I’m heartbroken.
It wasn’t supposed to end like that.
The Longhorns held an 8-point lead at halftime despite Miami shooting 64% — certainly they would cool down.
And they did.
They finished at only 59%.
Texas had more rebounds. Way more assists. Shot 11 more field goals. Made 40% of their three-pointers. Turnovers were about even. Everyone was worried about Norchad Omier and his ability to rebound — he had one more rebound than Brock Cunningham.
But at one point late in the first half they flashed on the screen that the Longhorns had only scored 2 points in the paint. Someone at the table remarked, “yeah, that means they are prone to those long stretches of not scoring.”
Sure enough, in a stretch of 8 minutes, roughly from the 13-minute mark to the 5-minute mark, the Horns had one field goal. Even worse — the Horns had 8 turnovers in the latter half of the second half.
That certainly didn’t help. This team was prone to offensive ineptitude all season, and it reared its head at exactly the wrong time. Dylan Disu might have proved to be a lighthouse in the fog of night, but we’ll never know.
Sir’Jabari Rice and Marcus Carr were clearly hobbled with injuries sustained during the game as well.
What also didn’t help:
27 free throws. In 20 minutes of basketball.
A few of those were at the end of the game when Texas was trying to stop the clock, but many more were not.
It was unfortunate.
It wasn’t supposed to end like that.
When Chris Beard failed his players and failed his coaching staff back in December and that night the team had to go into an extra period to defeat Rice at the Moody Center, nobody gave them much of a chance to make noise in the Big 12, much less come minutes short of the Final Four.
But they persevered, they made it known that the University of Texas is a lot bigger than one man — and they made us all proud.
This team’s run is over.
Carr, Rice, Timmy Allen and Christian Bishop are out of eligibility.
Others might turn pro or try the transfer portal.
They were minutes away, a call here or there, a couple of more baskets in that awful stretch from a four-team bracket in the city where their biggest alumni base resides — and poof, just like that — we start back at square one next fall.
I’m heartbroken.
They deserved better.