First Loss, Best Case?

Last night I watched ye old Texas Basketball lose their first game of the season against a riled (but amateur-ish) Kansas State team. First half- sucked. They pretty much owned us. Second half- sparked by Clint Chapman (somewhere above Brad Buckner on the Texas tall White Guy scale) they became more competitive. Ultimately, it was fouls that kept Bradley on the bench, our inside game was swarmed, and there was some awful decision-making.

I'm not going to mourn the loss of the #1 ranking for very long. Texas needs a competitive conference season to get into the kind of shape that makes championship teams. After shooting an abysmal 9-22 from the free throw line, do you think the players are gonna shoot some free throws in practice with a renewed intensity today? Do you think that the veterans are going to kick a little ass and bring a renewed intensity? Are these too cliche?

Of course you want your team to live the dream and go undefeated in a historic championship season. Frankly, though, it is time to make the mental transition from football to basketball and realize that the good basketball teams that lose during the regular season benefit from those losses. So, we will see where we stand at UConn on Saturday.