Tuesday, March 1, 2011

It's Late, But Here Comes Texas' Collapse


Stop me if you've heard this before: the Texas Longhorns have struggled a bit after being considered one of the best teams in the country.

That's right, it is time for the Texas Collapse.

The Longhorns were once the hottest team in the country ... and that was just two weeks ago. Since then, the Horns have lost 3 of 4 -- all to unranked teams sitting on the bubble. They lost at Nebraska, at Colorado and now at home to Kansas State. Wedged in there was an uninspiring win over last place Iowa State. Their final game is at Baylor who are fighting for their tournament lives.

If you recall, last year's Horns team faced an even more devistating collapse. After starting the season 17-0 and climbing to a No. 1 ranking, Texas went 7-10 the rest of the way including a first round NCAA Tournament loss to Wake Forest. The same Wake Forest team that would fire it's coach not too long after that.

Two years ago, Texas began the season 11-2. They would go 12-10 the rest of the way.

While this year's fall isn't as dramatic for a variety of reasons, it is still troubling. All the analysts went on and on about how strong Texas was ... especially on the defensive end. Aside from their loss at Colorado where they gave up 91 points, they've still done a nice job defensively. It is their offense that stinks.

They shot 36.4% against Nebraska.
They shot 42.6% against Colorado.
They shot 33.8% against Kansas State.

In Texas' three losses in this stretch, Jordan Hamilton has shot a combined 15-for-58 from the field.

Teams struggle from time to time, but what should concern Longhorn fans is that their last two seasons have ended rather abruptly. In 2009, they were ousted by Duke in the 2nd round of the tournament. Last year, it was in the first round to Wake.


This year -- who knows?

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