Quick thoughts from No. 10 Texas’ 79-75 win over No. 17 TCU

Here are a few quick thoughts from Texas’ comeback win.

That was one hell of a comeback. From down by as many as 18 points in the first half, to winning by four behind a series of big buckets — and free throws — down the stretch, it was nothing short of a tale of two halves in Austin. Texas will take that outcome — a home win over the No. 17 team in the nation — 10 times out of 10, but the fact that the Longhorns fought through plenty of early adversity and came out of the break looking a lot more like themselves whole forcing TCU to be a shell of themselves is worth some praise. And more so, after cutting the 18-point lead to just 10, TCU responded and had the cushion back up to 10 within less than a minute, so Texas had to overcome that, too. There’s going to be plenty of teaching points from what led to that lead, but erasing it playing some incredible basketball late to come out on top could prove to be a huge moment for this team.

The vets got it done for Texas tonight. The Longhorns came back largely because their vets basically took turns catching fire and erasing TCU’s lead. Timmy Allen got things started to lead the initial comeback, and totaled 10 points, two boards, two steals, and an assist in the second half alone. Dylan Disu followed suit and found look after look at the rim, pouring on 12 of his 14 points in the second half to help keep Texas alive as TCU threw its own punches. Then Sir’Jabari Rice stole the show in some of the defining moments, sinking a three, attacking the bucket in style, and of course, sinking what amounted to the game-winning free throws as part of a 15-point second-half display. Meanwhile, though it wasn’t Marcus Carr’s best night offensively, his huge three to give Texas the edge with a minute left was incredibly timely to headline his seven second-half points, but more notably, he dished out four assists to keep things rolling offensively. Having high-level vets allows your team to have the confidence and composure to make the kind of plays necessary to win this game. Texas had that on Wednesday.

The Big 12 is just brutal, as usual. Texas has managed a 3-1 start to their conference slate, but as the cliche goes, there are no nights off. At the very least, we know this team is going to fight and scrap until the end, and they’re going to need to. Buckle up, folks.