Was it too many Mai Tais in Maui? How long does jet lag last from a cross-Pacific flight? Or did they get sick from eating raw stuffing over the break? Whatever the Texas Longhorns were suffering from, it was chronic and nasty.
Texas was outpaced, outmatched and just purely outplayed against a far superior opponent in the visiting Virginia Cavaliers, dropping its third game of the season in an ugly 88-69 loss on Wednesday night at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
“They’re incredibly disappointed,” Texas head coach Sean Miller said. “So am I, nobody wanted to come out tonight in front of that environment crowd and lay an egg like we did. I credit Virginia, and I think they exposed a few things that we’re going to have to shore up as we keep moving forward.”
At the end of the players’ press conference, with no questions left, Texas senior guard Jordan Pope paused the room before he got up to return to his locker room.
Pope, the Longhorns’ second-best shooter tonight, peered into the center camera with a confident look, apologizing to Longhorn Nation for his team’s performance tonight.
“I want to apologize to the Longhorn Nation out there for watching this,” Pope said. “We’ll be better. Appreciate you guys coming out to support us tonight. This was a big game and we felt, as a team, as a group, that we let you guys down. We’ll be better moving forward. And you know, continue to support us. Continue hanging in there, and a lot of good things move forward.”
Pope proved to be one of the only bright spots for an overall brutal night for the Longhorns. Along with junior forward Dailyn Swain, the other double-digit scorer for Texas, there were not many positive takeaways for Sean Miller’s group.
Virginia took commanding control of the game swiftly and quickly established a different type of tempo Texas struggled to defend all night. The Cavaliers had no issues exploiting a weak Longhorn defense by creating open passing lanes for their explosive three-point shooters.
“We knew Virginia was good, and you could sense early in the first half, just the style of their press, their three-point shooting, their offensive rebounding and their depth wear on us,” Miller said.
By the end of the game, the student section had thinned out, with some probably thinking they were better off heading home to study for their finals rather than watching a poor offensive performance. The rest of Longhorn Nation did as well — perhaps wanting to get an early jump home. The majority of cheers came from the folks in navy and bright orange in the last 10 minutes of regulation.
“It’s very difficult to lose the way we did, play the way we did in the great environment and atmosphere we had here tonight at Moody,” Miller said. “We had no answer for them offensively, right? … We either gave up a made field goal, or we fouled for a majority of the game. When that happens, it’s tough to get transition points.”
The Longhorns will face the Southern Jaguars at 7 p.m. Monday at the Moody Center.
