texas is wildly overrated
Texas came into this week’s AP Poll ranked #25 after losing its conference opener at home to Texas Tech. It has been ranked in the top 20 of the AP Poll since the season’s beginning, and the committee seems to love this team. But, I’m not even sure if t’s a top 50 team nationally, and absolutely has no business still being ranked.
I was pretty high on Texas coming into the year. I loved what Rodney Terry did with the program in his first action as head coach, and have always been a huge fan of Tyrese Hunter. I also loved the addition of Max Abmas from Oral Roberts this offseason, as it seemed like it would be a similar backcourt to when Texas had Marcus Carr last year with Hunter, and the two flourished together. Along with the addition of Kadin Shedrick from Virginia and the returns of Dillon Mitchell, Dylan Disu, and Brock Cunningham, I had high hopes for the Longhorns.
But through the first half of the season, it just hasn’t looked good, and I question if it’s even a tournament-worthy team right now based on its resume.
Texas has lost to UConn, Marquette, and Texas Tech all by double digits. And besides those three games, it has absolutely no quality matchups on its resume so far. Its best win right now is on a neutral floor against LSU, and its next best win according to KenPom is at home against UNC Greensboro, which is ranked 138th. So, Texas is 0-3 against Top-50 KenPom teams, and only 3 of its wins are against squads ranked inside the Top-200 at KenPom. Does that sound like a NCAA Tournament bid worthy resume thus far?
This team has just struggled to get any sort of rhythm on offense. It turns the ball over at an alarming rate, and has really done a poor job defending the 3-point shot.
I wondered if Max Abmas’ game would be able to translate over to the Big 12, and it has, but I didn’t expect the rest of the Longhorns to have this much inconsistency on the offensive end of the ball.
Although it is one of the most experienced teams in the country, depth is also a serious issue, with only six guys averaging over 20 minutes a contest.
The good, or bad, news for Texas is it plays in the Big 12, the best conference in the country. After how out of sorts this team looked against a really good Texas Tech defense, only time will tell if this team is actually NCAA Tournament worthy. But, there’s no doubt it will get its opportunities.
I loved how Texas retained Rodney Terry as head coach after last season, as he was thrown into a pretty tough situation with Chris Beard’s surprise dismissal early into the campaign. Terry still brought his team to the Elite 8 as a 2-seed, and Texas was actually my pick to win the championship once the bracket came out.
Now, it might soon look like he wasn’t the guy in hindsight and Texas should’ve broadened its search for a coach.
There’s still plenty of time for the Longhorns to turn this around, with so much talent and especially a healthy Dylan Disu, who missed some time early in the season. But for right now, I’m not sure how this team is ranked, or even projected to be in the NCAA Tournament field at all.
*all statistics taken from kenpom.com*