Sean Miller pulls all the right coaching strings in Longhorns’ upset win over Gonzaga
PORTLAND – Sean Miller kept pushing the right coaching buttons, starting with a momentum-changing sequence late in the first half.
Freshman Davis Fogle hit a nifty pull-up jumper to give Gonzaga its biggest lead, 28-20, when the Texas coach called a timeout with 4:20 remaining in the opening half.
To that point, the Longhorns’ shooting percentage was hovering in the mid-30s and standout 7-foot sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis was essentially a non-factor with just three points.
Miller put more responsibility on the Lithuanian center, and it paid off for Vokietaitis and his teammates as Texas settled into an offensive groove that continued to the final buzzer.
The Longhorns scored the final seven points of the half, capping a 15-5 surge that gave them a 35-33 halftime edge. Vokietaitis delivered four points and a pair of assists, and Jordan Pope, a thorn in GU’s side throughout, connected on the first of his three clutch 3-pointers.
“That was a key stretch to the game,” said Miller, the Longhorns’ first-year head coach. “We just made our mind up that just the way the game felt we had to test Matas and just see if he could deliver.
“Dailyn (Swain), by the way, had two great passes to him (in that stretch), but you’re right, we started to go through him in about four or five possessions late in the first half, which I thought in the last eight minutes of the first half made us a better team. But Matas has to deliver, and he did a great job.”
Gonzaga reclaimed the lead on three occasions in the second half, but its defense, a cornerstone since Braden Huff’s injury in mid January, had trouble containing the Longhorns.
Vokietaitis scored on a layup to open the second half. He added six of his 17 points in a 38-second sequence that extended the Longhorns’ lead to 66-60. Point guard Jordan Pope nailed two 3-pointers down the stretch.
Texas had a 46-38 advantage in paint points. The Longhorns finished at 51.7% from the field, racked up 20 assists and committed just five turnovers, tied for the second fewest in an NCAA Tournament game in program history.
“Listen they have some great isolation players,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “I thought we did a nice job in the first half on Swain and (Tramon) Mark, but in the second half, those isolation players got loose.
“They have a terrific big guy who puts a lot of foul pressure on you. They run some nice stuff, just like we do for our big guy (Graham Ike) to get him a variety of looks and coming from a lot of different spots on the floor and the ball’s coming from different areas. We tried doubling, we tried everything.”
Miller dialed up successful plays coming out a couple of timeouts – none bigger than his play call during a team huddle with 32 seconds remaining and Texas clinging to a 69-68 lead following an Ike dunk.
First, Miller inserted Camden Heide, the Purdue transfer who hadn’t scored a point and had missed his lone shot attempt. Eighteen seconds later, Heide hit the biggest shot of the game.
Mark penetrated into the paint, forcing Gonzaga’s defense to collapse inside. Heide drifted to an open spot in the corner, caught Mark’s pass and drained a dagger 3 to boost the Longhorns’ lead to 72-68 with 14.7 seconds left.
“Yeah, these guys will tell you, I’ll take credit for it,” said Miller, seated next to Swain and Vokietaitis in the post-game press conference. “On the last possession of a game, just to have that other guy out there who is capable and in Cam’s case you can make the case he’s our best 3-point shooter. To not have him in there, I just didn’t think it made any sense.
“Because what happens is exactly what happened. The play gets broken, a guy makes a drive, pivots, next thing you know you find someone. In that situation it was great to see him knock it in. I might have even said, ‘I’m putting you in to make a shot.’ And again, when it happens, it’s almost too good to be true.”