Three thoughts as Texas men's basketball sluggishly pulls past Kansas City, 71-55, in Austin
Sean Miller’s Texas Longhorns beat the Summit League’s Kansas City Kangaroos (KenPom: 335 nationally) today at home to the tune of an extremely sloppy 71-55 victory behind 13 points from Dailyn Swain, who shot 6-for-9 from the field and recorded seven rebounds.
Texas looked like a team playing without much crowd support on a football Saturday with a trip to Maui on the calendar in a few days – in other words, it was flat, uninspired basketball. The shooting was straight-up awful in this game for the ‘Horns; there is simply no other way to state it accurately. 40% from the field and an atrocious 20% from three made this game a difficult one to watch in general.
The Roos’ effort should be commended, as they were making hustle plays, going after loose balls, grabbing boards, and more. But ultimately the talent gap began to show, particularly in the front court, where Matas Vokietaitis and Lassina Traore combined for 19 boards.
The second half didn’t show a ton of improvement for the ‘Horns after they took a 38-26 lead into halftime – it was a low-energy effort all around, resulting in Texas being the lowest-scoring Division-I opponent against Kansas City all season by a whopping 30 points (SIU-Edwardsville and Iona each scored over 105 and 101, respectively).
Despite the lifeless performance, Texas managed to out-rebound the Roos by a significant enough margin (50-34) to get the job done.
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1. Shooting will be an issue this year
Under 4-20 from deep will be a problem against most teams – because Kansas City isn’t a power conference foe, it didn’t matter as much. Don’t be fooled, however – these woes from deep will continue to haunt them throughout the 2025-26 season, especially when they run into squads that can make it rain from beyond the arc.
It’s concerning to say the least, especially against a team that is lacking in length and size on the perimeter like Kansas City. The issue with shooting as well is that it is a personnel problem, and not one that can be remedied through adjustments. It puts a real ceiling on the team’s potential success.
2. Fast break points continue to be key
The ‘Horns combined for 42 fast break points in their past two games after recording just six of them against Duke to open the season – they finished with 15 this afternoon, continuing the trend of pushing the pace, after both makes and misses. They had potential for more points in this area as well, but shot an alarming 11-for-23 on layup attempts.
Room for improvement, I suppose.
3. Rebounding should be an edge in most matchups
Given the impact of Matas Vokietaitis and Lassina Traore, the glass should be a place where the Longhorns can make their mark in matchups all season long. Considering the other issues that have reared their heads already through four games, they will have to remain physical in the paint in order to steal some games they shouldn’t, especially come SEC play, but even as early as this week when they travel to Fort Worth to take on TCU, a team that nearly beat no. 6 Michigan last week.
