Longhorns battle K-State in a clash between teams looking to get back on track
The Big 12 Conference gauntlet has not been kind to either Texas or Kansas State and both teams are running out of games to get back on track and make a move up the standings.
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The lack of time – and the road ahead on the schedule between now and the first week in March – make Monday’s game between Texas and Kansas State at Moody Center in Austin a key conference matchup in the big scheme of things. ESPN2 will televise the contest with an 8 p.m. tipoff.
The Longhorns (16-9, 5-7 Big 12) and Kansas State (15-10, 5-7) are tied with Cincinnati for ninth place in the 14-team Big 12 standings. A loss could drop the loser of Monday’s game into 12th with five games to play before the league tournament.
The bottom-four teams after the regular season play in the tourney’s opening round, meaning it would take four wins in four days to capture the title – a daunting task.
Texas’ five remaining regular-season games after Monday’s contest is loaded with trips to Kansas, Baylor and Texas Tech and home games versus Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. The Wildcats finish up with home games against BYU, West Virginia and Iowa State and trips to Kansas and Cincinnati.
The Longhorns head home after a demoralizing 82-61 loss at No. 3 Houston on Saturday. Texas never led in the game, falling behind by 23 points early in the second half and by as many as 26 points down the stretch while losing to the Cougars for the second time this season.
Dylan Disu led Texas with 16 points and seven rebounds and Chendall Weaver added 11 points in the loss to Houston. Max Abmas was held to a season-low seven points, snapping his streak of 46 games in double-figure scoring. The Longhorns registered team season-lows in points (61), field goals made (22-57) and field goal percentage (.386) and finished with a minus-11 rebounding margin.
“The (Houston) game got away from us a little bit toward the end of the first half, but we didn’t come out with what we have to do in terms of physicality,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said after the loss. “You have to stand your ground.”
Abmas is six points shy (2,994) of becoming the 12th player in NCAA Division I men’s history to reach the 3,000-point milestone.
The Wildcats travel to Austin on the heels of a last-second 75-72 loss at home to TCU on Saturday. Cam Carter hit two free throws for Kansas State with 15 seconds remaining to tie the game at 72 before TCU hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Taylor Perry with led the Wildcats with 24 points while David N’Guessan added 12 and Arthur Kaluma had 11 in the loss. Kansas State has dropped two straight games and six of their past seven.
“Our guys fought,” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said Saturday. “We aren’t always the smartest, and we can try to correct some of that. But they gave everything they had. There’s nobody in the locker room that’s panicking.
“This is a Big 12 game that comes down to one possession and we can figure out how to correct one or two possessions and flip this thing. We have to move on to the next one because we have a Texas Longhorn team that’s playing at home that’s in some of the same situations that we’re in.”
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Monday’s game is the only one between the teams in the regular season and the final time they are scheduled to play as Texas moves to the Southeastern Conference in July.
