Texas has won four in a row and has positioned itself to earn its 14th consecutive NCAA bid.
The winning streak has come on the heels of a stretch in which the Longhorns lost five of six. But four of those losses came to the Baylor-Kansas-Missouri triumvirate and the one win in there was a good one over Iowa State.
Texas is far from an NCAA lock – it has just two wins over teams in the RPI top 50 – but the winning streak at least has the Longhorns in the discussion now. They will look to keep the streak alive when they play at Oklahoma State on Saturday; they beat the Cowboys by nine in Austin on Jan. 7.
Then there’s a chance for a big boost Monday when Baylor visits. Texas fell by just five in Waco on Jan. 28, and Baylor is wobbling a bit.
After that, the Longhorns have Texas Tech and Oklahoma before finishing the regular season at Kansas. A 4-1 finish would have Texas feeling good about itself, but anything else is going to make for queasy stomachs on Selection Sunday.
One thing that has made coach Rick Barnes queasy despite the winning streak is Texas’ penchant for poor first halves. A victory at Oklahoma on Tuesday was the fourth in a row and the third time in a row the Longhorns had to rally from a halftime deficit. Saturday’s 11-point victory over Kansas State came after the Longhorns had trailed by 13 at the half. Barnes admits he ripped his team for its lack of intensity in the first half against the Wildcats, and his players responded.
“I sat there in the second half and enjoyed it,” Barnes told reporters afterward. “I love teams that get after people on the defensive end. I love teams that attack on the offensive end. … In the second half, you can tell our defensive intensity went up.”
K-State coach Frank Martin was impressed with Texas on Saturday.
“I have been a Rick Barnes fan since I was a young high school coach,” Martin told reporters after the loss. “I told Rick, ‘That is Rick Barnes basketball. That is the basketball I grew up watching your kids play.’
“I cannot compliment them enough. They came out in the second half, and they punched us in the mouth, again and again. They got us on the ropes, and we never punched back.”
Texas definitely has been attacking offensively of late: The Longhorns have shot 177 free throws in the past six games, making 133 of them (73.4 percent). They are 59-of-77 (76.6 percent) in the past two games; their opponents have attempted a total of 63 in the past four games.
If Texas can continue its parade to the foul line, it should be able to march right into the NCAA tourney.
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3 to watch
Kansas State at Baylor, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Big 12 syndication/Altitude/ESPN FullCourt: It’s time to start chewing fingernails at K-State. The Wildcats have lost two in a row and four of six, and they have the toughest closing stretch in the Big 12 with games left against Baylor, Missouri and Iowa State. While K-State is wondering about whether it will be in the field, Baylor all of a sudden is wondering about its seeding. The Bears are out of the running for a No. 1, and now are trying to make sure they get a No. 2.
Baylor at Texas, Monday, 9 p.m., ESPN: This is huge for Texas, as we discussed in the opening section. This also is another tough game for the Bears.
Kansas State at Missouri, Tuesday, 7 p.m., ESPN2: This is game four in a murderous five-game stretch for K-State. The Wildcats lost to Texas in the first game and to Kansas in the second; they have Baylor on Saturday, this one two days later, then finish off the stretch with a game against Iowa State on Feb. 25.
Who’s hot?
Kansas C Jeff Withey.: Withey, a junior, is playing the best basketball of his career. He has averaged 20.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 6.3 blocks in the past three games, shooting 64.5 percent from the field. He had a career-high 25 points in the first game of the three-game stretch, a career-high 20 rebounds in the second game and a career-high nine blocks in the third game.
Baylor F Quincy Miller: He has averaged 18.0 points on 65.2 percent shooting in the past two games; he also had six assists and three steals in those contests.
Texas G J’Covan Brown: Over the past six games, Brown has averaged 21.8 points while shooting 45.1 percent. He also has averaged 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals.
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Who’s not?
Texas Tech G Ty Nurse: In the past three games, Nurse has played all but three minutes. But he has scored just 17 points and gone 4-of-22 from the field (18.1 percent) and 3-of-15 from 3-point range.
Kansas State’s offense: In its past three games, K-State has tossed up a ton of bricks. The Wildcats hit just 34.1 percent of their shots (59-of-173) in those contests, including only 30.9 percent from 3-point range (17-of-55).
Baylor G Pierre Jackson:. In the past two games, Jackson has scored just 13 points (he is averaging 12.4 this season) on 30.8 percent shooting (he’s at 47.8 percent for the season); he missed all seven of his 3-point attempts in those games.
Good win last week
Missouri 72, Baylor 57. It was in Columbia, so the outcome wasn’t a surprise. But the Tigers dominated, and it wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. For all intents and purposes, it buried Baylor in the league title race and kept Mizzou in the hunt for the league title and a No. 1 NCAA seed.
[Pat Forde: Syracuse shows true grit in victory at Louisville | Slideshow]
Bad loss last week
Texas AM 47, Texas Tech 38. Tech had easily handled Oklahoma in its most recent game, then turned around and was horrible in losing to the Aggies in Lubbock. The Red Raiders’ offense was embarrassingly bad. It was the fewest points scored by an AM opponent since 1959.
Numbers game
Kansas has won 20 games in 23 consecutive seasons, the nation’s longest active streak in that category. Second is Duke with 16. The longest such streak in NCAA history is North Carolina, at 31 (1970-71 through 2000-01).
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