Tuesday's Shootaround: Hoyas continue to slide, while Texas rebounds

West Virginia 81, Georgetown 68: West Virginia went on a 29-10 run midway through the first half last night as they put a thorough beating on the shorthanded Hoyas. The Mountaineers went up by as much as 27 in the second half before Georgetown rallied to get the lead down to nine, but they never really threatened.

Georgetown never got into an offensive rhythm in the first half. The Hoyas turned the ball over way too much, and it resulted in a number of easy baskets for the Mountaineers. They scored 24 points off of 20 turnovers. By the time they started to click, the hole was too big to dig out of. If I'm Georgetown, I don't get too worried yet. Remember, they played this game without Austin Freeman. The Hoyas are not all that deep, especially on the perimeter, and Freeman is a huge part of their offense. With him healthy, they are a different team.

Da'Sean Butler led West Virgina with 22 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists as the Mountaineers clinched a double-bye in the Big East tournament.

Texas 87, Oklahoma 76: Texas became the first team since 2003 to be ranked No. 1 and then drop out of the AP Poll on Monday, and they played like it for much of Monday. The Longhorns allowed Oklahoma to catch fire at the start of the both halves, twice digging themselves an 11 point hole. But in the second half, the Longhorn's talent took over. Damion James (24 points, 8 boards), Jordan Hamilton (12 points, 11 boards), and J'Covan Brown (15 points, 5 assists) started attacking the basket and the Longhorns went on an extended second half surge to turn a 51-40 deficit into a 74-65 lead.

There is no question this Texas team has talent, but given their recent slide they are likely going to end up somewhere around a six seed come Selection Sunday. I'm torn thinking about this team. On the one hand, they look really good on paper. A frontline of Damion James, Dexter Pittman, and Gary Johnson is serious and their back court has guys with talent. But when you look at what they have done this season, it is not really all that impressive. They beat Pitt before the Panthers had gotten Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown back. They beat USC before Gerrity joined the team. The win over UNC does not look impressive at all right now. They did beat Michigan State and Texas A&M and sweep Oklahoma State, but could it be that we just had overrated Texas this whole time? Maybe they really were just a top 20-25 team all season.