I'll let AW handle the full game report, but there was some chatter in the gameday thread about folks wanting a quick reaction from the Drum.
Until Kansas State hit that three pointer to go up 73-70, I never thought Texas would lose. Unfortunately, a host of small mistakes finally added up into a big mistake: a home conference loss against a middle of the pack team.
I thought Coach Barnes was more at fault than the players in this one, as Kansas State did exactly what he knew they'd do - play physical with our guards - and yet Rick kept AJ Abrams on the floor for 38 minutes. That wasn't a team AJ was going to have much success on offense with, and of course, his defensive limitations are well known. Add in that he's a non-factor on rebounding, and I'm stunned that Rick kept trotting him back out there. More than anything else, that hurt the Longhorns.
The other key for Kansas State was limiting DJ Augustin's effectiveness. I touched on this in the last Texas Basketball Report when I said that smart teams would spend more of their defensive capital on Augustin and just take their lumps with Kevin. Bob Huggins did that well today, keeping Texas under 80 points, and they hit enough three pointers to win the game.
This isn't a bad loss in the sense that Texas played horribly. It's just a bad loss because Texas was the better team. We got outcoached, though, and they hit the last big shot down the stretch. End result: a tough to swallow home conference loss.
--PB--