{"id":151777,"date":"2026-02-05T06:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151777\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:48:08","slug":"texas-basketball-is-5-5-in-sec-but-slow-starts-are-troubling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151777\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas basketball is 5-5 in SEC but slow starts are troubling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26 Texas men’s basketball team<\/a>\u00a0will never make it look easy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most every game is a scrap, opponent’s record be damned.<\/p>\n

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And so it went Tuesday against South Carolina at sleepy Moody Center.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns are smart enough to realize they can\u2019t look past anybody, yet they were locked in the middle of a cockfight at crunch time against a team with nothing to lose. SC, now 2-8 in SEC play, isn\u2019t a good team but a visitor from another planet would not have been able to pick which team was favored by 13 points at certain points.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

South Carolina guard Meechie Johnson (5) drives around Texas guard Tramon Mark during the first half \u00a0Feb. 3, 2026 in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

MORE CED: Why Texas baseball’s Schlossnagle sought\u00a0roster depth in the offseason\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns forward Dailyn Swain (3) puts his arms up to encourage the crowd as the clock winds down in the second half of the Longhorns\u2019 game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Moody Center in Austin, Jan. 24, 2026. Texas won the game 87-67.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns head coach Sean Miller sings \u201cThe Eyes of Texas\u201d after dropping the first game in the Lone Star Showdown to Texas A&M 74-70 at the Moody Center in Austin.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark (12) listens to coaching during a timeout in the first half of the Longhorns\u2019 game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Moody Center in Austin, Jan. 24, 2026. Texas won the game 87-67.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns guard Tramon Mark (12) puts the ball up in the second half of the Longhorns\u2019 game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Moody Center in Austin, Jan. 24, 2026. Texas won the game 87-67.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas guard Tramon Mark (12) drives to the basket against South Carolina forward Elijah Strong (31) and guard Kobe Knox (4) during the second half\u00a0Feb. 3, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas forward Lassina Traore (left) and South Carolina guard Eli Ellis chase a loose ball during the second half\u00a0Feb. 3, 2026\u00a0in Austin.<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas forward Dailyn Swain (left) drives to the basket against South Carolina guard Mike\u00a0Sharavjamts during the second half \u00a0Feb. 3, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

The\u00a084-75 win<\/a> had to happen at this point in the season lest the Horns were about to start wondering if they would accept the predictable NIT invitation in a couple of months. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ced\u2019s Corner<\/p>\n

Sign up for Cedric 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

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As it turns out, they shook off a comatose start in front of a late-arriving crowd for the early\u00a0tipoff \u2014 the student section at Moody was noticeably thin \u2014 survived 35 points from South Carolina guard\u00a0Meechie Johnson and blistered the Gamecocks with 49 second-half points to win a game much closer than the final score indicated.<\/p>\n

And all of a sudden, the Horns, after an 0-2 start in conference play, are firmly in the NCAA Tournament mix. They\u2019re 13-9 overall and 5-5 in the league which puts them only one win from matching last season\u2019s conference total, though it\u2019s obvious the SEC isn\u2019t as strong as the 2025 group that sent 14 teams to the NCAAs.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0beatable Ole Miss coming to town Saturday and Chris Beard coming off an 84-66 beatdown courtesy of fellow former Longhorn coach Rick Barnes\u2019 Tennessee team, there is a chance to stack a third straight win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Longhorns woke up just in time<\/p>\n

The Horns avoided a fate similar to what happened to the football team after it lost to a bad Florida team<\/a>, effectively crippling its chances to make the College Football Playoff. In basketball\u2019s case, they figured it out thanks to a couple of second-half 3-pointers from Cam Heide, who has emerged as a needed source of offense of late; 15 second-half points from veteran guard Tramon Mark and another 20 from All-SEC candidate Dailyn Swain.<\/p>\n

With football coach Steve Sarkisian <\/a>and baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle<\/a> seated together courtside, the Horns pulled it together in front of 10,286 who rose to their feet, some of them for the first time all evening.<\/p>\n

MORE HORNS: Texas athletics lost money in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas forward Dailyn Swain (3) reacts to a score against South Carolina during the second half \u00a0Feb. 3, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

One question can apply to both the fans and the team they were watching. Where was the energy?<\/p>\n

We understand that a 6 p.m. start and Austin traffic aren\u2019t made for one another but the fans who were there for the tip didn\u2019t bring a whole lot of energy to a team that has a recent history of slow starts. The Horns missed seven of their first eight shots and didn\u2019t reach double digits until the 11-minute, 14-second mark of the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message is to keep being aggressive,\u201d Heide said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to go in there and set the tone. If we do that, it\u2019s really going to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

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MORE CED: Where Texas football landed on the Ceddy Awards<\/a><\/p>\n

And maybe, just maybe, the crowd will help too.<\/p>\n

At one point of the second half with the game still in the balance, coach Sean Miller<\/a> raised his arms to the fans, asking them to give his team some energy. If we\u2019re being honest, the crowd was as lethargic as the guys playing even if the result turned out in Texas\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing about the crowd is you have to give them something to cheer about,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s not one-sided. They’re coming here. They’re sacrificing. They’re coming to watch Texas. They want us to win. They want to see a great game. And you\u2019ve got to be locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jordan Pope,\u00a0Matas Vokietaitis have to be better\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas players, coming off a big win at Oklahoma, weren’t locked in for large parts of the game, particularly point guard Jordan Pope who suffered through a 26-minute nightmare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most experienced guards in the college game missed five of his six field goal attempts and finished with no assists. He went without a field goal for the first 34-plus minutes. When asked if he would consider moving Pope to the wing, Miller said \u201cI think we\u2019ve got him at the right spot. He told me he was a point guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an understatement to say Texas plays to the competition because the Horns are good enough to give a good team like Auburn a tussle and shaky enough to be locked in a 50-50 wrestling match with the No. 15 team in the 16-team SEC.<\/p>\n

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They\u2019re never going to be a shutdown defense as evidenced by the No. 96 defensive ranking per kenpom.com<\/a> will attest. More important was a move up to No. 33 in Ken’s NCAA NET ratings, seventh among SEC teams.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas center Matas Vokietaitis (8) is pressured by South Carolina forward EJ Walker (6) during the second half\u00a0Feb. 3, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

Eric Gay\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

Seven-foot sophomore post Matas Vokietaitis is going through some growing pains on both ends. He continues to commit careless fouls on defense and continues to get stripped by smaller players because he brings the ball down in traffic despite being only three feet from the bucket. He is second on the team with 53 turnovers, a huge number for the position. Worse yet, he missed more point-blank looks than his coaches care to count.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the Horns are in play to make a realistic run at the Big Dance but they can\u2019t afford to give away winnable games. Ole Miss, at 11-11 overall and 3-6 in the SEC, represents a nice chance to move over .500 after 11 games for the first time since Rodney Terry took over the 2023 team after Beard\u2019s firing. Texas started 8-3 and advanced to the Elite Eight with a win over Miller\u2019s Xavier team that season.<\/p>\n

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Lots has changed since then and if you ask Miller, more change is needed \u2014 particularly on defense.<\/p>\n

If anything, they\u2019re in a good place considering where they started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 Texas men’s basketball team\u00a0will never make it look easy. Most every game is a scrap, opponent’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[62424,5024,27,22109,29,537,19751,28],"class_list":["post-151777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-south-carolina-basketball","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-texas","tag-texas-basketball","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-men-s-basketball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}