Texas Longhorns: Season No Longer In Their Hands After Collapse vs. Iowa State

Less than 24 hours ago, I wrote a column on the Texas Longhorns continuing to survive and advance at a point in their season where every game had seemingly become a must-win.

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Although the stakes weren’t quite as high in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday night when the Horns would square off against the high-powered offense of the Iowa State Cyclones, a win would have all but guaranteed that Texas would get their ticket punched for The Big Dance after four straight wins.

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, a once promising night turned grim in a matter of minutes as Texas gave handed their perfect opportunity for a convincing win right over to Iowa State in a 69-67 loss at the hands of Monte Morris’ buzzer beater.

Despite the final conclusion, this was a game that provided reason for optimism for Texas. The Longhorns controlled the game from the tip behind efficient offense with nine assists on 14 made field goals and smothering defense, holding the Iowa State offense, which averages 79.3 points per game, to a mere 14 points with 3:29 to play in the first half (after a Cyclones drought of more than nine minutes without a single point).

The result became a 36-25 Longhorns lead at halftime.

The second half became more of the shootout that one could expect in a game that featured Iowa State, but Texas played above their norm and went blow-for-blow with the Cyclones throughout the second half. With four minutes to play, Texas held a 10-point lead with a perfect opportunity to continue their recent success with their most impressive victory of the season coming at a time when their NCAA Tournament hopes hung in the balance.

But then the collapse came.

The once streaking Longhorns’ offense resorted to the stagnant, stand around near half court until the final seconds of the shot clock method and Texas’ missed field goals aided Iowa State in a surging run that ultimately tied the game at 67 after some crucial Texas mistakes down the stretch.

Despite all of their final minute attempts to throw the game away, somehow, Texas still had the upper hand with the ball in a tie game with 38 seconds to play. A missed Jonathan Holmes three was redeemed by a Connor Lammert offensive rebound for Texas.

But a kick-out to Javan Felix on the perimeter – who had not missed a shot with 10 seconds to play – resulted in the junior guard heaving a long range bomb with 9.2 seconds to play and clanking it off the back of the rim, giving Iowa State a chance to win it at the buzzer. The Cyclones did just that behind the late-game heroics of Morris, who finished with 24 points.

It was a loss that summed up the Longhorns’ season. There’s no question that Texas is a really good team, but they always find a way to come up short in college basketball’s most competitive conference. The only difference last night was Texas was the team in control for the majority of the game before presenting it to Iowa State on a silver platter in the most crucial four minutes of Texas’ season, as opposed to their usual method of falling behind early only to fight back and come up just short.

Texas entered the night as one of Joe Lunardi’s “Last Four In,” and their loss in the Big 12 Tournament will only make the next few days before Selection Sunday that much more nerve-wracking, despite Texas still being in that same group after the loss. The Longhorns were presented with a golden opportunity to take the fate of their season and produce a result that could help save Rick Barnes’ job.

Instead, Texas gave away the game and all they can do now is hope and pray they’ve shown enough down the stretch to squeak into the NCAA Tournament, despite the fact that their most recent showing will be a complete collapse when the game was seemingly in hand.

Holland on NCAA uncertainty: "We can't really control anything right now. We are who we are."
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) March 13, 2015

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