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Give Dylan Disu his flowers and Rodney Terry the job.
The sensational season of the Texas Longhorns continues as Rodney Terry’s club survived a late push by Penn State with one of their own to win 71-66 and advance to the Sweet 16.
Here are some quick thoughts from Texas’ rough late win over Penn State.
First things first…I don’t know how you don’t give Rodney Terry a job at this point. I mean, he totally deserves it. Not only did Terry hold Texas together after Beard, he kept them thriving and lived up to their preseason expectations as one of the nation’s best. Ranked No. 5 in the final AP Top 25 poll, the Big 12 Tournament title and now 21-7 under Terry after guiding Texas to their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2008. And even after that, every chance players get, they guarantee he’s a Texas guy, and the results back it up. It’s simple – Texas needs to drop the interim tag and name Rodney Terry as their next head coach.
Give Dylan Disu his flower. In a game of this magnitude, he had a career-high 28 monster points for the Longhorns and broke Kevin Durant’s tournament record for most scoring in a tournament game with 14. He was Texas’ offense when they just couldn’t finish. a lot against Penn State’s athletic guards early, and in particular, he was Texas’ attack late, scoring 10 more clutch points Texas fell behind 58-55 Dow stretch. And that’s just the latest, most notable example of recent competition for Disu, who also earned Big 12 Tournament MVP honors and is playing some of the best basketball in the country right now.
Timmy Allen was key in this win, especially on defense. Nine points, 12 rebounds and three assists per block is a pretty solid stat line, but his impact on defense was much more significant. He was the primary defender on All-American Jalen Pickett, and Allen’s discipline and length were a huge factor in limiting the Penn State star to just 5-14 for 11 points and forcing seven turnovers. Just like Texas won’t win this without Disu carrying the load offensively, they won’t without Allen mostly succeeding in that role.
At the end of the day, this was a clutch, durable win for the Longhorns. Texas jumped out on top early, dominated most of the game, and did just enough to keep the Nittany Lions at arm’s length despite playing far from their best basketball in one. And when Penn State’s 10-0 run suddenly turned things in Texas’ favor and it looked like they were flustered, this veteran group responded with only a 14-4 run to seal their Sweet 16 bid, despite some last-second mistakes. gave Penn State its last gasp. But anyway, they’ve been resilient all year and struggling with the game was an early story when Terry took over. And then, in a game that might have just earned him the job, they battled back in the final minutes and have advanced past the first weekend for the first time in a decade and a half.
For Texas to beat a really quality Penn State team despite just one out of three is a remarkable feat. And to be sure, the length and athleticism of the Nittany Lions had a lot to do with it — Texas gave up a couple they should have made, but Penn State just made it really hard for Texas’ guards to do much. The game plan worked. Texas started 0-12 from deep and a timely 3-pointer from Sir’Jabari Rice was Texas’ only marker. If you told me Texas would shoot like that from the perimeter when Penn State drilled eight and Camren Wynter worked the midrange for 16, I can almost guarantee Texas would lose. But thanks largely to a first-half defensive suffocation and of course Dylan Disu, they survived and progressed.
This story will be updated.
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