What’s taking so long for the Texas Longhorns to get it together?

The men's basketball team still has time to turn things around, but it's flirting with bottoming out in the Big 12, and it's past time for us to see some real advancement toward the obvious goal.

Sadly, the Longhorns' finely manicured home court is figuratively slathered in mud, and they're stuck in it at a time of the season when the good teams are building momentum for the Big Dance.

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With eight games remaining in the regular season, they aren’t exactly hitting the accelerator with only three wins in their last eight games. Texas (15-8, 4-6) has arrived at a crossroads in Rodney Terry’s first full season as the head coach.

They can either turn this thing around and gather some momentum for the NCAAs or they can continue to lose winnable games in favorable surroundings and play themselves out of the postseason.

The Longhorns played embarrassing hoops — just atrocious — in the first half of the 70-65 loss to Iowa State and try as they might, a sixth Big 12 loss could not be avoided. It’s starting to become old habit, these home losses.

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As a result, the Horns are in real danger of not making the NCAA Tournament because they reside in the Big 12 — the toughest conference in college basketball. Continually losing serve at the house is a recipe for the NIT.

Moody Center has become the opposite of the Hotel California. Texas’ opponents gladly check in and would be just fine with not ever being allowed to leave because they keep winning here. The Horns are the toughest road team in the Big 12 with a 3-2 record, but is anyone really celebrating that mark since they’re two spots ahead of dead last in the league?

With the way things have gone at the Hotel Moody lately, it’s anything but a nice surprise.

With 3-6 West Virginia arriving Saturday, there is the sense the Horns will rebound and creep back toward the .500 mark in the league, but do we really know if they will even show up for that one? Fan morale is low even if Longhorn Nation has done a commendable job of showing up, wearing the burnt orange and turning up the decibels at Moody.

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Terry has gone out of his way to thank the fans for making it such a fun game atmosphere, but he knows that major problems exist in the production department.

One step forward, two steps back

He has to figure it out and fast or else the warm fuzzies from his 2023 great coaching debut will give way to something much uglier. He will get the rest of this season and next to show he's the man to guide this program moving forward, but the listlessness with which they played in the first half was a head scratcher, especially after that gutsy win at TCU.

The breakdowns have been more pronounced at home, which is doubly frustrating for the players and Terry, who continues to harp on getting stops as the accelerant that can make things a bit easier in the scoring department.

“You’ve got to get lost playing really hard on defense and offense will come easy to you whether you get off to a good start or a bad start,” he said. "No one in this league is going to knock anybody out.”

This isn’t a question of effort because the Horns played their butts off from start to finish in losses to Iowa State and Houston, but the production — especially with that 19-point first half, one of the worst of Terry's coaching tenure — was miles off what’s expected.

Before he erupted for 22 second-half points, Texas forward Dylan Disu turned down some open looks and blended in too much when he should have been more demonstrative in attacking. Starting guards Max Abmas and Tyrese Hunter were harried and harassed into missing their first 11 field-goal attempts.

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“They were really physical with us early in the game and it was difficult for us to get looks in the first half,” Terry said. “This time of year, the first 20 minutes of the game, you can’t let the offense affect what you do defensively.”

He was pointing to Texas’ early inability to win on the 50-50 balls, which allowed the Cyclones to own a 16-9 edge in second-chance points.

Texas: a NCAA bubble team 'with work to do'

We forget how much of a convenience it was to have a true alpha dog guard in Marcus Carr last season, and while the undersized Abmas — he’s generously listed at 6 feet — has been great at times, opponents have figured out that sending bigger, taller, longer players at him on double teams to get the ball out of his hands has been effective in keeping him from establishing any early offensive rhythm.

Hunter registered one of the most non-impactful seven-assist games ever because he had zero juice when it came his own offense. The former Big 12 freshman of the year from Iowa State scored in double digits in 12 of the first 14 games, but has gotten there only twice in his last six. The assists numbers are fine with 18 in his last three games, but this offense needs his scoring punch to take the pressure off Disu and Abmas.

Don’t expect any sweeping lineup changes. Terry has few options. He has already increased the ultra-athletic Chendall Weaver’s minutes, but there is little in the way of offense coming off the bench. The OG Brock Cunningham isn’t enough of a considerable scoring threat to warrant starting him and the defensive-minded Weaver together while I.T. Horton has struggled in his first season on campus.

At last check, ESPN Bracketology has the Horns as a bubble team with “work to do” to make the tournament. There’s a general belief that an 8-10 finish would be enough and that would mean going 4-4 the rest of the way.

With that said, they haven’t done enough at home to engender any real belief they can string together three or four straight wins to show the selection committee they’re deserving of inclusion. Who out there is willing to bet they will play .500 ball the rest of the way? That’s a tough sell.

Until they show us something different, the Longhorns have become prisoner in their own home.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball coach Rodney Terry still searching for answers