Loss to K-State was turning point for Texas Longhorns, now one game from Final Four

The Texas basketball team experienced a season-changing moment that set the stage for its current success.

Rodney Terry becoming the head coach in December? Yeah, that was big. But so was the game that occurred on Jan. 3 in Austin.

That day, Texas fell to Kansas State 116-103. Terry, who had succeeded suspended-then-fired coach Chris Beard three weeks earlier, knew the defense needed an overhaul if the Longhorns were to compete in the rugged Big 12.

“In November, we spent a lot of time trying to establish an identity that we’d be a team every night that would play very hard on defense,” Terry said. “We were going to hang our hats on being a team that gets stops.”

Instead, Kansas State, led by Markquis Nowell’s 36 points and nine assists, ran Texas silly. K-State shot 60% from the floor, made 13 of 24 three-pointers and 31 of 33 free throws.

Something had to change, and it did ... enough to carry the Longhorns to a second-place finish in the Big 12, a conference championship — holding league champ Kansas to fewer than 60 points twice in eight days — and now to an Elite Eight appearance.

The Longhorns will take on Miami on Sunday at T-Mobile Center. Tipoff is 4:05 p.m.

Texas reached its first regional final since 2008 by pounding an offensive-minded Xavier team in the Sweet 16. A corner was turned after the K-State loss.

“A couple of days when we got back on the floor we really needed to hit the reset button,” Terry said.

That included a change in philosophy, said senior forward Timmy Allen.

“We noticed in film that ... we couldn’t play open gym with teams,” Allen said. “When we come down and we focus our energy on getting stops and we convert those to baskets, then we can create separation.”

Friday, Texas’ quickness bothered Xavier from the outset. The Musketeers were often in scramble mode and rarely got the look they wanted.

“We’d been able to score on just about every team we’ve played this year,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “We had a very difficult time running our offense, which is real testament to their defense.”

Texas will take on a Miami team that that wrecked one of the nation’s top defensive teams in Houston in the other regional semifinal game. The Cougars hadn’t surrendered more than 77 points in a game this season but fell to the Hurricanes 89-75.

Guard Nijel Pack, the former Kansas State standout, finished with 26 points for Miami on Friday and hit 7 of 10 three-pointers. That improved his deep shooting in T-Mobile Center to 22 for 38 (57.9%) in five career games. Four of those games came while playing for the Wildcats.

Texas can’t hone in on one Miami weapon. Four Hurricanes average at last 13.3 points. Also, Miami entered the tournament ranked eighth nationally in offensive efficiency.

The Longhorns, since the Kansas State debacle, are up to the challenge.

“It’s kind of what we’ve continued to hang our hat on,” Allen said. “We’re trying to contain the ball more and just keep it in front of us. We don’t really feel there’s a lot of mismatches you can put on our team as long as we keep a man in front.”