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Please End This Season: Oklahoma 70, Texas 66

Texas loses their last realistic chance to win a road game

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Bebo Founder Invests Millions In Devon Village Of Woolsery Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

I just drank Grey Goose straight out of the bottle and it didn’t even burn. That’s what this season has done to me, I can now drink 80-proof liquor without flinching. If we go through another season like this, I might be able to gargle absinthe or put cocaine in my cereal. Who says I never have a silver lining?

Welcome to the 16th edition of “Texas Did Some Shit Well, BUT....” Texas shot 48% from the floor, but 3-11 from three. Jarrett Allen went for 17/10, but 1-8 from the free throw line. Andrew Jones scored 12 points, but had six turnovers. Everything about this team is a positive quality paired with a negative quality, and we’re now over 80% of the way through the season so it’s not like this is going to change. I’m eschewing the normal format to speak some plain truths.

This Texas team will not have a winning streak of more than one game the rest of the season. Tonight was the last legitimate chance to have a two-game winning streak, as their only (potential) road win would be followed by Kansas State at home where Texas seems to play better because mediocre teams do that sort of thing.

This Texas team will not win a game on the road in the regular season. I’m only putting in that caveat on the off chance Texas gets invited to the CBI and play a random mid-major on the road who Texas cou-you know what, fuck the caveat. Texas isn’t winning a road game this year unless Shaka spikes another team’s Gatorade with MDMA. Which honestly feels kinda defensible right now.

If Texas doesn’t beat Kansas State this weekend, they will end the season on a seven-game losing streak. After KSU, Texas plays AT WVU, KU, AT Texas Tech, and Baylor. Anybody want to bet on winning one of those four games? I sure as shit don’t. I’m writing the two road games as losses in pen, and unless Kansas or Baylor decide to rest players before the tournament those are probably losses as well. Marinate on this thought: Texas might have already won their last game until November. That’s a very real possibility.

Matt Coleman better be the fucking truth, because a lot hinges on him next season. Who am I kidding, everything hinges on him next season. Tim Preston is very bullish on him in our latest podcast, even drawing comparisons to TJ Ford which make me more than a little skittish. But Tim isn’t one to heap praise on a recruit for the hell of it, so let’s all hope he’s right.

Whether Coleman is as advertised or not, both Kerwin Roach Jr. and Andrew Jones need to spend the summer dribbling through strip malls and shopping centers while Texas fans try to slap the ball away from them. Even in limited roles next season, they both need to get their turnover rate south of 20 percent if they’re going to unlock the next level of their careers. Despite what some commenters on this site would have you believe, they’re both immensely talented basketball players who have the potential to earn money at the next level. If they can be reasonably efficient at ball-handling, it would make everything else easier.

Eric Davis Jr., for all his issues this season, has a remarkably low turnover rate. This season is a bust, might as well let him handle the ball some. They did it tonight and he was at least able to initiate the offense without running into too many double-teams. He’s never going to have the ceiling of Andrew Jones, but he also doesn’t have the floor of Andrew Jones. This team could use some consistently forgettable point guard play, it might be a nice respite from the roller coaster of dunk-dunk-turnover-ball-hits-shot-clock-turnover-three-three-turnover we tend to see now. I know I could use some boring possessions.

Texas plays Kansas State at home on Saturday. I’d like to add some sort of gravitas to the match-up, but Texas is now the ‘bad loss’ for every team this year and maybe we should just hope to fuck up some NCAA Tournament hopes in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn’t mind seeing Texas be responsible for the Big 12 only getting 5 teams into March Madness.

BWG’s writing tunes provided by a shitload of tunes he bought in a Beatport sale.