Texas men’s basketball found out Wednesday night that a team coming off a blowout loss will show no mercy at its next opportunity.
No. 20 Arkansas was blown out by No. 4 Florida by 34 points on Saturday night. Four days later, the Razorbacks were able to extinguish some frustration in front of their home crowd for senior night, belittling Texas by 20 points and winning 105-85 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
“I would describe the crowd as bored,” head coach Sean Miller said. “Sometimes, when the home team is playing really well, you pour it on, it’s exciting, but it really was not a challenge from us.”
Razorbacks freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr., one of the nation’s highest-rated NBA prospects, capped off his final home regular-season game by exploding for 28 points and 13 assists.
As Acuff Jr. checked out of the game, the Arkansas home crowd rose from their seats, giving a hero’s standing round of applause for one last time before he heads to the professional ranks in a few months.
“Guys like (Acuff Jr.) don’t come into college basketball very often,” Miller said. “He’s a generational player. He’s really good.”
The Longhorns were far and away out of the game, down by 17 points with two minutes left by the time Acuff Jr. walked over to the bench.
Like Mississippi State and Tennessee earlier this season, Texas has struggled against dynamic backcourts, and it was the same story tonight against Arkansas.
Acuff Jr. and freshman guard Meleek Thomas had their way with the Longhorns, scoring a combined 29 points and running the offense in the first half. Razorbacks senior forward Trevon Brazile also contributed 17 points to his backcourt’s total to put Arkansas up 56-34 entering the halftime break.
“I thought the pace early shocked us,” Miller said. “We really understood that Arkansas’ terrific in transition and their pace is very fast, but it caught our guys off-guard, (and) we weren’t ready.”
The brutalization of the Longhorns’ defense continued into the second half, with the Razorbacks’ dominant lead ballooning to 28 points.
One aspect Texas struggled mightily against was Arkansas’ proficiency with the three-ball, one of the main contributors to the wide point spread. In the first half, the Razorbacks shot 75% outside of the arc — a far cry from the Longhorns’ 0%.
It also didn’t help that Texas’ limited eight-man rotation was further hindered to seven men for the majority of the night following senior guard Jordan Pope’s benching after he picked up four quick fouls, appearing in just four minutes.
Sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis paced the Longhorns in the first half with 14 points, but was limited to seven points and eight minutes after fouling out in the second half. Former Razorbacks and current Longhorns graduate guard Tramon Mark picked up the offense in the second half with 13 points.
“We were not at our best,” Miller said. “We have to respond and get back to Austin and play our final home game along the lines of what Arkansas just did.”
Texas will face the Oklahoma Sooners this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT at the Moody Center in Austin for the final regular-season game.