Baylor 77, Texas 72

Monday night at the Erwin Center, the Texas Longhorns suffered a heartbreaking 77-72 loss to the Baylor Bears. Up by 10 points at halftime, the Longhorns once again proved themselves unable to close a contest against a ranked opponent. Baylor's Quincy Acy played the game of his life, hustling his way to 22 points and 16 rebounds. With J'Covan Brown hitting on 6 of 9 3-point attempts and Clint Chapman and Sheldon McClellan putting on a dunk-fest, Texas still couldn't manage to outscore Baylor. So what were some of the things that caused the Longhorns to lose this one?

1. The Longhorns are horrible at defending the 3-point shot. It's been something that has been plaguing them all season and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Myck Kabongo is especially weak at pressuring on the perimeter, and when Baylor's Brady Heslip hit a trio of 3-pointers within the 1st 5 minutes of the 2nd half, it signaled the end for Texas.

2. How many times can the ball possibly pass through the hands and legs of either Alexis Wangmene or Clint Chapman without them holding on to it? These guys are seniors and they still wind up looking like amateurs every other time a pass or rebound comes their way. Texas yielded 14 offensive rebounds to Baylor and I would guess that at least half of those were at first looking like either Wangmene or Chapman would grab them only to have them snatched away. Really Chapman, how do you play 21 minutes and not collect a single rebound?

3. Down the stretch, the Longhorns half-court offense went into its usual funk. I don't know what coach Rick Barnes does at the end of games, but just about every time out his players end games by standing unproductively still on the offensive end, leaving it to single players to drive 1 on 5 against their opponents. In this game, late turnovers by Myck Kabongo and J'Covan Brown killed any momentum the Longhorns had going.

4. Other teams just want it more. Last night, Baylor was the team that scratched and clawed and connived its way to victory. Bears coach Scott Drew isn't really known as a tactician, but paired against Rick Barnes, he looked like Sun Tzu. How the Longhorns manage to collapse at crunch time, time and time again, has to fall on a coach incapable of motivating his team to be more calculated when it most counts.

Now with a Big12 Conference record of 7-8 and an overall record of 17-11, Texas is at this point on the outside looking in at its NCAA Tournament possibilities. Beating Baylor at home was essential and now that Texas has failed at it, it will take an unlikely win at Kansas and/or a deep run in the Big12 Tournament to put the Longhorns over the top.