Kansas State Basketball Rolls Texas, 74-57

You didn't think we were going to win all our games on the road, did you?

Perhaps this young Texas team underestimated the challenge of playing at a road venue like Bramlage, as the Longhorns turned the ball over 6 times in the first 6 minutes, quickly fell behind 18-4, and the game was more or less over by the under-12 timeout of the first half.

In the battle of freshman point guards, Kansas State's Marcus Foster thoroughly outplayed Isaiah Taylor in the first half, scoring 17 points to Taylor's 2 and finished with a game- and career-high 34 points to fuel the Wildcats 74-57 win [Box Score].  Led by Taylor (15 second half points), Texas was much better in the second half, outpacing KSU 39-35, but much like last year's blowout loss to K-State in Manhattan, the team was dominated out of the gate and the game was over soon after it began.

Bruce Weber never had to second-guess whether to stick with man-to-man defense against the Longhorns because K-State capitalized on Texas' atrocious ball security (18 turnovers for the game) and red hot outside shooting (5 of 7 from beyond the arc) to build a 39-18 lead heading into intermission.

Losing the game isn't particularly troubling (I was skeptical of our chances to break our losing streak at Bramlage), but losing Jonathan Holmes certain is.  The junior small forward limped to the locker room midway through the first half with a knee injury, never returned, and is scheduled for an MRI when the team returns to Austin.  I don't want to speculate on how much time he'll miss until we know more, but it hardly needs to be said that it would be devastating to lose him for an extended period of time.

No time for Texas to feel sorry for itself, though, as the Longhorns will host a talented (if enigmatic) Oklahoma State squad on Tuesday evening (Frank Erwin Center, 6:00 pm, ESPN2).

Horns up for Holmes...