Baylor vs. Texas

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The Texas Longhorns? lofty expectations are currently dwindling into nothing more than a trip to the NIT, after losing their last four games. However, their RPI remains in the top 50 at 47, meaning that they will have ample opportunity to jump back into the 2015 NCAA Tournament discussion if they can pull off several key Big 12 victories.

Next up for Texas are the No. 19 Baylor Bears, who will travel to Austin to face the Longhorns on Monday, Mar. 2, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Baylor has spent all season under the radar in the Big 12. Until recently, their only ?elite? win was over the Iowa State Cyclones at home in January. However, the Bears are currently on a four-game winning streak that includes victories over three extremely good teams. On top of that, they?ve clawed their way back into contention for the Big 12 regular season title and are all but guaranteed a top three seed in the conference tournament.

These two teams are headed in different directions and that should show in the final score. This Texas team might be the most talented NIT team since the Kentucky team from a few years ago, but something needs to change in the Longhorns? basketball program soon.

Baylor, whose defense is superior to Texas? defense, and should stifle the Longhorns? struggling offense.

 

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Texas must win now ? NCAA hopes, Rick Barnes' future could depend on it


For more than a month, Texas? drift toward and eventually off the NCAA bubble had been excused by the calendar.

Plenty of basketball remained, we were told.

Now that excuse is gone. Selection Sunday is less than two weeks away. The Longhorns? season ? and what might be Rick Barnes? coaching tenure ? could be down to two regular-season games and the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo.

So for the first time this season, Texas faces a real, honest-to-goodness must-win situation if it wants to remain in the NCAA discussion in even a semi-serious way.

The conventional wisdom now: Beat Baylor and Kansas State to close the regular season, win at least one game in Kansas City and hope the selection committee gives a Big 12 team with a losing conference record the same benefit of the doubt it accorded Oklahoma State last season.

But unless Texas (17-12, 6-10 Big 12) takes care of business Monday against Baylor (22-7, 10-6) at the Erwin Center, the only avenue to March Madness will be an epic, improbable conference tournament run.

Texas players still believe, despite four consecutive losses to ranked teams by a combined 22 points and eight losses in the last 11 games.

?Stick with it; don?t hang our heads after this and know that anything is possible if we continue to believe that we can win,? junior guard Demarcus Holland said after Saturday?s loss at Kansas. ?We've had some close, tough losses as of late, but we still trust the system and we have everyone playing.?

Freshman Myles Turner took to Twitter after the Kansas game.

?This season is not over yet,? Turner said, ?and we are still more than capable of being the elite team we sought to be.?

Even if Texas were playing better, Baylor would be a difficult test.

The Bears have won four straight games and beat Texas by 23 in Waco earlier this season, their most lopsided win in the series since 1988.

As Texas has stumbled to 47th in the RPI rankings as of Sunday, Baylor has climbed to ninth. Wins over Texas and Texas Tech along with a win or two in Kansas City could lead to a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament.

Baylor?s rise under Scott Drew has also mirrored Texas? decline under Barnes. Texas played in the NCAA regional final in 2008, the last time it reached the Sweet 16. Since then, Baylor has reached the Sweet 16 three times, playing in two regional finals.

At one time, the animosity between Drew and Barnes boiled over into the media, focused on Drew?s aggressive approach to recruiting.

At the 2009 Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City, Barnes opened up to The New York Times about Drew and negative recruiting against Texas.

?There?s a line that he knows that he can?t cross with me,? Barnes told the newspaper. ?He knows that. He definitely knows that.?

Since ending a 24-game losing streak to Texas in 2009, Baylor has won nine of the last 14 meetings.

None had quite the stakes of Monday?s meeting.

 

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After romping to an 83-60 win over Texas on Jan. 31 at the Ferrell Center, Baylor coach Scott Drew expects a much more difficult rematch.


?We know we?re going to get their A game and we have to be ready,? Drew said. ?It?s very hard to beat a quality team like that twice. That?s a talented team and Coach (Rick) Barnes always has them ready to compete. That?s always a war and an in-state rivalry.?
In the first meeting against the Longhorns, the Bears were on fire from 3-point range as they nailed 12 of 22. Kenny Chery drained five of seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 23 points while Taurean Prince drilled three of five treys and finished with 13 points.
Royce O?Neale delivered a tremendous all-around performance with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists while Rico Gathers helped Baylor win the rebounding battle with 15 boards. The Bears held Texas to 38.6 overall shooting and just five of 26 from 3-point range.

?We played defense and rebounded,? O?Neale said. ?Rebounding led to easy fast breaks and we shared the ball. A lot of people scored and had assists, so we just have to do the same thing.?
Picked second behind Kansas in the Big 12 preseason poll, the Longhorns have been the most underachieving team in the league. They?re in eighth place ahead of only TCU and Texas Tech.

The Longhorns have been through the gauntlet lately as their four straight losses have come to No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 12 Iowa State, No. 20 West Virginia and No. 8 Kansas. The No. 19 Bears will be Texas? fifth straight Top 25 opponent.
The Longhorns gave the Big 12-leading Jayhawks a scare on Saturday in Lawrence as they pulled within three in the final two minutes before Kansas sealed a 69-64 win with free throws.

Texas played superb defense by blocking a school-record 14 shots including five by Myles Turner and four by Prince Ibeh. The Longhorns limited Kansas to 36.2 percent shooting, but they couldn?t produce enough offense to win at one of the toughest home courts in college basketball.
?When you?ve struggled like we have and you?re fighting to try and get things turned around, you do feel like everything is against you,? said Barnes in his postgame press conference. ?The fact is, there is no doubt our guys came in with an attitude and they believed truly they could win this game.?

Point guard Isaiah Taylor delivered a strong game for the Longhorns with 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds while guard Demarcus Holland finished with a season-high 15 points.

The Bears know they?ll be facing a talented Texas team that has to win Monday night.

?It?s going to be very difficult,? Prince said. ?They?re a very long, athletic team. That means we?ve just got to pick up what we do defensively and be on top of things and fly around a lot more and move your feet. We?ve got a pretty good scheme that we have for them as well based on their personnel, so we?ve just got to execute and play Baylor basketball.?