Give Dylan Disu his flowers and give Rodney Terry the job.
The Texas Longhorns’ sensational season continues, with Rodney Terry’s club overcoming a late push from Penn State with one of their own to win 71-66 and advance to the Sweet 16.
Here are a few quick thoughts from Texas’ gritty late win over Penn State.
For starters… I don’t understand how you can’t give Rodney Terry the job right now. I mean, he absolutely deserved it. Not only did Terry keep Texas together after Beard, but he also made sure they thrived and lived up to their preseason expectations as one of the best in the country. A No. 5 ranking in the latest AP Top 25 poll, a Big 12 tournament title and now a 21-7 score under Terry after leading Texas to their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2008. players get, they vouch for him as the man for Texas, and the results definitively back that up. It’s simple: Texas must remove the temporary tag and name Rodney Terry the next head coach.
Give Dylan Disu his flowers. In a game of this magnitude, he tied his career with 28 monster points for the Longhorns, breaking Kevin Durant’s tournament record for most field goals in a tournament game with 14. He was Texas’ forward when they just couldn’t get asked a lot against Penn State’s athletic guards, and more specifically, he was late on the Texas offense and scored another 10 clutch points after Texas fell behind 58-55 on the stretch. And this is just the latest, most significant example in a recent run for Disu, who also earned Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors and currently plays one of the best basketball players in the country.
Timmy Allen was key in this win, especially defensively. Nine points 12 rebounds and three assists with a block is a pretty solid stat, but his impact on defense was much greater. He was the primary defenseman over All-American Jalen Pickett and Allen’s discipline and height were a big factor in limiting the Penn State star to just 5-14 for 11 points and forced him to make seven turnovers. Just as Texas won’t win this without Disu carrying the load offensively, they won’t win without Allen especially thriving in this assignment.
At the end of the day, this was a clutch, resilient win for the Longhorns. Texas jumped on top early on, controlled most of the game and did just enough to keep the Nittany Lions at bay despite playing far from their best basketball together. And when a 10-0 Penn State run suddenly threw things out of Texas’ favor and it looked like they were overwhelmed, this veteran group simply responded with a 14-4 run to effectively close out their Sweet 16 bid , despite some last-minute mistakes that gave Penn State a last breath. But anyway, they’ve been resilient all year and fighting with the game on the line was an early storyline when Terry took over. And then, in a game that might have just earned him the job, they battled in the final minutes and made it past the first weekend for the first time in a decade and a half.
It’s a remarkable feat for Texas to beat a truly quality Penn State team despite only hitting one 3. And to be sure, the height and athleticism of the Nittany Lions had a lot to do with that — Texas missed a pair they should have made, but Penn State just made it really hard for Texas guards to do much. That game plan worked. Texas started 0-12 deep and a timely trey from Sir’Jabari Rice was Texas’ lone goal. If you told me Texas fired that way from the perimeter while Penn State drilled eight and Camren Wynter worked the midrange for 16, I’d almost guarantee Texas loses. But thanks in large part to stifling the defense in the first half and, of course, Dylan Disu, they survived and advanced.
This story will be updated.
Rep the Horns during March Madness with help from Breaking T.
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