Evaluating 3 scorching hot players ahead of Big 12 play

Dillon Mitchell, Texas basketball Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

Outside of the Big 12/SEC Challenge game against the Tennessee Volunteers in a few months, No. 6 and Texas acting basketball coach Rodney Terry completed the non-conference slate earlier this week by knocking off the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions. Texas won its fifth straight game to enter the conference slate with a high mark, convincingly knocking off Texas A&M-Commerce on Dec. 27 by a final score of 97-72.

Terry and the Longhorns are hot on the offensive end of the floor heading into conference play. In the last two games, the Longhorns have scored 197 points.

Texas will look to carry that offensive momentum into a solid start to Big 12 play. Terry and the Longhorns open their Big 12 slate on Dec. 31 on the road in Norman against the Oklahoma Sooners. The non-conference slate begins with a fast start against a strong Oklahoma team on the road, followed by a challenging test at home against an upstart Kansas State Wildcats squad.

Texas will enter the Big 12 slate this coming weekend with an 11-1 (0-0 Big 12) record. If the Longhorns want to keep this momentum going with the start of conference play right around the corner, Texas will need some of its hottest players to keep it that way in the coming weeks.

Marcus Carr and the hot Texas basketball players heading into the Big 12 play

Here’s a look at an analysis of the Longhorns’ three hot players heading into Big 12 play.

Dillon Mitchell, F

While some of the counting stats that former elite five-star recruit and true freshman offensive lineman Dillon Mitchell posted in recent games won’t sway many people, the advanced metrics do a good job of illustrating the impact his on both ends of the floor. throughout the last month. And if you take away the four-point performance in the win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns on Dec. 21, you get a pretty strong December, all things considered for Mitchell.

He only got a fraction of his usual playing time, however, in last week’s win over Louisiana.

In the month of December, Mitchell is averaging nearly nine points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block per game. And he has eliminated most of the mistakes from his game in terms of premature turns and bad shots. According to Barttorvik, Mitchell nearly doubled the number of shots beyond three feet from the rim in December compared to November, which is a good sign of where his pull-up offensive game is trending.

But the most encouraging part of where Mitchell’s game is going came in the win over Texas A&M-Commerce. He was consistent on both ends of the floor, scoring a career-high 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field, along with five rebounds, one block and no turnovers.

That was good enough for Mitchell to post a stellar box plus/minus north of 10.0, his highest in three games. It’s also worth noting that Mitchell scoring in double figures against Texas A&M-Commerce earlier this week puts him over 10 points in three of his last five games, his best scoring streak of the season.