Texas Basketball: The Longhorns are Making Believers out of Critics
A couple of weeks ago, stories and columns after Texas' bad road loss in Ames read like not only eulogies for the 2019-20 Texas season, but the Shaka Smart tenure in general.
Losers of four in a row and coming off an embarrassing defeat to Iowa State, Texas appeared to be an injured animal, shorthanded and limping its way toward the finish line seeking a swift, merciful ending to what had at that point been a disappointing campaign. Many around the country considered the Texas basketball coaching position as good as open, with Smart most likely on his way out.
Fast forward four games and Texas is on the other end of that spectrum, not only one of the hottest teams in the Big 12, but among the hottest in the nation after four-straight victories, none more impressive than a 68-58 victory on the road in Lubbock Saturday. In fact, the win in the house of the defending Big 12 co-Champion and last year's runner up for the national title might be the best win of Smart's entire Texas tenure.
So how was a team that was down to just seven active players against Texas Tech able to claw out a road victory in a hostile environment?
"They've owned it," Smart said of his team. "They've taken ownership, they've lost themselves again. I keep saying that, but you know, when you have self-pity or selfish intent, or you get bored, any of those three things, you can't be aggressive, you can't be on the attack. And that's affected us at times earlier this year. And I think that's one thing that we've talked about that a lot as a program. But our guys have taken ownership of it. Ever since we came back from Iowa State. And I told those guys, we have to choose how we respond."
Texas inverted the performance it had at home against Texas Tech a few weeks back in Austin. In the middle of the aformentioned losing streak, the Longhonrs jumped all over the Red Raiders in the Erwin Center and appeared to be headed for a lopsided victory before letting it slip away after halftime. This time, it was Texas that sent the hometown fans out of the building with a feeling of disappointment, outscoring the Red Raiders 38-21 after halftime.
The main adjustment (at halftime) was just trying to ramp our aggressiveness up," Smart said. "If you go back three weeks, that's exactly what tech did to us at our place. And it flat out won them the game. I mean, they were the aggressors in the second half, and they outscored us by them by a lopsided margin. So that's what we asked our guys to do, and again. The key is that our guys believed in it."
It's clear that Texas players still believe in themselves. Now, coming off a signature win for the Smart era, those on the outside - many who left this team for dead a couple of weeks back - are becoming believers as well.