Texas travels to face South Carolina for another must-win game

The Horns had a chance to recover with no midweek game before returning to the grind of SEC play.

After playing 13 games in 42 days to start SEC play, the Texas Longhorns received some respite from the conference’s brutal physicality with no midweek game prior to Saturday’s contest against the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia.

Not only did the break come after an important home victory over then-No. 15 Kentucky, 82-78, the chance for players to heal banged-up bodies sets Texas up for a more healthy finish to the final five SEC games prior to the conference tournament.

To that end, the Longhorns received two full days off after beating the Wildcats before participating in a short practice on Tuesday.

“For us, this bye week couldn’t come at a better time for us — we’re still in the process of mending,” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said on Tuesday.

Senior forward Arthur Kaluma only played 11 minutes in the blowout loss to Alabama on Feb. 11, then missed the win over Kentucky with a knee injury.

Sophomore wing Devon Pryor didn’t play against the Crimson Tide due to a calf strain sustained against the Razorbacks before returning last weekend.

And junior guard Chendall Weaver still hasn’t played since Jan. 7 due to his hip injury and still hasn’t gone through a full practice, instead doing individual work on the side, but is nearing a return, the Texas medical staff believes.

“We’re hoping we’re getting close to having him back on the floor,” Terry said.

Senior wing Tramon Mark also missed the Vanderbilt game with a shoulder injury.

On the initial injury report released on Friday, Weaver remained out with Kaluma and Pryor listed as probable, but Kaluma and Pryor were both removed in the pre-game update.

A rolling series of injuries that began during preseason practice have impacted how the Horns prepare for games and impacted performances in those games in positive or negative ways depending on the team’s health.

“I think you play your best basketball when you have everybody every day in practice and you even have competitive practices that simulate game situations. We’ve had a few opportunities this year we’ve had very competitive practices and I thought they carried over into our games,” Terry said.

Last year, Texas played its best basketball when it got healthier and positive practice habits produced better results on the court.

“I think this team here over the next couple of weeks is going to get a chance to have competitive practices as we continue to get bodies back into practices, so that way we’ll be able to really stimulate the way we have to play in games with a lot of our main guys going against the main guys. So I think that always helps to raise the level of play this time of year, when you’re able to do that, not for a long period of time, but for an hour at a time, we should be able to get in and have really good execution,” Terry said.

The hope is that the practice time can help the Horns play together better as a team, not only in regards to ball and player movement, but also the team’s overall execution level offensively — over the last 10 games, Texas has the No. 45 offense in adjusted efficiency, but frequent and extended scoring droughts have been a problem.

In fact, of the top 50 teams in the country in the EvanMiya.com rankings, only two teams have suffered more scoring droughts of four minutes or longer than the Horns.

“When guys get into the mindset where you’re reading and reacting and you’re just flowing with one another, everything falls into place,” Texas senior forward Jayson Kent said on Tuesday.

But with a season assist rate that ranks No. 255 nationally, the Longhorns are in the 29th percentile in the country. The trend line isn’t necessarily positive, either — of the last five games, the only one with an assist rate higher than the season average was the blowout win over LSU in Baton Rouge.

Playing isolation-heavy basketball that relies on mid-range jump shots thanks to a three-point rate even lower in the rankings than the team’s assist rate means that Texas has a reduced margin for error compounded by inconsistent effort.

“Just playing the whole 40 minutes, competing at a high level,” Kent said of where the Horns have to improve. “We are a very competitive team. We are a hungry team and we just want to win at the end of the day, so just maintaining that focus, that concentration on those little details we need to get over the hump, because we’re right there. It’s just those little details to get over the hump that we need.”

Five of the eight conference losses by Texas have come by eight points or less, including three at home.

It’s the difference between playing 32 or 36 minutes of good basketball and playing a complete game that avoids those scoring droughts or critical missed shots in crunch time or lapses in defensive intensity that allow easy baskets or cheap trips to the foul line.

It’s the vast difference between teetering on the bubble and playing well enough to land a No. 6 seed to avoid a second-round matchup with a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

As it is, the No. 10 seed that Bracket Matrix projects based on the Horns appearing in 107 of the 108 brackets the site tracks is a reflection of what Texas is as a team — worth of appearing in the NCAA Tournament, but needing to beat a closely-matched team to have a chance at the type of upset Terry’s team hasn’t been able to pull off.

As it is, wins over projected No. 2 seed Texas A&M, No. 3 seed Kentucky, and No. 5 seed Missouri, all coming at the Moody Center, are merely worth avoiding a play-in game.

Compared to how the SEC schedule set up for the Longhorns early, the closing stretch of five games represents some opportunities to pick up important wins — a road game at Mississippi State marks the only ranked opponent for Texas. And although the Longhorns aren’t favored against the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, that’s a potentially winnable game.

The immediate challenge is to avoid becoming the first SEC team to lose to South Carolina with the Gamecocks off to an 0-13 start in conference play this season. Six of those defeats have been by five points or less, and with the exception of a three-point loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, five of those losses have been at home, including a three-point defeat by Auburn.

The Gamecocks are a poor offensive team that turns the ball over frequently, but does get to the free-throw line frequently. While the defense is better, in the 82nd percentile in adjusted efficiency, South Carolina doesn’t force turnovers, either, and struggles to defend the three-point line.

The leading scorer is Collin Murray-Boyles, a forward who can pass and handle the ball who scores 15.5 points per game, but isn’t a good shooter and has a turnover rate almost as high as his assist rate. Guard Jamarii Thomas has a similar usage rate and averages 13.3 points per game with a 3.2-to-2.3 assist-to-turnover rate. Thomas and guard Morris Ugusuk are the team’s primary three-point shooters, both hitting at a high rate.

Texas has a 63-percent win probability, according to BartTorvik.com, and favored by 2.5 points on FanDuel with tip set for 7:30 p.m. Central on SEC Network.