Don't fret, Texas fans; there's no such thing as an ugly NCAA Tournament win | Golden
It wasn’t Texas’ worst game of the year Thursday night, because the Longhorns won.
Had I told Longhorn Nation before the game that Texas would score fewer than 60 points in its NCAA Tournament opener, the conversation would have immediately switched to questioning Rodney Terry and wondering how many greenbacks it will take to get some more shooters on this roster.
Somehow, the Horns are still breathing.
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Show me an ugly NCAA win. Then go ask the teams that got beat Thursday if they’d have liked to be Texas on Friday morning. The answer would be a resounding yes.
Thursday's 56-44 win over Colorado State in Charlotte, N.C., should be viewed through a positive lens because the Horns avoided what would have been a nightmarish end to their season. Texas' two best players, Dylan Disu and Max Abmas, combined to make only one of their 12 3-point tries, yet they figured it out.
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If not for Abmas' buzzer beater to end the first half, the Horns would have had their streak of 1,125 consecutive games with a triple broken on a national stage.
Either way, a win is a win.
Only two teams scored fewer points than Texas did on the first day of March Madness, but UT was playing one of them. I’m not about to say that No. 7 Texas will take this blessing and run the No. 2-seeded Tennessee Volunteers out of the Spectrum Center in Saturday night's second round, but that would have been far less likely with the Longhorns on a plane headed back to Austin.
Texas (22-12) has had its roller coaster moments in Terry's first full season, but you have to credit the Longhorns for finding a way. Survive and advance. That’s the name of the game at this time of the year. And it could have been worse. Much worse. Just ask No. 3 seed Kentucky, which had its world rocked by the hot-shooting Oakland Grizzlies later Thursday night.
Why Texas won: Rodney Terry made the right moves
Terry has his detractors, but the numbers that matter are the Longhorns' four wins in their last five NCAA Tournament games. Shaka Smart, now at second-seeded Marquette, never won a single NCAA Tournament game in his six years at Texas. Terry has as many NCAA wins in two tournaments as Rick Barnes and Chris Beard combined to win in their final seven total trips with Texas.
Terry got Texas across the finish line Thursday night because he wasn’t afraid to shake things up after a slow start on offense. With Disu and Abmas struggling — a recipe for disaster for anyone who follows this team — Terry went to his bench and inserted big man Kadin Shedrick, ultra athletic guard Chendall Weaver and the OG Brock Cunningham.
The result was an immediate change of energy. The Horns scored only 27 points in the first half, but they also held the Rams to 11, the stingiest first-half defensive effort on the tournament's opening day. And Disu and Abmas did just enough in the second half to get the Horns the win.
But the real credit has to go to Weaver, who was pure energy in his 29 minutes. He scored 11 points, including a nice three-point play with 3 minutes, 8 seconds left that kept the Horns' double-digit lead intact.
There’s a reason Terry had the sophomore transfer in there at crunch time. Weaver doesn’t play scared. He doesn’t run from pressure. He runs to it.
Tyrese Hunter made his points playing defense
And while we’re at it, let’s give guard Tyrese Hunter his props. He finished with only eight points, but his defense was needed. He took on the challenge of guarding Colorado State's alpha dog, Isaiah Stevens, holding the Rams' 48% shooter to a 4-of-16 brickfest. Sure, Hunter can be guilty of peeking into the backcourt too often, which causes him to get beat on backdoor cuts more times than we can count, but he gave the Horns what they needed in this one. In addition to great on-ball defense, he harassed Stevens into four turnovers.
Overall the Horns forced 19 turnovers from a team that averaged only 10.2. And Texas held a huge 17-0 edge in points off turnovers, thanks to the energy from their guards, especially Hunter. And give it to Disu for pulling it together offensively down the stretch to give his team just enough to advance. Great players don't always play great, but they figure out a way to pull through at money time.
“He took that challenge on, did it for the better part of the game, and did it with a smile on his face,” Terry told reporters afterward about Hunter. “Tyrese is all about winning this time of year.”
Bring on Tennessee, but have a better start
Something tells me the Horns will need to be better than 1-for-14 from long distance Saturday night to take out the Volunteers. Barnes has a great 1-2 punch in Zakai Zeilger and Dalton Knecht. Texas, of course, has its own 1-2, but Abmas and Disu can't be clanky again early or things will take an ugly turn in the Queen City.
For now, celebrate that first win, Texas fans. If you’re still a breathing participant in the Madness, life is good.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball survived a slow debut to win in the NCAA Tournament
