Sam Houston St. @ Texas preview
Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center
Last Meeting ( Nov 27, 2012 ) Sam Houston St. 37, Texas 65
Texas looks to continue its overall improvement -- and its march up the national rankings -- when it hosts Sam Houston State on Wednesday in Austin.
The No. 11 Longhorns (5-1) jumped two spots in the latest poll Monday after defeating Texas State 74-53 last Wednesday to rebound from a 68-64 home loss against then-No. 12 Villanova. Texas' ranking is its highest in the Associated Press poll since it was No. 10 on Jan. 5, 2015.
Sam Houston State (3-4) heads to Austin after an 88-66 loss at LSU on Monday afternoon. The game replaced the Bearkats' previously scheduled contest at Houston, which was to be played last Wednesday but was called off due to positive COVID-19 tests within the Houston program.
Texas was scheduled to play at No. 2 Baylor on Sunday in the teams' Big 12 Conference opener, but that game was postponed when the Bears paused team activities due to COVID-19 guidelines. The conference will work with the two schools to reschedule that game.
"It would have been naive to think we could have gone through the whole season and not dealt with any type of disruption," Texas coach Shaka Smart said Monday about the Baylor postponement. "Our guys are human beings. You want them to get up and excited for every game, but certain matchups, as a competitor, you certainly relish the opportunity to be part of."
Despite the Longhorns' early-season success, Smart knows there is plenty to focus on before, and during, every game.
"All the areas where we need to improve and get better on offense and defense, individually and as a team, are going to be there this early in the year whether you put a ton of focus on the other team or not," Smart explained on Monday.
Texas' win over Texas State featured a breakout performance by freshman forward Greg Brown III, a likely one-and-done player for the Longhorns. Brown scored a career-high 18 points, all but two of them in the second half, and scored 12 straight points in a late-game, two and a half-minute stretch to help seal the victory.
Before its loss in Baton Rouge on Monday, Sam Houston State defeated LeTourneau 107-65 at home last Thursday, cracking the 100-point barrier for the third consecutive game, a benchmark the Bearkats hadn't accomplished since the 1969-70 season and for the first time as member of Division I basketball.
The win against LeTourneau was also the 200th for Bearkats' coach Jason Hooten.
"We're just trying to keep our concentration," Hooten said. "We have a young team, so we're just teaching them to grow and stay in every possession."
Demarkus Lampley led Sam Houston State with 14 points in the loss to LSU, with Zach Nutall adding 13 points after he had amassed 23 points in the win last week against LeTourneau.
Nutall leads the Bearkats at 21.1 points per game after leading them in scoring last season at 15.4. Sam Houston State only returned four players off of last season's squad which finished fourth in the Southland Conference and is one of only 11 teams across the county returning four or less from their previous roster.
--Field Level Media