The Longhorns are desperate, but not panicking, according to Kadin Shedrick.
With five losses in the last six games, the Texas Longhorns are slumping and sliding off the bubble in crunch time of the regular season, but play their first home game at the Moody Center in two weeks on Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Now the last team in the NCAA Tournament field, according to ESPN’s Bracketology, only included in 26 of the 95 brackets tracked by BracketMatrix.com, and with tournament odds that dropped roughly in half to 43 percent thanks to losses in the last two games against South Carolina and Arkansas, Texas is trending in the wrong direction entering the final three regular-season games.
“It’s kind of a sense of desperation. But when we know what we’re able to do, there’s not too much panic, it’s excited for the next day,” Texas senior forward Kadin Shedrick said on Friday.
The Longhorns played well enough to take a lead late in regulation in Wednesday’s loss to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, but didn’t play well enough down the stretch to win the game and also had to overcome a first-half deficit in a concerning trend over recent games of falling behind and then having to rally.
“We’ve gotten behind in some first halves and a lot of these games in SEC play, we typically play pretty well in the second half. We have to find a way to make our second half our first half, and just string together the whole 40 minutes. I think just coming out aggressive would probably help us get up to some better starts,” Shedrick said.
A 10-0 run by Arkansas early in Wednesday’s game created some early separation from Texas with the Hogs leading by as many as 14 points midway through the second half before a furious rally led by freshman guard Tre Johnson gave the Horns a chance to win the game late.
Johnson scored 17 points in the second half and all 12 points by Texas in overtime, setting the program’s single-game freshman record with 39 points, a feat even Kevin Durant never accomplished, going 14-of-28 shooting, including 7-of-11 shooting from three, and hitting all four of his free-throw attempts.
“We know when Trey’s hot, get the ball to him, so my role right there is to set screens for him, try to make his life a little easier and just get any rebounds that I can when he’s shooting the ball. Tre’s a really special talent, even better kid off the court, and I think that he works really hard. His work shows and so personally, I trust him to take whatever shot he has to, and I’m going to be there to try and make his life easier as his big man just trying to set good screens, get his guard off of him a little bit, and get any rebounds,” Shedrick said.
At 21.7 points per game, Johnson is leading the conference in scoring in SEC play — his shotmaking is buoying the offense has the coaching staff has made some adjustments to get him the ball on the move with a chance to get to the rim off the dribble or as the primary ball handler on pick and rolls.
Johnson’s also the team’s most vocal leader, and while the rest of the Texas players trust Johnson to make winning plays, Johnson can’t necessarily trust his older teammates to make winning plays, too.
Since returning from a knee injury, senior forward Arthur Kaluma is 5-of-19 shooting over the last two games, missing four of his five three-point attempts, and battling foul trouble. He’s missed open looks, passed up open looks, and generally struggled to find a rhythm as a scorer or facilitator.
Senior wing Tramon Mark has been worse, following up his career-best 26-point performance against Kentucky with nine points on 3-of-17 shooting in the losses to South Carolina and Arkansas, missing seven of his eight three-point attempts. Mark is listed as out against Georgia on the pre-game injury report.
In and out of the starting lineup, junior guard Jordan Pope hasn’t scored in double figures since the loss to Vanderbilt, scoring two points in 12 minutes against the Gamecocks, and going 2-of-7 shooting against the Razorbacks before fouling out. In the last four games, Pope has made just three of his 15 three-point attempts.
Senior guard Julian Larry hasn’t made a single shot from the floor over 57 minutes in the last three games.
What Wednesday’s disappointing outcome made even more clear is that Johnson can nearly will this team to victory against other bubble teams like Arkansas, a category that Georgia falls into as well, but if Texas is going to make the NCAA Tournament, the players around Johnson have to step up and make winning contributions.
Tip is at 7 p.m. Central on ESPN2. Texas has a 59-percent win probability and is a 5.5-point favorite over Georgia, according to FanDuel.com.