Texas Longhorns

National Signing Day is a day away, and the nation’s top wide receiver recruit remains unsigned. Dorial Green-Beckham will announce his intentions at 10:15 A.M. ET on Wednesday, with many of the nation’s top programs looking on.

Green-Beckham has been described as a hybrid of Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones. At 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, he possesses the size and speed to be a significant deep threat and formidable red-zone target.

Any program in the nation would be happy to land Green-Beckham, but he has narrowed his list to five schools -- Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Oklahoma –- all of which have significant holes at wide receiver.

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How the game was won: Missouri got to the rim when it wanted to and, more importantly, when it needed to.

And trailing by 66-65 with less than 50 seconds left, the No. 4 Tigers desperately needed to get a basket. Michael Dixon Jr. came through, taking it down the left side and using his left hand to float in a layup to give Missouri the 67-66 win at the Frank Erwin Center on Monday night.

The layup capped off a furious stretch in which Dixon went from goat to hero. One possession earlier Dixon had been whistled for a flagrant foul on offense. That foul gave Texas two free throws and possession. The Longhorns took advantage with four points and took the lead, 66-65.

It didn't last.

Dixon went right to the rack on the next play and converted the layup for the lead.

It was over when: J'Covan Brown passed on the final shot of the game. Texas was within one with the ball and 27 seconds left. After milling around at the top of the key, Texas got the ball to Brown, the Big 12's leading scorer, with 12 seconds left. Rather than make a move, Brown threw a wild pass across the court to freshman Myck Kabongo. The freshman tried to drive the baseline but short-armed a shot that barely hit the bottom of the rim.


Stat of the game: Texas is now 0-7 in games decided by two possessions or less. Three of those losses have come against top-10 teams -- Kansas, Baylor and now Missouri. Just like it did against Kansas, Texas had the lead late only to lose the game. Against Missouri, Texas crawled back from a dozen down to take the lead with 55 seconds left. But when it came down to a final shot, Texas could not convert.


What it means for Texas: Rick Barnes gathered his coaches at the start of the month and told them these 31 days could be rough. He proved to be prophetic. Texas, which had dropped only two nonconference games, went 3-6 in January. The latest loss, although respectable just like the Kansas and Baylor games, may have pushed Texas right off the bubble for the NCAA tournament.


What it means for Missouri: The Tigers have been suspect as of late, losing to Oklahoma State and not being all that impressive against Texas Tech. But the Tigers, who have yet to face Kansas, have now notched two tough road wins at Baylor and against Texas. But in order for Missouri to grab a No. 1 seed, it is going to have to beat Kansas and win the Big 12 Conference.

National signing day is a day away, and the nation’s top wide receiver recruit remains unsigned. Dorial Green-Beckham will announce his intentions at 10:15 A.M. ET on Wednesday, with many of the nation’s top programs looking on.

Green-Beckham has been described as a hybrid of Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones. At 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, he possesses the size and speed to be a significant deep threat and formidable red-zone target.

Any program in the nation would be happy to land Green-Beckham, but he has narrowed his list to five schools -- Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Oklahoma –- all of which have significant holes at wide receiver.

So the question becomes, who needs Dorial Green-Beckham most?

Alabama has stocked up on wide receiver recruits in its 2012 class with five 4-star or 5-star recruits listed as ATH/WR. The Tide could use all of the help that they can get after losing their top four pass catchers from 2011. Most importantly, Alabama needs to find a top wide receiver to fill the void left by Julio Jones and Marquis Maze leaving in consecutive years.

Jones and Maze were targeted on almost half of Alabama’s passes thrown 20 yards or more in the air since the start of 2010, resulting in 15 receptions and five touchdowns. Green-Beckham’s downfield prowess would benefit AJ McCarron who improved his deep passing in the second half of last season.

Arkansas is the predicted landing spot for Green-Beckham by all seven ESPN experts polled. If he chooses to sign with the Razorbacks, Green-Beckham would fill one of the greatest wide receiver voids in the nation.

Arkansas is losing three of its top four wide receivers, including the school’s top two players in career receptions, Jarius Wright and Joe Adams. Wright and Adams combined for more receiving yards (1,769) than any other set of receivers in the SEC last season.

In fact, no SEC team had three wide receivers combine for more yards, receptions and touchdowns than Wright and Adams.

Missouri needs a second wide-receiver option behind T.J. Moe next season with TE Michael Egnew and WR Wes Kemp graduating. Moe has the second-most receiving yards in the Big 12 since the start of 2010 among returning players, but he is not known for his deep-threat ability.

Of his 146 receptions in the past two seasons, only 13 have gone for 25 or more yards. Green-Beckham’s downfield speed would lead to more big plays for the Tigers and open up underneath routes for Moe and others.

Oklahoma must replace FBS’s all-time leader in receptions, Ryan Broyles. Broyles was Oklahoma’s top target downfield, in the red zone, on third down and when opponents brought the blitz over the last two years.

Landry Jones struggled after Broyles’ injury in 2011, and despite landing three 4-star wide receiver recruits, a talent like Green-Beckham could fill the void left by Broyles.

Broyles had some of the strongest hands in college football, dropping just two passes in 417 pass attempts since the start of 2009.

According to scouts, Green-Beckham also has strong hands and the ability to snatch balls in traffic, which will be valuable in an Oklahoma offense that throws a lot of quick slants. Oklahoma has focused on replacing Broyles with three 4-star recruits committed for next season, but the addition of Green-Beckham will have an immediate impact on a team with national title hopes.

Texas could use Green-Beckham’s size in the red zone. The Longhorns completed just 32 percent of their passes with three touchdowns and two interceptions in the red zone during conference play last season, which was the worst completion percentage by any Big 12 team in the last five seasons.

When throwing into the end zone, Texas completed just 5-of-17 passes with two interceptions. Beckham’s 6’6” size and leaping ability would give Texas a target to drastically improve its red-zone passing offense.

ESPNU's national signing day coverage kicks off at 9 a.m. ET. Here's the list of the announcements and time for some of the top prospects.

NOTE: Bold names are announcements, all others are interviews.

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas can’t start and never finishes.

That’s not a desirable combination when it comes to basketball. Texas, with another close loss to Baylor, is now 3-5 in the Big 12. Those five losses have all been by two possessions or less.

More difficult to swallow is that in those losses, Texas has averaged just 32 points in the first 20 minutes and trailed by an average of 9.4 points at half of each game.

It only gets worse when looking at how Texas has played itself back into games in the second half only to lose.

Against Kansas, Texas led 64-60 with 3:21 left before being outscored 9-2 to end the game.

At Baylor, Texas rallied to tie the game at 66 with 2:53 left and was outscored 10-5 down the stretch.

Even in a win against Iowa State, Texas led by 18 with 13:38 to go before the Cyclones rallied to within three, 58-55 with 25 seconds left.

The reasons for the bad starts and flat finishes are easy enough to pinpoint -- freshman point guard Myck Kabongo can’t get the team running early, and down the stretch, junior J'Covan Brown is the only real threat to score so the defense keys on him and the Texas offense watches it happen.

Whether or not Texas coach Rick Barnes can change those trends is another question. Barnes does not have the personnel, at least personnel that is mature enough, to counteract the problems when they begin.

This is why so often early in games Barnes pulls Kabongo. He is trying to remind his point guard of what he needs to do on the floor because at this stage of his career Kabongo is not an intuitive enough player to figure it out on his own.

Until Kabongo can read a defense on his own as well as have the trust of his teammates, Barnes will have to continue to pull him out early and coach him. The result of that is Texas will continue to start slowly.

As for finishing better, against the teams with more talent -- Kansas, Missouri, Baylor, Kansas State -- it probably won’t happen. Those teams are more veteran squads with players who know how to impose their will on a game. They also have multiple options down the stretch, forcing a defense to stay honest. Texas doesn’t have either luxury.