Orange Crushed, 85-73

Written by Trey Scott | 13 March 2011

The Longhorns lost to the Jayhawks for the third time in the Big 12 Conference Championship game last night, 85-73.

And man, was it ugly. 

Kansas (32-2) came out running and gunning, establishing a pace that Texas (27-7) might not have been expecting and capitalizing on any and all Longhorn turnovers, going in to halftime with a 48-33 lead. Their lead was cut to eight in the second half, but Texas just wasn't strong enough to make a run.

The Jayhawks had all five starters score in double digits and even got another 10 points from Thomas Robinson off the bench.

The Longhorns on the other hand had just two starters score more than 10, Jordan Hamilton and Cory Joseph, and got 17 from J’Covan Brown off the bench. Tristan Thompson was largely ineffective with just seven points and two rebounds, his worst game of the year. Dogus Balbay continued to struggle, with no points, rebounds or steals and just one assist in 22 minutes, to go with a turnover. Gary Johnson played poorly as well, scoring just four points.

The margin of loss embarrasses the Longhorns, especially after all the smack talk before the game. Let’s just hope it was a fluke game of bad performances. If that’s so, Texas will be okay. But if this team’s struggles really are legitimate (as in, the team we’ve seen sliding down the stretch has no shot at being the team in January and February) then you need to lower your expectations for the tournament.

We will find out just how challenging their bracket will be tonight. Come back tomorrow for my initial thoughts on their regional bracket and what you can expect from Texas in the big dance.