A Steady Rise to the Top 10

Dogus Balbay scored 10 points with 4 assists against the Cowboys Wednesday night (Photo courtesy of UT)

The Longhorns’ men's basketball team steadfast march to their current No. 7 AP ranking began in virtual obscurity when they were (just barely) ranked No. 25 in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and were snubbed outright by the AP Top 25 at season's beginning.

Twelve weeks – and rankings of No. 20, 19, 25, 22, 18, 13, 12, and 10 – later, Texas (17-3, 5-0 Big 12) lays in wait behind only Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Duke, San Diego State, UConn, and a shell-shocked Kansas Jayhawk team that UT manhandled in the second half of Saturday’s watershed 74-63 triumph at Allen Fieldhouse – where they had never won before.

“It was a great win for our program,” said head coach Rick Barnes. “I can’t tell you how much respect I have for Bill (Self). He’s one of the best. He’s the model of consistency and one of the best. To come up here and get a win – we’ve had so many great games with him where we’ve obviously come out on the other end.”

Is it too early to entertain lofty visions of what might happen in March? Despite the battalion of stiff competition the Longhorns had faced as of mid-January (Pittsburgh, Illinois, Michigan State, North Carolina, UConn), the ultimate regular-season measure of this team will be learned in their current five-game tour against fellow Big 12 darlings Texas A&M, Kansas, and Missouri. They are 3-0, so far, having steamrolled No. 13 Texas A&M at the Erwin Center on Jan. 19, 81-16; chased that rout with an epic performance in Lawrence, Kan.; followed by a Wednesday night 61-46 lay-up drill at Oklahoma State. Nation take note: While last season’s Longhorns were self-destructing and caught amid a tour de farce at this stage, the 2010-11 edition are flexing their muscles, running with (and defeating) the big boys, and positioning themselves to storm the NCAA Tournament a la 2003.

I may be guilty of nipping at the hype-potion myself, but I know this: I will spike my face in the punch bowl and guzzle my way to freedom if Texas executes a clean sweep of the Big 12’s murderers' row. The sports media harped on the end of Kansas’ 69-game home winning streak (a program best) disproportionately more than what the game revealed about the teams involved. But on the topic of streaks, UT has proven increasingly adept at buzz-killing this season: the Horns were the culprits in Kansas (two counts of streak-snapping, as KU was undefeated), having ended Texas A&M’s 13-game winning streak before that, and also arrested Michigan State’s 52-game nonconference home winning streak in December.

The No. 11 Missouri Tigers (17-3, 3-2 Big 12) will lumber into the Erwin Center on a streak of their own on Saturday night, one they can either praise or curse the schedule-makers for: The Tigers will have been dormant for a solid week by the time they size-up the Longhorns at center court on the 29th. Barring widespread injury, a layover of that magnitude is generally an unwelcome one for momentum’s sake in January and beyond. Like the Kansas Jayhawks before them, the Longhorns will encounter a not-so-battle-tested Missouri team, whose December 22 win over No. 21 Illinois represents their lone win over a Top 25 team. Similarly, previously undefeated Kansas (18-1) had only matched-up against one Top 25 team prior to Saturday’s loss to the Longhorns, an 81-68 victory over No. 13 Memphis on December 7 on a neutral court.

Nonetheless, Kansas – at No. 6 – remains a cut above Texas (if only in ranking). Of all the statistics to wade through and highlight across the A&M and Kansas victories, Texas’ precise free-throw shooting over that span was indispensable to their success. Erratic from the charity stripe all season (66%), the previously 248th ranked free-throw shooting team in the country somehow silenced their minds and found their touch, just in time, going 44 of 53 (83%), assisted by – of all people – Tristan Thompson’s transcendent 8 for 11.

For all their abundant talent and cohesiveness, the Longhorns will either sink or swim in the NCAA Tournament with their free-throw shooting. They’ll need to be on-point at the line if those romantic March visions are to crystallize; the tournament is not the venue to get in your own way, and the Longhorns are a team whose historically poor free-throw shooting signifies a profound Achille's heel that threatens to undermine all that’s great and promising about them.

Enjoy the ride, at your own risk.

Vs. Missouri: Sat., Jan. 29, 8pm. Frank Erwin Center, 1701 Red River. $8-40. www.texassports.com.