Lesson, not a loss: Texas men's basketball team returns from New York full of optimism
NEW YORK — Texas' Moody Center has developed its own madness since opening last season, but even the most diehard Texas backer wouldn’t compare it to the Mecca, the nickname that Madison Square Garden has earned as the beating heart of East Coast basketball since the modern incarnation of the venue opened 55 years ago in the middle of Manhattan.
And that made this week’s trip to the Big Apple especially rewarding, even if the Longhorns fell short of an early-season signature win against defending national champion Connecticut, which beat the Longhorns 81-71 in Monday’s title game of the Empire Classic.
“Playing in the Mecca, playing in New York City, it doesn't get any better,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said. “That's why guys come to Texas, to play in these kinds of games on this kind of stage.”
The Longhorns have made regular appearances in New York, competing in the Empire Classic in 1997, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2019. The Horns won the event in 2014 by beating California 71-55 in the championship game.
Terry wants to again make the trip on a regular basis. He understands the exposure that playing in Madison Square Garden and on the East Coast gives his program, among recruits as well as the national media. The Longhorns have historically mined New York for some gems, including former Longhorns luminaries Terrence Rencher, Mo Bamba, Royal Ivey and James Thomas. Kevin Durant, arguably the most talented player ever to wear a Longhorns uniform, grew up about 200 miles south of New York on the outskirts of Washington, another media epicenter of the East Coast.
“I think it's really important that players and East Coast writers get a chance to see our team in person and watch us play, and that was kind of our mindset coming up here,” Terry said. “We love being here in New York and playing in New York, and it just helps folks know exactly who we are and what type of team we have to coach.”
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Can the close games help in ‘winning time’ of March?
Terry found out things about this year’s team that couldn’t have been revealed in blowout wins over outmatched foes Incarnate Word, Delaware State and Rice in the first two weeks of the season. Max Abmas nailed a jumper in the last second of Sunday’s 81-80 win over Louisville in a tournament semifinal, and the team rallied to within four points of UConn in the game’s final five minutes Monday before the Huskies pulled away for the win. Those taut moments will pay off down the stretch, Terry said.
“Early in the year, you're really trying to get your team to understand how to win and what it takes to win,” he said. “And I thought over these two days, back to back, we really grew up in those areas. We grew up in an area of taking care of the basketball, too, and not beating ourselves. There’s a high ceiling for this group. Once we get everybody out there on the floor playing together, it’s going be a pretty deep and pretty good team.”
Texas’ nonconference schedule at home this season won’t set the secondary ticket market aflame since Wyoming, Texas State, Houston Christian, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UT-Arlington and North Carolina-Greensboro are the foes visiting Moody Center. The Longhorns will try to make up for that lack of home pizazz with some tricky road contests before the start of Big 12 play. In addition to the two games at the Empire Classic, No. 15 Texas (4-1) will visit No. 4 Marquette and former head coach Shaka Smart on Dec. 4 and face a talented LSU squad Dec. 16 in Houston.
Of course, none of those nonconference games will surpass anything Texas sees in the Big 12, which currently includes four ranked teams and the nation’s current betting favorite for the national championship, No. 1 Kansas.
But the trip to New York came close, especially since Texas had to survive a game that came down to the final few possessions against Louisville and then faced No. 5 UConn as a visitor in name only. UConn has played 126 games at Madison Square Garden and its previous incarnations, and the blue-clad Huskies faithful dominated the crowd in Monday’s finale.
After he scored a career-high 27 points against Louisville and sat out the UConn game to rest his surgically repaired shoulders, Texas forward Kadin Shedrick said the win over the Cardinals provided an opportunity for his team to focus on late-game execution.
“Games like these are ones that you think back on when you're in close games in conference,” Shedrick said. “Nobody's stressed when you're up by 20. But the real players come out and close those one-possession games. The more of those you can stack up, the more confidence you have in March when it's winning time and it's a one-possession game and you need to seal the deal.”
Abmas, the hero of the Louisville game, agreed with Shedrick.
“You look back on games like this, and it shows the true you,” Abmas said. “If you're able to stay together and come out with a victory, that will help us in the Big 12.”
More: Reaction to buzzer-beater from Texas basketball's Max Abmas: 'He's a tough-shot maker.'
UConn setback called a lesson, not a loss
Although the loss to UConn lacked the last-second drama that defined the Longhorns’ win over Louisville, Mitchell said that “we don't take that as a loss. We take that as a learning lesson.”
Mitchell had a career-high 21 points against the Huskies and almost helped the Longhorns to an improbable win despite playing without Shedrick and Dylan Disu, who is expected back at some point this season.
“We learned a lot about our team, and we know we're going to be a good team,” Mitchell said. “The thing I would say we learned as a team is that we will fight, what the score is, no matter what's going on. Tonight felt like a home game for (UConn), but we stayed together, we stayed connected, and we fought to the end. I think that's the biggest thing we learned from this whole trip.”
Louisville coach Kenny Payne, who played on the Cardinals’ 1986 national championship team, got an up-close look at Texas as well as almost a week’s worth of film study.
“Texas is really good,” Payne said. “When I watched them on film. I felt like they were NCAA Elite Eight, a Final Four type of team. They’ve got three guards that can score 20 at any time, big guys that are strong and athletic that can rebound, can score in the post, block shots. They have all the components to be a national champion.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball returns from New York optimistic despite first loss
