DIFFERENT STRATEGIES

Although unranked and fresh off its third loss this season, Texas could prove to be a dangerous team come March.
Similar to UConn, the Longhorns have spent these past two months trying to get everyone comfortable with each other with seven freshmen on the roster, five of whom are part of the team’s most used seven players. But Texas is preparing its newcomers with a different approach than the Huskies.
While UConn has built confidence with an easy schedule en route to being a fixture in the national rankings, Texas coach Rick Barnes hasn’t shied from putting his team in difficult situations.
The Longhorns latest defeat in their 8-3 season to date came in overtime at Tennessee, which overcame a 17-point halftime deficit. Texas has also played in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic — losing to Michigan State and beating St. John’s — along with games against Gonzaga, LSU and Arkansas (2-1 in the latter with a the loss coming to Gonzaga).
UConn, which plays at LSU next month, certainly can’t say its young team is as seasoned as Texas, but the Huskies have shown drastic improvement. Even after the dust settles in March and early April, we may never know which plan actually worked the best.
But it will be interesting to see what school makes a deeper postseason run and we’ll then be able to wonder if one plan was really better than the other.