“I stayed up late for this?” – people watching the end of the season finale of The Sopranos/me watching the game tonight

The ACC/SEC challenge was not kind to the Longhorns tonight, as they allowed Virginia to walk into their house and obliterate them for 40 minutes straight – the 88-69 final score did not reflect how much better UVA looked throughout most of this matchup.

The first half was a mostly miserable affair for Texas that resulted in a 19-point deficit, 46-27, behind nine made threes on 18 attempts by the ‘Hoos. The failures can’t be blamed on simple “hot shooting” from UVA either – the perimeter rotations were abysmal. The Longhorns looked slow and out of sync in essentially every aspect on defense, and the offense didn’t look much better.

Matas Vokietaitis and Dailyn Swain combined for 3-of-11 from the field through the first 20; Texas had two six-point scorers, while Virginia had 36 points from its top four scorers combined. Johann Grunloh led all with 12, while former Texas portal target Jacari White hit 3-for-3 from beyond the arc to help build the nearly 20-point lead they took into the break.

The second half didn’t seen enough of an improvement to make things interesting as the same problems haunted them on both ends. While not an “effort” issue so much as a game plan and talent deficit issue, the matchup didn’t leave any doubt about which team is primed for a better season under a first-year head coach. Miller frantically substituted throughout the second half, but none of the personnel changes made a degree of difference as Virginia continued to pound Texas in the lane and from deep.

The Cavaliers looked faster, more decisive, more physical, and sharper on the perimeter, which showed on the scoreboard. Outside of a much better second half from Swain, the ‘Horns did little to change the outcome of the game over the second 20 minutes.

88-69 was the final score from the Moody Center in Austin.

Conclusions

I can only point out the team’s flaws so many times before I begin to sound like a broken record, but they lack an explosive lead guard and/or a floor general, and they lack any kind of consistent perimeter shooting. This results in a ton of offensive problems, which were on full display tonight.

They also have a lot more trouble finishing in the lane than a team with their amount of size hypothetically should – though some of the interior looks tonight were contested, at a certain point, D-I players have to be able to score at the rim. Swain looked much better doing so in the second half, but as a team, Texas was 12-20 on layups.

The defense has also been an issue this season – they gave up 75 to Duke, 87 to Arizona State, 78 to Division-II Chaminade, 97 to NC State, and 88 to Virginia tonight. The communication on the perimeter has got to improve if this team is going to compete with teams like UVA that like to let it rip from distance, of which there are plenty in the SEC. A team like Alabama will absolutely light this Longhorns defense up as things currently stand.

Overall, it was a very frustrating game for a multitude of reasons, but the most glaring may be that it felt like a blown opportunity. With football season wrapping up, basketball had a chance to grab some of the fanbase’s attention. They had a solid crowd for a Wednesday night, a game against a quality opponent, and just got blown out. It doesn’t provide people with much confidence going forward.

Anyways, Texas gets Southern next Monday at home before traveling to Storrs, Connecticut to take on top-five UConn.