Golden: Well, is Texas elite or not? Horns still searching for that signature Big 12 win

Texas has had some nice wins to start conference play, but we’re still waiting on that signature Big 12 moment.

It didn’t happen Tuesday night at Iowa State.

The team that wins the Big 12 will have two or three signature wins that will separate it from the pack. The best conference in college basketball will provide precious few opportunities to capture a road win or two, but when the opportunity arises, that team must take advantage.

Simply holding serve at home — and the Horns had a couple of nice comebacks last week against TCU and Texas Tech — will not be enough to win this league.

Texas had its chance in Ames, but didn’t smash through the door when it cracked open.

A pair of offensive lapses — one in each half — proved fatal in Texas' 78-67 loss as the Longhorns missed out on a chance to tie for first place in the conference.

It turns out the Horns let an opportunity to forge a three-way tie atop the Big 12 get away. Actually, there is a three-way tie. The Horns just aren’t one of those three. It’s Kansas, Kansas State and the upstart Cyclones looking down at the rest at 5-1.

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Texas (15-3, 4-2 Big 12) is in nice position to make a move in the league, but the Horns can’t waste early advantages on the road. Those are few and far between.

The frustrating part for fans had to be the lack of production from the top offense in the league. The Horns, who came in averaging 80.7 points per game, have gotten it from different sources in this otherwise solid start under Rodney Terry, but the struggles were major on Tuesday.

In his return to Hilton Coliseum, sophomore point guard Tyrese Hunter started out like he was ready to burn down his former haunt. He scored 10 points in the first eight minutes — the boos cascaded down from the stands every time he touched the ball — but then he was held scoreless for the final 32 minutes.

Hunter hasn’t been playing at 100% lately. From his first game at Texas, he has been plagued by cramping problems at the end of games. Of late he’s still been a bit gimpy, but his start gave us a glimpse of the player he was last season. Hunter’s early hot start withstanding, the Horns went cold with no field goals in the final 7:30 of the first half. Still, they trailed only 36-35.

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Plagued by slow starts during Big 12 play, Hunter and the Longhorns finally came out of the gates ahead of the opponent, but they ran into a sustainability problem later.

Team-wise, they couldn’t buy a 3-pointer. After Hunter made a couple in the first eight minutes, the Horns made only 2-of-15 the rest of the way.

In a unevenly officiated affair, the refs missed several obvious calls, including Caleb Grill undercutting Texas' Dillon Mitchell in the first half, causing Mitchell to land hard on his shoulder. It was physical ball and the Horns didn’t adjust as well as expected. The offense went away late with the Horns going comatose in the final 12 minutes. After Marcus Carr’s layup gave Texas a 51-49 lead, the Horns scored only four points over the next 8:08.

That’s not exactly a winning formula.

The Cyclones were picked to finish eighth in the conference in the preseason, but that ranking takes on a different meaning given the strength of this league. They placed four players in double digits — including Jaren Holmes, who scored 21 points — and answered every Texas run though Texas runs were few and few between on this night.

“We competed and we were where we needed to be give or take a stretch here or there,” Terry told 104.9 The Horn. “The game could have went either way.”

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Worse yet, the Horns were unable to string together good defensive possessions. Terry said the goal each game is to get three consecutive stops eight times. It happened only three times in Ames.

You have read this before, but it bears repeating. There are no off nights in the Big 12. Rarely does a day go by where there there isn’t a basketball barn burning somewhere in this league. Four teams are ranked in the top 11 of the kenpom.com rankings and Texas Tech is the only program outside the top 40.

While the Horns were struggling to keep up in Ames, Kansas State landed the biggest win of the season over archival Kansas.

Wildcats coach Jerome Tang is in his first year and has already become a cult hero in the Little Apple. K-State entered the game having won only one of the last 16 meetings and six of the last 60, but persevered against the nation’s No. 2 team, bringing it home with Keynotae Johnson’s alley-oop dunk followed by a late stop to preserve an 83-82 win.

As fans stormed the court, Tang stood on the scorer’s table, microphone in hand, and addressed the crowd.

”This is not about who we just beat,” Tang said. “I told you were going to get you a court storming. From here on out, expect to win.”

That’s called a signature win.

The Horns will have ample opportunities to land some meaningful blows. A trap game is coming up at last-place West Virginia on Saturday before they return home on Jan. 24 against Oklahoma State. They still have three games against the first-place teams, including a massive Kansas State-Kansas road double-double in early February.

Ask any coach in the league and they will all agree that the Horns are one of the best teams in the country, but an elite ballclub should be better than fourth place in its league.

The Horns have plenty of time to make a move, but nights like Tuesday should give fans pause.

There are stretches where they just don’t look elite, and for Terry and his staff, it should be troubling.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How Texas closes Big 12 race will tell us if it's truly an elite team