No. 7 Texas will meet Baylor at 2 p.m. Central on Sunday at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, giving the Longhorns their first real early-season test after three straight wins by at least 30 points. Texas enters 3-0, Baylor is 3-0, and will carry the San Antonio Hoops Showdown.
That is the backdrop for Sean Miller, who left Monday’s 93-62 win over Grambling State with one part of the performance still bothering him. Texas allowed Grambling State to outscore it 19-8 over the final eight minutes, and Miller made clear afterward that standard still matters even in a lopsided win: “You have to be good at the end, the beginning, and that’s the standard.”
For Texas, the numbers say Sunday is a different kind of game. Baylor ranks 14th nationally in offensive rebounding rate at 43.6 percent and has finished 84.1 percent of its close twos, the best mark in the country. Last Friday, Baylor grabbed 20 offensive rebounds in a 109-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and turned those extra chances into 25 second-chance points. On Tuesday, it beat Yale 90-61 while outscoring the Bulldogs 48-18 in the paint and 23-2 on fast breaks.
Miller did not hide what he sees. He said Baylor is physical and athletic, and that rebounding is a real emphasis in what it does. He also pointed to the way those extra possessions can pile up, saying Baylor is at its best when it gets key second shots that break the other team’s back. That is the part Texas has to solve if its early run is going to survive a game against a stronger front line and more pressure on every possession.
The ball security edge is part of the same problem. Baylor forces turnovers on 29.3 percent of opponents’ possessions, which ranks fourth nationally, while Texas has a 13 percent turnover rate that ranks 36th in the country. Baylor guard Dylan Mingo, who had 16 points, six rebounds and three steals against Yale, leads the team with a 10.4 percent steal rate and has 13 turnovers, a mix that shows how aggressively the Bears can create chaos even while taking care of the ball themselves.
Texas has been winning comfortably, but Sunday is the kind of game that shows whether those margins are built to last. If the Longhorns finish possessions and keep the ball moving without giving Baylor free chances, they can carry their unbeaten start into a deeper early-season stretch. If not, the final eight minutes against Grambling State may matter more than the final score suggested.
