1. No quit.
There’s something fun about winning one where it repeatedly looks like you’re going to lose. Beating Kansas the way Texas beat Kansas was fun in its way. This win was fun in its way. Good teams win in both ways. Texas is a good team.
2. The guys did a pretty good job with Derek Culver.
For as much as Culver was a presence, and even with how many rebounds he grabbed and times he got to the basket, Texas held him pretty well in check. He missed ten shots from the floor. He only got to the free throw line a handful of times. He turned the ball over a good amount. It was tough—Jericho Sims fouled out—and Texas had to throw a lot at him—Brock Cunningham, predictably, ended up playing the role of the small guy who can get away with all sorts of things because he’s so much smaller than the guy he’s guarding—but they did it. They held him in check.
3. Andrew Jones is finding his groove.
Jones is now shooting 43% on threes in Big 12 play. Of course, none was bigger than the game-winner yesterday, but overshadowed by that is that for the prior forty minutes as well, he was the only Longhorn to make a shot from deep. It wasn’t his best game of the year (that came on Tuesday), but it was a great, great game from the guard, who struggled a bit early and has turned it on in a big way.
4. Don’t let the guard down, but…
Texas’s next six games:
- Home against Texas Tech
- Home against Kansas State
- At Iowa State
- At TCU
- Home against Oklahoma
- At Kentucky
Texas figures to be favored in each, before Baylor comes to town on Groundhog Day. Of course, this schedule can change, and these are all—with the exception of that Kansas State visit—losable games, but the probability Texas loses a conference game before Baylor comes to Austin is about the same as the probability Baylor loses a conference game before Baylor comes to Austin. In other words, a Big 12 title is a legitimate possibility. Two of the four tough road trips are out of the way, and Texas has won both.
Hook them.
