Alabama routs Texas: Defensive struggles, fan frustration, and NCAA hopes in jeopardy

The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide came to Austin on Tuesday to face a beat-up Texas team and all they did was beat the Longhorns up even more. Alabama topped Texas 103-80 thanks to a scorching 62% night from the field and a 59% outing from behind the three-point line. Texas was down at least 15 points the entire second half.

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The loss suffered while missing key players Chendall Weaver, Devon Pryor, and Arthur Kaluma knocks Texas down to 15-10 and 4-8 in SEC play. The wins against quality opponents are hard to find as Texas is trying desperately to remain on the right side of the bubble. Rodney Terry‘s squad is a combined 6-10 in Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 games, a tough record in the areas the tournament selection committee values most.

To add insult to injury, there was a noticeable but not overpowering amount of boos from the announced 11081 in attendance when Terry was introduced pregame. When asked about it postgame, Terry said the following.

“I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff,” Terry said. “I didn’t hear any boos. I don’t know. Maybe there was boos. To me, personally, I’m all about trying to get my team better. It’s about focusing on those guys and focusing on what we have to do as a program to continue to stay the course and keep working. I don’t get caught up in outside noise. If I’m worried about what people are saying, this or that, that’s not my job.

“There’s not anything anybody can say or do to me– I’ve got the No. 1 protector in God. I’ve got strong faith, I’m a Christian guy. Nothing anybody can say can bring me down. I don’t get caught up in that. I didn’t hear that if that was the case.”

Texas entered last night as a team on the bubble and a projected recipient of one of the last four byes by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. That projection was released prior to the Longhorns’ loss to Alabama. Finding four wins in remaining contests against No. 15 Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma seems to be the narrow path available to Texas to making the field of 68.

But for a team that on February 12 is in NCAA Tournament contention, boos still rang out.

Those boos were not from a majority but they offered a clear message about where some fan expectations are for the men’s basketball program: being in tournament contention is not enough, 4-8 is not up to standard, and missing the tournament is an unforgivable act.

That’s a fine standard to have. After all, athletics director Chris Del Conte has said in the past that he wants every program to be in the top 10 and to provide everything a coach may need to make that happen.

A reasonable translation of those boos is that Texas fans want Rick Barnes‘ wildly successful stretch from 1998 to 2015 to become the norm. Barnes missed one NCAA Tournament during that time and netted seven of the 14 top-25 finishes in the history of the program. The 14 consecutive appearances made between 1999 and 2012 is tied for the 10th longest streak in NCAA history, just behind runs from UCLA, Kentucky, and Indiana.

If Texas fans and others are booing despite realistic though increasingly unlikely chances for a tournament bid, it means the standard for the program is truly along the lines of yearly entrance into the field of 68. If the program wants that to be the standard, then it has to treat basketball like schools such as Duke and Kansas, but also teams within its own league like Tennessee, Alabama, and Auburn.

That’s not to say yearly tournament appearances are flowing from the SEC. Barnes didn’t make it to March Madness during three of his first four seasons in Knoxville. Bruce Pearl is currently 5-for-10 at Auburn. Kentucky — Kentucky — missed the dance in 2021, and there’s not a program with higher standards than the one in Lexington.

But those coaches have things rolling now, and that’s thanks to real support in the form of things like facilities, assistants, and support staff as well as NIL. Auburn and Alabama are No. 1 and No. 2 in the current polls, and Mark Pope‘s Wildcats head to Austin on Saturday night on the heels of a win over Tennessee.

Terry’s salary is $3 million. Barnes and Pearl make $5.7 million. Pope is at $5.5 million. Nate Oats makes $5 million at Alabama. Obviously, winning begets these types of salary numbers, but they’re also signs that football schools like Tennessee, Auburn, and the most football school of football schools in Alabama can invest into men’s basketball like a basketball school in Kentucky and do what’s needed to win at a high level.

Terry certainly isn’t blameless in this operation, far from it. He put this roster together, one that features a number of one-year players who play their best basketball in isolation. He coaches the team on a day-to-day and game-to-game basis. It’s a roster that will see six players exhaust their eligibility and also lose Tre Johnson to the draft, meaning next year’s team will be approach a similar full reset to the one from the most recent offseason.

There is only one high school player coming in John Clark, the No. 57 prospect in the nation. If Texas fails to get to the tournament this year, it will be a tough task for Terry to convince players in the portal to join his program when wins and development aren’t easy to observe.

The wins and losses belong to him, and those take place in a pristine Moody Center next door to a superb practice facility.

But it’s worth pointing out, neither the new arena nor the facility were in any formal plans until the University of Texas decided it wanted to build a hospital.

Fortunes can change quickly in college basketball. Texas could go 6-0 over the remainder of the season to finish 10-8 in the toughest league in the nation, notch a win or two in Nashville, and enter March Madness on a heater. It’s akin to what NC State did last season, when Kevin Keatts went from hot seat to the Final Four.

Something closer to 3-3 is more likely, putting the Longhorns at a bubblelicious 18-13 with a 7-11 mark in SEC play. It’d be Dayton or nothing for Texas at that point, and if it’s nothing it’d be a mortal sin committed by Terry in the eyes of many and an obvious failure to live up to the “top 10 in everything” and “contending for championships” edicts Del Conte has laid out.

If it gets to that point, decisions will have to be made by Longhorn leadership as they look for the answer to an important question.

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What type of program does Texas want its men’s basketball team to be?