Shooting From the Corner: Oklahoma State 65, Texas 64

The karma gods who rewarded Texas with a thrilling double overtime victory on Wednesday night brought Texas back to Earth today in a 65-64 loss that was well within Texas’ grasp for the vast majority of the second half. Oklahoma State ended the game on a 15-2 run, wiping out a double-digit lead that Texas had more or less maintained for a significant chunk of the second half. You could point to a number of reasons for this collapse, be it missed free throws, missed shots at the rim, unnecessary turnovers, but it probably boils down to fatigue. With the loss of Andrew Jones and Kerwin Roach II, Texas’ rotation is down to seven players. Unfortunately for Shaka Smart, this is not the weaker Big 12 of the 1990s where running 7 players (four of them freshmen) is a potential recipe for success. Texas put forth a game effort, but a double overtime game followed by a game against a team playing a half-court pressure defense with the added mental fatigue of dealing with Jones’ leukemia diagnosis was probably just a bit too much to overcome.

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