For the first time since November, Texas finally found some consistency at the end of a long season.
It had been nearly 4 1/2 months since the Longhorns won more than even three games in a row, but in April they finished their campaign just how they started it: winning five straight games. In November, that streak was mainly guarantee game wins but punctuated by a victory over North Carolina that made Texas the tease it became all year. In this case, the streak came in the 82nd annual National Invitational Tournament, capped with an 81-66 victory over Lipscomb in the NIT final at Madison Square Garden Thursday night.
Texas made a big run late in the first half and then knocked down one big shot after another in the second half, showing offensive proficiency rarely seen this season in slowing down the red-hot Bisons. The result was the Longhorns’ first NIT title since 1978 to salvage a season that flashed glimpses but also saw too many losses in just the type of games they finally won with some regularity in the NIT.
It’s not exaggerating or noting anything but the obvious to say that, to many who took interest, this matchup was black hat-vs.-white hat. Texas-with one of the biggest athletics budgets in the country-went just 16-16 in the regular season and was frankly overseeded when given a 2 seed in the NIT with just a .500 record. On the other hand, Lipscomb was the unknown postseason darling making its first-ever trip to Madison Square Garden, and the team giving us the sugar shot of March/April charm that this year’s NCAA Tournament was almost completely devoid of.
Both teams had close shaves in getting this far in the NIT, but this one went decisively to the Longhorns, who were the obviously more aggressive team. Senior Dylan Osetkowski scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half, and Ostekowski, Jase Febres or someone else from Texas seemed to have a three-pointer ordered up and ready every time the Bisons started to creep closer in the second half.
No lie. The Horns hit eight three-pointers in the second half, and every single one of them seemed to come in response to a Lipscomb basket that would start to cut into the margin a bit. In all, Texas hit 13 triples, well above the Bisons’ total of five for the game.
Lipscomb actually led a good part of the first 14 minutes of the game before a Texas run turned momentum. The Horns finished the first half on a 22-5 run in building a 41-27 halftime lead. The Bisons appeared to get frustrated by the physicality allowed defensively in yet another postseason game that made a mockery of season-long directives on freedom of movement, and Lipscomb committed too many turnovers in the first half and just didn’t get enough from the perimeter throughout.
For the Bisons, a surprising and enjoyable postseason ended on a negative. Like a similar run by a similar school in Valparaiso in 2016 that ended with a subpar performance in the NIT championship game, the Bisons just weren’t the same team in the final that they’d been throughout the tourney.
Garrison Mathews was slowed down for the first time in weeks; after averaging 28.3 points over four games coming in, Mathews scored 15 and made just 2 of 10 from the field. Still, it was a special run by the Atlantic Sun Conference squad from Nashville, which won a school NCAA Division I-record 29 games and earned plenty of respect with a long list of big wins this season.
The Longhorns took advantage of their generous seed and a bracket breaking right to get three home games to get to New York City, and there they defeated Big 12 rival TCU for the first time in three meetings this season before downing upstart Lipscomb. Defensively, Texas allowed 33.3% shooting and an average of 55 points over its final three games, winning this NIT with defense.
It will always make some wonder just what might have been if the Horns could’ve turned a couple of those close regular season losses in the other direction. Either way, winning the NIT can only be a positive for a team that should return quite a bit of the same group next year, and will do so again for Shaka Smart, who will be returning in 2019-20 as was confirmed to the website Horns247 by Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte soon after the game.
Side Dishes:
- The CollegeInsider.com Tournament also wrapped up Thursday night. Marshall was a favorite in this event from the start, and the Thundering Herd delivered by winning it all with a 90-70 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay in the final. C.J. Burks closed his career with 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists, freshman guard Taevion Kinsey added 21 points and 11 rebounds off the bench and Jon Elmore scored 17 in his final collegiate game. Marshall pulled away with a huge run late, for this one was far closer than the final score for 30 minutes; the Phoenix led at halftime, by seven in the second half and were down just two with 10 minutes left. The Thundering Herd join Old Dominion (champion of the inaugural CIT in 2009) as current Conference USA schools to win the event.
- The 2020 Maui Invitational field was announced Thursday. The event is full of brand names. The quality? Yet to be determined, but at this point it’s underwhelming. The headliner is North Carolina, and at this point the Tar Heels would be a heavy, heavy favorite in a field that also includes Alabama, Davidson, Indiana, Providence, Stanford, Texas and UNLV.
- The latest episode of Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis has been posted, with Hoopville’s Phil Kasiecki and Ted talking coaching news as well as about the NIT, CBI and CIT plus a preview of the Final Four. You can listen to their latest podcast here.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The College Basketball Invitational closes out its best-of-three series with South Florida at DePaul (7 p.m. Eastern, ESPNU). The first two games saw one decided in the final two seconds, the other in overtime.
Have a fantastic Friday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
