As a hip-hop bass drum reverberated from the jubilant visitors locker room Saturday backstage at Moody Center, the host Texas Longhorns had no choice but to take their medicine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t stop the music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Somehow it makes sense because they couldn\u2019t stop the Texas A&M Aggies<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n MORE CED: Why Texas QB Arch Manning is on a path to super stardom<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey outclassed us,\u201d Texas coach\u00a0Sean Miller<\/a> said. \u201cThey were the better team from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas A&M Aggies forward Jamie Vinson (4) dunks as Texas Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis (8) defends during the second half of Lone Star Showdown, Jan. 17, 2026 at the Moody Center in Austin. Texas A&M won the game 74-70.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n With a tough road test coming up against resurgent Kentucky on Wednesday, the Horns, who entered this one with two straight wins over ranked opponents,\u00a0are once again in Miller\u2019s crosshairs and this time it isn\u2019t for something that occurred over the course of an entire game, but a snippet of action that proved too monstrous to overcome.<\/p>\n TEXAS AT KENTUCKY<\/p>\n When\/where:6\u00a0p.m. Wednesday in Lexington, Ky.<\/p>\n TV\/radio: SEC Network; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM.<\/p>\n None of the 11,422 in attendance \u2014 aside from the ones wearing maroon \u2014 saw this coming, especially after former Aggie killer Tramon Mark\u2019s 3-pointer tied it at 29-29 at the half. The Aggies, however, emerged from the locker room a different team to start the second half. And to their own detriment, so did the Longhorns.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sign up for Ced’s Corner\u00a0<\/p>\n Sign up for\u00a0Cedric Golden\u2019s newsletter <\/a>for hot takes and expert analysis each Tuesday on Texas Longhorns football and beyond. \u00a0It’s called Ced\u2019s Corner, from the mind of the American-Statesman\u2019s resident sports columnist, the 2025 NSMA Texas Sportswriter of the Year.<\/p>\n Over a span of two minutes and 31 seconds, the Aggies assumed command with a 9-2 run \u2014 eight from guard Rylan Griffen \u2014 and just like that, the Horns were swimming upstream in what must have felt like a thousand-pound weighted vest.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas A&M Aggies guard Jacari Lane (5) drives past defense from Texas Longhorns guard Simeon Wilcher (7) during the second half of Lone Star Showdown, Jan. 17, 2026 at the Moody Center in Austin. Texas A&M won the game 74-70.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Try as they might, the Horns never recovered from that early second-half blitz.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m telling you right now, in the first four minutes of the second half, we were not ready to play,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThere’s one team that was running fast and there’s one team that was not running nearly as fast as they could. There’s one team that came out at halftime, ready to play all the way to the end \u2014 \u00a0from start to finish \u2014 and one team that, for whatever reason, just couldn’t quite get up and get after it like you’re capable of in the SEC in a game of this meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE CED:NIL, portal were needed but college football lost its way<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It should be mentioned that Miller took responsibility for his team\u2019s lack of bounce-back in that span and, bless his heart, he couldn\u2019t get over what mathematically was only 10% of the game. He went on to say the words \u201cfour minutes\u201d 10 times in his 23-minute interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n I expect the Horns will hear it several hundred times over the next few days leading into the trip to Lexington. Team leaders Jordan Pope and Mark are the barometer, but they need help. The Texas bench produced a scant five points, one more than Aggies backup center Jamie Vinson, who’s emerging as a nice option off the A&M bench after appearing in only one SEC contest as a Longhorn last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely have to have a short term memory,\u201d Mark said. \u201cWe have to go at Kentucky and win a basketball game.\u201d<\/p>\n Bigger wasn\u2019t better for Texas<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t that Texas allowed the Aggies to take over, but how the Horns went about their business on the defensive end. The Aggies are smaller than we\u2019re used to seeing \u2014 post Rashaun Agee, who’s 6-foot-7, is A&M’s tallest starter \u2014 but they played bigger and consistently caught the Longhorns slipping with smart back screens that resulted in easy layups. Agee finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds and won his personal matchup with Texas big Matas Vokietaitis, who played well with 14 points and nine boards.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n MORE HORNS: Where Texas and A&M baseball rank in the preseason<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a Birmingham guy, and there’s a guy from Leeds, Alabama by the name of Charles Barkley,\u201d said A&M coach Bucky McMillan<\/a>. \u201cHe was undersized a lot, but he was able to get things done if you gave him enough touches around the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark (12) shoots the ball as Texas A&M Aggies guard Ali Dibba (6) defends during the second half of Lone Star Showdown, Jan. 17, 2026 at the Moody Center in Austin. Texas A&M won the game 74-70.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n All told, the Aggies made 15 of 25 field-goal attempts in the second half, including a half-dozen 3-pointers in 10 attempts. That\u2019s the recipe for an ugly home loss after the Horns climbed out of a casket with two conference wins \u2014 including a big one at Alabama \u2014 to avoid a second straight 0-3 SEC start.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n MORE HOOPS: Best photos from Longhorn-Aggie basketball<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen that happens, that\u2019s on me,\u201d Miller said of the second-half\u2019s early slumber. \u201cYou can’t spot a team eight points in a game like that and expect to come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n They sit at 11-7 overall and 2-3 in league play while the Aggies rose to 14-4 overall and an SEC-best 4-1. The league is still ultra-competitive, but isn\u2019t as dominant as last season\u2019s product that qualified a record 14 teams for the Big Dance. With 13 regular-season games remaining, the Horns are still in the mix. But games like Saturday, the late collapse in the opener against Mississippi State<\/a> and the no-show at Tennessee <\/a>will be mentioned if they fail to make the tourney field in a couple of months.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n