Texas basketball has a chance Sunday to make a statement that goes beyond the scoreboard.
Sean Miller’s No. 7 Longhorns, off to a 3-0 start, meet Baylor at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio in a nonconference game that Miller sees as more than just another early-season date on the calendar. After Texas rolled past Grambling State 93-62 on Monday at Moody Center, the Longhorns coach made it clear that games like this are part of the bigger picture.
“We have to establish who we are, and games like Baylor determine that,” Miller said. “That’s the funny thing about college basketball. There's a fixation with March Madness, understandably so, but the games that are played behind the football backdrop in the months of November and early December, a lot of times, pay forward to who you are in March, where you're seeded, are you in or not in the tournament?
“So, every day and each week of college basketball really matters, and I do think that our team is well aware of the opportunity we have on Sunday to play in our state and in an NBA arena in San Antonio, which I know is a huge fan base for the University of Texas.”
The matchup brings a real test for a Texas team that has opened the season by beating three overmatched opponents by an average of 45.3 points. Baylor is 3-0 as well, and the Bears have also handled their first three games with ease. That’s no surprise under Scott Drew, whose teams always make life difficult with rebounding and pressure defense.
That formula will challenge Texas in a few different ways. Baylor’s sophomore guard Kayden Mingo and his younger brother Dylan Mingo are combining for 30 points and five steals per game, which means Texas freshmen guards Austin Goosby, Joe Sterling and Bo Ogden are in line for their first major college test. Up front, Isaac Celiscar and Evan Chatman help Baylor average 43 rebounds a game, and that puts Texas bigs Matas Vokietaitis, Davis Punch and Marcus Spears Jr. in a demanding spot.
Miller said the Longhorns know exactly where the game will be decided.
“The rebounding and the turnover battle are really big for us on Sunday,” he said. “The rebounding battle is key when you play Baylor. Even though the faces and names of the players can change from one season to the next, as long as Scott and his staff coach there, you have to be able to hold serve in that area.
“They play defense and they pressure the ball. They force turnovers.
Both Mingo brothers have a great knack of causing havoc defensively. They get steals.
You feel them. They have the ability to change the game on defense.
We're going to rely on our guards and our backcourt to really set the tone and be able to play against pressure.”
For Punch, the game carries another layer. Texas’ preseason open scrimmage against No.
13 St. John’s ended with the Red Storm outrebounding the Longhorns in an 87-74 victory, and Sunday offers a chance to answer that performance against another physical opponent.
“They (the Bears) are a good team,” said Punch, a former TCU player who averaged just 10 points on a combined 5-of-15 shooting in two previous matchups with Baylor in the Big 12. “They play hard.
They're a physical team, and that's all credit to them. This is going to be a good test for us to really get back what we lost in that St.
John’s game and really show everybody we’re the best team in the country.”
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