AUSTIN – There’s still some fight left in these Longhorns.
They showed as much last Saturday in storming back from a 16-point deficit against LSU. Their effort, particularly on the defensive end, was maniacal, their focus singular.
It still wasn’t enough.
LSU counteracted the Longhorns’ Havoc-esque pressure with a 1-3-1 zone that proved nearly impenetrable. In the end, despite its second-half surge, Texas fell, 69-67.
“We’ll look at today, when we sit down as a team, what are the things that allowed us to go get a lead after being down 16 points,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said Monday. “We’ll also look at what are the things that caused us to be down 16 points.
“Some of them are basketball X’s and O’s and some of them are just having a fight and aggressiveness and assertiveness. And that’s who we have to be for 40 minutes if we want to go on the road and beat a good team in TCU.”
Texas (12-7, 2-4 Big 12) isn’t dead, yet. It’s not exactly full of life either. It’s stuck somewhere between, a team that has played to its talent on occasion but not nearly enough.
It dominated portions of its last two games against No. 3 Kansas and No. 22 LSU before crumbling in the final minutes. But Texas found something during that failed comeback against the Tigers.
Smart turned back the clock and had his players pressuring the inbounds pass in the backcourt and trapping the ball handler along the sideline. It was a style reminiscent of his golden days at Virginia Commonwealth.
Cranking the pressure up for 94 feet had a stunning effect on the game.
After scoring 42 points on 55 percent shooting in the first half, LSU mustered only 27 points on 32 percent. It went from averaging 1.26 points per possession to 0.91. And it seemed to have a mental effect, too, as the Tigers appeared shell-shocked by the shift in strategy.
Full-court pressure begat turnovers begat easier buckets. Texas grew in confidence with each steal, each forced timeout, each frantic LSU possession.
The Longhorns went from down 16 to up two in the span of 11 minutes, 21 seconds.
“In the second half, there was a long stretch where our guys lost themselves in the fight,” Smart said. “Any of the other things that might’ve muddied their mind at different times, that stuff was gone. They were just fighting and playing. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave us a chance. So whatever it takes to create that, that’s what we have to do.”
Keeping full-court pressure on the opponent might not suit Texas for 40 minutes given injuries to starter Kamaka Hepa (high ankle sprain) and reserve swingman Gerald Liddell (back). But it’s a strategy worthy of looking at, and one Smart said he has drilled the team on extensively during practice.
“I think every game is unique,” Smart said. “I think one thing it did is it got our guys in an aggressive frame of mind. I thought Donovan Williams particularly was good in the press with his length and aggressiveness.
“Right now with where we are as a team we have to do everything we can, find every button we can push to create assertiveness, aggressiveness. It’s definitely something we’ll utilize.”
Williams was an unexpected catalyst for Texas against LSU. The 6-foot-6 freshman doesn’t lack for confidence, which has turned him into something of an outright wild card on the court.
But against the Tigers he channeled that unbridled sureness and talent and became a menace in the Longhorns’ press. In just seven second-half minutes he recorded two steals created by backcourt pressure, turning one into a vicious tomahawk slam, and instilled the Longhorns with some sorely needed boldness.
They outscored the Tigers by eight with Williams on the court, slicing the 16-point deficit in half. Smart never reinserted him down the stretch, sticking with veterans Matt Coleman, Courtney Ramey and Andrew Jones instead.
But Williams’ vigor and commitment to pressing helped Texas claw back into the game. And with Hepa and Liddell shelved for at least a couple weeks, he could be poised for a bigger role on a team in search of a sparkplug.
“He’s excited about that and he’s a freshman so he’s learning, but he makes aggressive plays,” Smart said. “Even the two turnovers he had, they were aggressive mistakes. They were the right read he just wasn’t able to compete the pass.
“But right now we have five perimeter players, with Gerald being out, and we need to get as many of those guys playing well as we can. And if he’s playing better than other guys then he needs to be in there more.”
The Longhorns understand what’s at stake in Wednesday’s road game against TCU (13-6, 4-2). A loss would mark their fourth straight, drop them three games below .500 in Big 12 play and push their NCAA Tournament hopes to the brink of oblivion.
If reviving Smart’s “Havoc” style, even for short segments of the game, is what it takes, then that’s the path Texas must pursue.
“Our guys are very aware of records and standards, they talk about it,” Smart said. “That being said, we need to completely immerse ourselves in the current moment in practice and preparation for TCU. Then afterwards, if you do what you set out to do then those things get a little bit better then you try to do it again.”
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