1. Matt Coleman.
2. Shaka Smart.
3. Jericho Sims.
4. Brock Cunningham’s role on this team is fascinating.
Cunningham doesn’t get enough credit for his athleticism, often typecast into the “scrappy” stereotype so often reserved for white athletes. To be fair, he plays into that stereotype spectacularly. He embodies it in a lot of ways. But he, specifically, is a unique creature. The trash talk is such a thing. The defense is such a thing. The rebounding is incredible. He’s a good, good basketball player, and doesn’t get enough credit for that. He made things happen tonight.
5. Jase Febres is an x-factor.
The “x-factor” term is overused in sports, but in the sense that it’s a bit of a wildcard and it can change results, Febres is it. Returning from injury. Tons of experience. Good shot.
What Febres brought to the offense tonight, to my eyes at least, was a steady hand, facilitating from the wing with little things, lots of which had to do with timing (moments where he knew when to hold the ball for a beat, or pull it out to reset, or kick it quickly), which is especially impressive coming back from injury.
6. Greg Brown’s role may return.
After losing his cool on Thursday, Brown didn’t start tonight, and only played six minutes after being the first player off the bench.
Brown’s got plenty of areas in which to improve, but he does seem to be a good teammate, and his teammates seem to like him. This has to be a hard situation for him, but at the same time, it could be temporary. There have been plenty of instances this year in which someone’s role has shrunk in one game only to bloom in the next. Early in the year, there was something of a Sims/Kai Jones tradeoff happening. Cunningham and Brown have flipped positions at times. Even outside of minutes, the sizes of the respective roles of Coleman, Andrew Jones, and Courtney Ramey have ebbed and flowed. Keeping those who stay happy with this is part of what’s supposed to be Shaka Smart’s skillset, and we’ve seen him do it with plenty of other players.
Brown might well be back.
7. “I’m just happy.”
It’s a crowning achievement for Shaka Smart. It’s a vindication for Jericho Sims (who was incredible). It’s a reward for Matt Coleman, a brilliant, crafty, talented man who absolutely took over tonight.
The conference tournament thing is funny because if you don’t win it, it doesn’t get remembered at all, and any good run you had gets overshadowed by whatever does or doesn’t happen over subsequent weeks. Having that trophy doesn’t give Texas a free pass next weekend, but it does mean a lot. And if one had been asked at any point before last night whether it was more realistic for Texas to win the Big 12 Tournament or make it to the second weekend of that other tournament, the answer would have been the latter. Sure, that’s because of Baylor, and Texas didn’t have to beat Baylor, but they did have to win the Big 12 Tournament.
And that’s what they did.
