OTF Premium Three takeaways from Texas grinding out an 84-75 win over South Carolina

[Jeff Howe]

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas was out of sorts for large stretches of Tuesday’s 84-75 win over South Carolina.

Nevertheless, the Longhorns overcame a forgettable offensive first half (8-for-26 shooting) and turnovers and defensive lapses in the second half to exit Moody Center with a victory over the Gamecocks in a must-win game. Dailyn Swain scored 15 of his team-high 22 points in the second half (10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, with three assists and two steals), while Tramon Mark scored 15 of his 18 points over the last 20 minutes of play.

Texas (14-9, 5-5 SEC) remained KenPom.com’s No. 34 team after the win, maintaining the Longhorns’ case to stay on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble (Texas entered Tuesday’s game as one of Joe Lunardi’s last four teams in the field of 68).

Here are three takeaways from a win the Longhorns had to grind out:

1. Along with Swain making clutch plays at both ends of the floor and Mark finding his groove offensively in the second half, Texas got a big lift from Cam Heide (12 points, five rebounds and two assists), who delivered arguably his best performance as a Longhorn. He drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to break a 50-50 tie midway through the second half, but his defensive effort, including the three rebounds he grabbed down the stretch, kept him on the court.

With Matas Vokietaitis (12 points on 3-for-8 shooting and nine rebounds) unable to get into a flow offensively (four turnovers) before fouling out, and Jordan Pope (three points on 1-for-6 shooting in 26 minutes) struggling, Heide’s offensive output was a godsend.

2. Even though Simeon Wilcher (seven points, four assists and two rebounds) dealt with foul trouble throughout the game, he led a productive night by the Longhorn bench. It’s the second game in a row Wilcher has come up big off the bench after scoring 10 points with two rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal in 22 minutes in last Saturday’s 79-69 road win over Oklahoma.

Wilcher, Chendall Weaver and Lassina Traore combined for 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals, helping the Texas bench outscore South Carolina’s (17-15). It’s how they scored, however, that made a difference on Tuesday: Weaver knocked down a big corner three at the 6:36 mark of the second half to extend the lead and Traore scored all five of his points at the foul line (5-for-6), positively contributing to the team’s 29-for-36 performance on free throws.

3. It was two made free throws by Traore that allowed the Longhorns to take their first lead of the game with 4:36 remaining in the first half. A dismal 1-for-10 start put Texas in a hole to open the game, one from which it spent most of the night trying to emerge.

The Longhorns eventually got there, in part, by making an effort to attack the basket and force the issue with paint touches after missing five 3-pointers before the first media timeout of the first half. The defensive lapses and sloppy sequences aside, the slow start (the Gamecocks led by as many as nine points in the first half) could be chalked up to Miller’s squad feeling the impact of playing a fourth SEC game in 11 days.

Thankfully, Texas gets a day off on Wednesday and two full days to get ready for Ole Miss on Saturday. Chris Beard’s return to the Forty Acres since he was fired in January 2023 should make it an emotionally charged affair.

The Longhorns know they need to be better on Saturday than they were on Tuesday. A couple of days to catch their breath after winning three of their last four should help the cause.

View full news story

[Layton_Sharp]

Great read Jeff. I think Wilcher starting to find a groove is going to be major for this team. Hook’ Em! 🤘🏻

[Bunk Moreland]

Good stuff. Thanks, Jeff!

[Jordan91]

Thank Jeff. A win is a win. I hope that last jump shot gets Mark back in a groove. He found ways to score close to the basket but that jump shot changes the odds of Texas winning when it is dropping. 

[HookedOnTF]

That was almost as much of a must win as the super bowl is for New England.

Hope Beard is treated OK by fans - not condoning the sordid affair, but as an alumni who cared about his job, it's water under the bridge and I'd much rather watch the Miller brand of ball.

[JohnGalt]

We win when we defend and rebound

[harveycmd]

Nice article, Jeff. Great summary. 

Don't know if the defense is really going to improve much. Pope and Mark just can't defend well enough to elevate our defensive ceiling. I'd key in on Matas, and I think that's what Miller is doing. If you can get him to protect the ball better in the post, cut down on turnovers, and then avoid a couple of mental lapses defensively, we could improve eight points a game total. That would be massive.

[MJW2327]

We need to stop letting the other team's best player go off - Meechie Johnson scored a career high 35 pts and was getting way too many and-1s at the rim. Reminiscent of the Miss St. game where Josh Hubbard went off for 38 points, the only difference being we lost that game (and Ja'Kobi Gillespie going off for 34 when we got destroyed @ TN). I think the issue of letting the other team's best player throw together a highlight film against us would have been harder to conceal had we lost that game but it needs fixing because it's become a pretty standard playbook for a team like SC to be competitive against us.

[harveycmd]

Odom from Arizona State and few guys during buy games did it too. It's always the PG. Pope can't defend.  Mark isn't much better because he lacks lateral quickness, although he does have good length. You could try starting Wilcher, but he's been a major offensive liability except the last two games. Wilcher has been part of the foul crew as well.  

I sure hope they can identify and land a legitimate PG in the portal for next season.

[Robbin Antono]

If we can get Wicher, Matas, (ans Swain hopefully) back, we should be good for tournament next year.

[PaulieD]

Great read, Jeff.

It was an interesting game; we couldn't get into the fast offensive flow that leads to openings outside and in the paint; we did draw and convert free throws to stay in the game, so that was good.

Johnson was a bit unstoppable.  High energy level.  Maybe a tad bit of looking ahead to the ole Miss game?  Or maybe just tired.  Who knows. It's a W.

[Jarveaux]

great article Jeff . I’m starting to believe Miller is the real deal . Guess we will see saturday. 

[ATX16]

First game to attend in two seasons.

Heide being more aggressive is a big deal going forward. He also does a decent job on D.

Not sure what the broadcast showed but Matas was very upset when he went to the bench after fouling out. Kicked a chair, head in a towel. As though he failed a goal he had made was my guess. 

This should have been a 15-20 point win but we simply missed too many easy inside buckets. 

O rebounding was really good.

We just dont feed the roll to the bucket very well. 

[Sundancekid]

What are the odds Matas and Swain return? 

[harveycmd]

26 minutes ago, Jarveaux said:

great article Jeff . I’m starting to believe Miller is the real deal . Guess we will see saturday. 

Good news here is that the Ole Miss PG, Kamardine, is tall and lanky like Mark. Tramon should be able to defend him reasonably well and you can hide Pope defensively.

Beard may have those boys breathing fire.

[MJW2327]

I'd say Matas definitely returning while Swain probably leaving if he keeps up these tremendous SEC stats

[MJW2327]

24 minutes ago, harveycmd said:

Good news here is that the Ole Miss PG, Kamardine, is tall and lanky like Mark. Tramon should be able to defend him reasonably well and you can hide Pope defensively.

Beard may have those boys breathing fire.

At least we don't have to defend this flamboyant jackass from last year's team

[jkates]

It was nice to see the squad battle through a poor performance to get the win. It is too easy to let those games slip away, as we have seen in previous games. Got the W. 

Good stuff, Jeff!

[CJ Vogel]

Nice read, Jeff! 

Texas moved up to 33 after Indiana's loss to USC late last night as well. Every spot matters!

[JimR6]

No one could stay in front of #5.

[Paul L]

2 hours ago, Sundancekid said:

What are the odds Matas and Swain return? 

Good grief, let the season finish first at least. 

[Neil Leininger]

12 minutes ago, Paul L said:

Good grief, let the season finish first at least. 

Why?

[Paul L]

2 minutes ago, Neil Leininger said:

Why?

Because the players  haven’t even decided yet on if they will return or go somewhere else or maybe even try and go pro.  It’s pointless to consider that at this point. 

[ElCafetero]

if we go 4-2 for the rest of the season (losses to UF and UGA) is that enough to secure us a spot or would we still need to make a run in the SEC tournament 

Edited 1 hour ago by ElCafetero

[LonghornFan4Ever]

8 minutes ago, ElCafetero said:

if we go 4-2 for the rest of the season (losses to UF and UGA) is that enough to secure us a spot or would we still need to make a run in the SEC tournament 

They're 5-5 in SEC play now with 8 games to go.  Looking at their remaining schedule, I think a tourney bid (without having to participate in the play-in game) is a lock if they can win their next 3 games (Mississippi, @ Missouri, LSU) and they win at least one of their last 5 games.  Texas would finish the regular season 9-9 in SEC play if that scenario pans out.  A win at home against OU is the most likely of those last 5 games, but this team has shown they tend to play up and down to the competition, so I could see them getting an upset @ Georgia or @ A&M.  I don't see them beating a red hot UF team at the Moody or winning @ Arkansas, but you never know.  That's why they play the games.