Texas head coach Sean Miller has been honest about his team’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball.
Ahead of the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament against 15th-seeded Ole Miss on Wednesday in Nashville, Miller hopes to see the 10th-seeded Longhorns on the right side of the “coin flip.”
Texas (18-13) finished 10th in the conference after dropping four of its last five regular-season games. The Longhorns surrendered 105 and 88 points, respectively, in their last two losses to Arkansas and Oklahoma. Despite the tailspin, Texas is still on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble with a 42 NET ranking through Monday’s games.
Miller knows it could be a short-lived run if his group can’t get stops.
“We have to just really keep flipping the coin,” Miller said of the defense. “I’ve said this to you guys for about three months. I don’t think you completely understand how efficient our offense has been, how remarkable that has been, because we get nothing off of our defense. We get no steals, no blocks, very few stops after stop.”
Texas posted one of its best defensive efforts in its lone meeting against Ole Miss, a 79-68 home win on Feb. 7. The Longhorns held the Rebels to 41.4% shooting from the field and a 29.2% clip (7-for-24) on 3-point attempts.
Texas is led in scoring, rebounding and assists by Dailyn Swain (17.7, 7.5 and 3.4 per game, respectively), while Matas Vokietaitis adds 15.7 points per contest.
Ole Miss (12-19) will see its disappointing season come to an end if it can’t pull off the upset in Nashville. The Rebels made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history last year, but a 10-game losing streak doomed head coach Chris Beard’s third year in Oxford.
Ole Miss has just one victory to its name since Jan. 17 and is coming off a 64-61 loss on Saturday to South Carolina, in which the Rebels made just 1 of 14 3-point attempts. Still, Beard understands what this week presents.
“Regardless of what kind of season you have, conference tournaments bring opportunities,” Beard said. “Most of the teams around the country are playing for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. That’s the situation we find ourselves in this year. Our guys will keep fighting.”
AJ Storr averages a team-best 15 points for the Rebels, followed by Malik Dia’s 14.1 and Ilias Kamardine’s 11.
