In a dramatic fashion, Tramon Mark hit a clutch running layup with 3.7 seconds left on the clock to give Texas the edge against the Ags in a 70-69 victory, after being down by as much as 22 and down 18 at half. Tre Johnson was exceptional in the second half, scoring 24 out of his 30 points after the break.
Texas’s first half caused social media to have their pitchforks (including mine) out for Rodney Terry. Plainly put, Buzz outcoached RT in every facet of the game, especially on the offensive side of the ball. RT’s offense was uninspired (as usual) to say the least, playing various forms of “hero ball” through simple pick and roll offense ran through a guard and Shedrick. On the defensive side, Texas looked helpless against A&M, whowas unusually hot from the three-point line, making 8 from behind the arc in the first half.
That changed in the second half, RT made Tre Johnson the focal point of the offense and it paid off big dividends. Meanwhile, Buzz coached like a dad coaching his seven-year old’s church league team by (i) failing to utilize his bench; and (ii) predominately shifting the offensive mentality to a “back to the basket” mentality that didn’t materialize into anything of note.
Big takeaways:
1.) For as much shit as RT took at half for the loss, he needs to have some credit for helping mount the comeback. Sure, relying on your lottery pick freshman isn’t necessarily super creative, but it worked spectacularly. On some level, RT deserves his cake.
2.) We all knew Tre Johnson was the truth, but holy shit, he’s easily the best player Texas has had since KD. Kid is a walking bucket. A&M is a tough and physical team, which makes his output all the more impressive. It’s unrealistic to expect 30-point nights from here on out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw a couple more, which will win us games that we shouldn’t win.
3.) This win makes the season’s outlook more interesting. Texas now has 3 Quad 1 wins, and 2 ranked wins (which have come in the past week). Texas probably needs 4-5 more wins for a guaranteed tournament spot (7-8 conference wins appears to be the magic number), but as we learned last year, we probably want a higher seed than the 7 seed. As of the moment, Texas will most likely breakthe top 30 in NET ratings, so a 5-6 seed is possible, but Texas has to get hot.
4.) Back to RT: my stance on his job remains the same: there have been too many times where he is clearly outclassed by other coaches. Buzz ran laps around him earlier today. Despite having 5 more tournament wins than Shaka (Shaka didn’t get a single win), RT hasn’t shown that he’s the answer for the future (the 2022-23 team was Beard’s team and players). Texas’s boosters have demonstrated their apprehension towards RT after they decided not to match J.T. Toppin’s offer from Tech. Put simply, unless RT and this team (a) make the tournament; and (b) put together an impressive run in late March, RT will not be the coach of the Longhorns.
All in all, Longhorn Nation will take this win. This win makes our tournament berth all the more likely, lets us see how special Tre is, and shows us this team is gritty. What makes this win all the more sweet is that neither Kaluma nor Weaver played, and we beat a top 15 team.
It’s always a great day to be a Longhorn, it’s just a little sweeter today.