Game thoughts from Texas' 76-65 loss to UConn

A dismal offensive start to the game, coupled with an inability to get key stops when they had to have them, saw Texas lose their first home game of the season against visiting UConn.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY and get 7 days for just ONE DOLLAR!]

Credit to Texas for making a real game of it (largely thanks to some awesome shot making by Tre Johnson) but it kind of always felt like it was going to be too little, too late. And, ultimately, that’s exactly what it was.

To the thoughts!

• Might as well get the ugly stuff out of the way first… games like that from Kadin Shedrick (6 points and 4 rebounds in 38 minutes) are going to get Texas nowhere and fast. He’s just so slow with the basketball on offense and doesn’t read rebounds well (you can tell he’s reacting, not reading, when he’s chasing boards) and he lacks the quickness to compete against high level bigs, especially when the spacing is even. I’ll give him some props for his ability to seal and box out, but Texas needs more from him, particularly when they play other tournament caliber teams.

• The other ugly stuff now…both Julian Larry and Jordan Pope were ineffective as playmakers/creators. They both have the ability to get Texas into quality sets but they also both have a tendency to over-dribble and that is slowing down the offense and giving defenders time to recover off of screens away from the ball. I think both of Texas’ point guards can be positive impacts at this level, but something is causing them both to either overthink or hesitate with their initial movement (either passing or attempting to get a paint touch off the bounce). Not great.

• You know who is ******* great, is that Johnson cat. Good grief he’s talented. His footwork, hips and shoulders are so clean. It’s super fun watching him rise with purpose and body integrity every damn time. He’s also coming along as a defender. He needs to reach less, but the rest of his defensive game is making strides. Again, Texas has their guy that will keep them in big games against good teams, now his teammates need to keep pace.

• Arthur Kaluma, once again, did just that. Man, what a revelation he’s been on the glass and as a safety valve on the offensive end. He just moves really intelligently without the ball and finds himself in good spots. He also does the best job of either creating spacing for Johnson by keeping his defender moving or gravitating to open spots if his man ends up helping onto Tre.

• Sometimes stats lie, but this wasn’t one of those nights. UConn DOMINATED this game all over the statsheet. The Huskies had 14 more rebounds (including almost as many offensive rebounds – 13 – as Texas had defensive rebounds – 18). The Huskies had 13 more assists. The Huskies shot almost 52% from the floor. The Huskies had more than twice as many points in the paint (38-18). That this game was only an 11 point loss is simply because Johnson and Kaluma balled out in the second half.

• I adore Chendall Weaver, but he needs to find a way to bring his energy without allowing it to impact his decision making. He can’t mistake playing fast with playing smart and Texas needs his aggressiveness to be of the intelligent variety. Challenging two bigs at the rim might show confidence, but it also might show obstinance. He’ll get there, but being an energy guy doesn’t mean playing super fast or super angry. Also, he needs to at least attempt a couple of threes per game.

• Tramon Mark still doesn’t look 100% to me and Texas is missing what Jayson Kent could bring them as another stretch four who can move the ball and take some pressure off of Kaluma.

The Endgame

I thought UConn played very well. Purposeful. Great ball movement. Patient.

Kudos to them, especially after they have to be feeling the pressure of their awful tournament in Maui a couple of weeks ago.

But the frustrating part of this game is that Texas never forced UConn to do anything new or special. The ball movement got some better, but never to the extent that the Huskies needed to truly adjust.

That won’t change if Texas gets subpar point guard and post play, which it looks like they’re in danger of getting against high quality opponents for the time being.

The Longhorns have four games to “get right” before diving into the fire that is the best conference in the country (by arguably quite a bit).

[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!]

Hopefully Terry can figure out how unlock at least one of those problematic areas in that time.

Thanks for reading, friends.