Shooting From the Corner: Texas Longhorns vs. Kansas Jayhawks

For the record, I started writing this with 13:08 left in the 2nd half as Kansas went up 98 - 12 on a 7-point Perry Ellis shot from the parking lot. That's a lie, Perry never took a shot from outside the court because he didn't have to. Perry setup a swap meet next to the basket, trading theoretical defense for actual points in a 86-56 Jahawk victory. For that matter, the entire KU team walked onto the court in full-on F.U. mode and beat Texas like it owed them money. It doesn't matter what area of this game you break down, it's all bad for Texas, which is a shame because these seniors deserved a better send-off. They've been part of the most tumultuous 4-year stretch Texas basketball has had in close to 20 years, and it would've been nice to see them play in a competitive final home game.

The Good

Javan Felix was 6-12 for 13 points, so there's that. Danny Newsome got some PT in his last game. Also, the game ended, which was nice.

The Mixed Bag

Demarcus Holland being one of your leading scorers is a good sign things have probably gone terribly awry. I'm glad the senior got to score some buckets, but if he's producing that usually means a lot of other people aren't. He also made his customary half-dozen brain-dead plays, like fouling rebounders and driving to the lane with the self-control of a teenager popping MDMA at his senior prom.

The Bad

Pretty much everything. I'd love to break down individual elements to give you some sort of unique insight into this debacle, but it doesn't really matter. Having 2 assists as a team 36+ minutes into the game is awful, there were 3 Kansas players with as many assists as Texas had as a team. Isaiah Taylor, Connor Lammert, Eric Davis Jr., Kendal Yancy, and Tevin Mack were a combined 5-32. They each made one shot. One. Texas shot 15-24 from the FT line. Pick a category, it probably looked awful. Any one of these stats probably dooms Texas to a loss against a team like Kansas, combine them all and you get a 30-point blowout.

In the bigger picture, this loss isn't devastating. Texas is still 3-2 in their last 5 with a win over a top-5 team, and they can end the regular season with 11 conference wins by beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater which should snag them a top-4 spot in the Big 12 conference tournament and the chance at a 5-6 seed in March Madness. Tip time on Friday is 8pm CT on ESPN2.

BWG's writing tunes provided by a noisy ceiling fan and the sighs of a defeated author.