Texas Longhorns: Can They Remain Consistently Successful?

The Texas Longhorns are one of the many college basketball programs that have gone through their fair share of undesirable adversities while attempting to remain competitive year in and year out.  Although the Longhorns had a forgettable season last year when they went 7-11 in conference play and 16-18 overall, they have not only bounced back from those pitiful transgression of yesteryear, they have quickly established themselves as one of the most dangerous teams in the Big 12.

While the Longhorns started a little rough around the edges when they lost two conference games in a row to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, they eventually established an intriguing modus operandi that has worked to perfection in their last seven victories.  Between their aggressively sound defense and their commitment to garner any loose rebound that comes their way (42.4 RPG 4^th in NCAA), the Longhorns have used their size and intimidating physicality to keep their opponents off balance offensively.  Although the Longhorns have struggled to shoot from the field (they 43.9% from the field, 201^st in NCAA), their well-disciplined and driven roster has kept them afloat.

Although Kansas Jayhawks Center Joel Embiid gets a lot of well-deserved credit for being one of the most dynamic and committed big men in the game, the Longhorns have a center of their own who can effectively utilize his size and immense strength on both offense and defense.  Sophomore Cameron Ridley has stepped as the Longhorns coveted rebounder and tenacious defender.  Since his debut last season, Ridley has made drastic improvements to both his shooting capabilities (he has shot 55% from the field this year) and to his rebounding prowess, which has allowed the Longhorns to garner more second chance opportunities on offense (Ridley garners 8 RPG).  Simply put, Ridley has the attributes and ball skills of Shaquille O’Neal who made a living at strong-arming his way to the basket while snatching countless rebounds from the opposition.  While Ridley isn’t quite the explosive scorer that O’Neal was, he has the skill set and unwavering determination to continue to build upon the illustrious success that he has already created for himself.

Despite the fact that the Longhorns defense has been the star of this teams intriguing show, they have a couple of offensive players who are capable of shooting the ball effectively in streaky spurts.  While freshman guard Isaiah Taylor may not wow fans with his overall accuracy from the field (41.3%), his perimeter shooting is at least serviceable and has kept the Longhorns in games against ranked opponents.  Against opponents Baylor and Kansas, Taylor made over 50% of shots from the field while scoring a combined 50 points in both of those critical conference affairs.  While Taylor may lack the consistent ball movement skills that are necessary to be a prolific guard in a competitive conference, he has the raw talent and athleticism to progressively improve his weak spots to become a reliably dynamic contributor in the next couple of years.

While the Longhorns fiery success is astounding to say the least, they still have to make some critical improvements if they hope to dominate their opponents this consistently come March Madness.  Defensively, the Longhorns have established themselves as team that will bend but won’t break while being able to hold their own in competitive games down the stretch.  Offensively, Texas has gotten by with having a couple of streaky shooters that compliment their stout defense fairly well in that they provide their team with a comfortable score cushion that allows them to prevent an opponent from scoring rather than trying to go toe to toe with them offensively.  Although it’s hard to argue against this type of one dimensional strategy given how effective it’s been during the course of their seven game winning streak, if the Longhorns can at least find a couple of clutch shooters who can close games consistently, then their dominant defense will take care of the rest.

When all is said and done, the Texas Longhorns have quickly transformed into a dominant collegiate programs that can get by on playing scrappy yet successful basketball.  Although the Longhorns inspirational success may not last forever, it at least has allowed this team to find a proper identity for themselves.  If the Longhorns can continue to grow and develop into a team who’s success is predicated on more than just defense, they’ll be one of the favorite Cinderella stories going into tournament play.