Inside College Basketball

Horns of Plenty  

Deep and relentless, Texas has emerged as a national title contender

By Seth Davis

Moments after snapping No. 9 Oklahoma State's 15-game winning streak with a 78-65 victory last Saturday, Texas players stood on the floor of the Frank Erwin Center, raised their right pinkies and index fingers in the Hook 'em Horns salute and joined most of the 14,804 in singing the school's alma mater, The Eyes of Texas. That sort of postgame scene is familiar in Austin, but there are a few new wrinkles this year. The fans are turning out in droves, the Longhorns are playing entertaining, fast-paced basketball (averaging 79.3 points a game through Sunday), and the team has emerged as a national-championship contender. "I told my teammates before the game that this place is usually laid-back," said Oklahoma State senior guard Victor Williams. "That wasn't the case today. These people were amped."

Ford was one of Texas's four double-figure scorers in the win over Oklahoma State. John W. McDonough

For good reason. Had the Longhorns not lost 90-87 at Kansas earlier in the week, the victory on Saturday would almost certainly have catapulted them to No. 1 in the nation. As it is, though, the Longhorns improved their record to 14-3 (5-1 in the Big 12) and maintained their No. 3 ranking in the AP poll. Texas has now been in the Top 10 every week this season, which is stunning for a program that had previously spent just three weeks there in its entire history.

All of which is raising hope that the Longhorns, who have no seniors in their regular starting lineup and have never won a national title in basketball, can make it to their first Final Four since 1947. Asked last week if Texas had proved itself to be championship caliber by taking Kansas down to the wire, sophomore point guard T.J. Ford said, "We went there to win, not to prove a point. The way I see it, we didn't get the job done."

The reliable Ford, who at week's end led the team in scoring (14.8 points a game) and was seventh in the nation in assists (7.1), is one of 10 Longhorns who average at least 13 minutes a game, making Texas the only team in the country with as much quality depth as No. 2 Arizona. Opposing defenses can't focus on only one threat, as eight players have led the Longhorns in scoring this season. Against Kansas, for instance, Ford scored 25 points, and 6'8" junior forward Brian Boddicker scored a career-high 20; Royal Ivey, a 6'3" junior guard, went for 17 points, a season high, in the win over Oklahoma State.

Still, as Texas coach Rick Barnes points out, depth is worthless if a team doesn't have good chemistry. "I can honestly say our guys pull for each other," he says. "They all want to play, but they also realize that if you don't have it one night, you have to let someone else have a shot at it."

Issue date: February 10, 2003

For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 5. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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