Texas’ fall from No. 1 has been thunderous

No team has been able to cling to No. 1 very long this season. But no team has fallen harder since being ranked at the top than Texas.

The Longhorns, now No. 9 in the Associated Press media poll, began Monday’s game against Oklahoma State having dropped three of their last four games after starting the season 17-0.

The Longhorns might be modeling themselves after the Memphis team from two seasons ago that made the national championship game despite rarely making a big free throw.

Texas is the top scoring team in the Big 12 Conference, averaging 85.3 points per game, leads in rebounding with 44.3 per game, and is third best in shooting defense, holding opponents to 38.5%.

But Texas’ 61.8% free-throw shooting is worst in the conference and it ranks 10th with 14.5 turnovers per game.

“Our offense is killing our defense,” Coach Rick Barnes said. “We’ve made it a lot harder because of our inefficiency on the [offensive] end.”

Of course, the Longhorns aren’t the only team that has hit a rough patch.

North Carolina -- you remember, the defending national champion -- has lost five of its last seven games. Pittsburgh started 15-2 and was ranked No. 9 but has lost three of four games. Connecticut, which was ranked No. 10 at one point, beat Texas but has lost five of its last seven games.

Barnes knows there is plenty of time to correct the Longhorns’ errors.

“Our job right now is to continue to grow,” he said. “I’d rather go through some of those things right now as opposed to later on when you don’t have time to fix it.”

Swish of the week

Devan Downey, South Carolina.

Downey was the perfect player to lead the underdog Gamecocks in the program’s first victory over a No. 1 team. The 5-foot-9 guard scored 33 points in a victory over Kentucky and encouraged hesitant students to storm the court when it was clear South Carolina had secured the victory.

Brick of the week

USC.

It’s bad enough that the Trojans are in fifth place in a lousy Pacific 10 Conference. Now the team is pinning its loss to Oregon on a student manager. Coach Kevin O’Neill fired a third-year student manager who received a technical foul for berating officials in the Trojans’ loss.

Game of the week

Wichita State at Northern Iowa, Wednesday.

Northern Iowa’s only loss in Missouri Valley Conference play came at the noisy Wichita State arena, and it was only the second loss of the Panthers’ season. Now Northern Iowa can get payback.

sryan@tribune.com