-of-first-half prayer.

The No. 6-seeded Texas Longhorns trailed by one point with a mere few seconds left in the first half, and Carr turned the first-half final score from 32-31 in favor of the Hokies to 34-32 Texas after one incredible play. Carr pulled up from halfcourt and drained an impressive shot at the buzzer, and Texas carried that momentum over into the second half to finish with an 81-73 victory.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard revealed a little-known fact about the playcall Texas used — apparently, this is something Texas has practiced, and the team had full faith in Carr’s abilities.

“We did a good job of coming out of the timeout and getting the last shot, but there’s a differential between the shot clock and the game clock. So we talked this is the shot we need and then we’ve got to get a stop. I don’t know if we made a bad play or if their guard made a great play kind of backing up into our guy, so we basically just traded baskets there. So we were a little frustrated with that. We look up there, we got the one dribble first second rule,” Beard said, setting up the explanation for the final shot. “So Marcus and I, we had a plan. Whoever through the ball in, probably Timmy, led him real well. He was able to two dribbles and get a pretty high percentage shot. It’s not a 50 percent shot, but for Marcus that might be a 20 percent shot. He can make one out of five from that area. I thought the end of the first half is always a critical time for any team.”

In a postgame interview with ESPN’s Adam Rittenburg, Marcus Carr revealed that he never leaves the gym without taking a half-court shot, no matter how long it takes him. That preparation gave him the belief in himself to make his attempt against the Hokies.

“I let it go with confidence,” Carr said. “I wasn’t really surprised when it went in.”

Marcus Carr at the halftime buzzer! pic.twitter.com/iTt2rUCJyo

— CJ Vogel (@CJVogel_TFB) March 18, 2022

A transfer from Minnesota, Carr has made a big impact for the Longhorns this season. The 6-foot-2 guard has started 30 games and is averaging 10.9 points and 3.2 assists in 30.6 minutes per game.