It's not what we expected, but here we are.

Texas is in a must-win scenario in their seventh game of conference play, where they sit at 3-3. BPI says that the Longhorns have the hardest schedule remaining in the country, mostly due to their conference slate, but also including a non-conference battle with former HC Rick Barnes' Tennessee Volunteers on January 29th. This is two days before they head to Lubbock to take on a fired-up Texas Tech Red Raiders team who is playing excellent basketball as of late.

After today, they go to TCU in Fort Worth, which isn't as easy of a game as it sounds, as the Horned Frogs have an all-Big-12-level player in Mike Miles. After that comes the aforementioned Vols and Red Raiders matchups, followed by Iowa State at home, Kansas at home, then Baylor on the road. As I've said before, it's the murderer's row; the Horns would be really fortunate to emerge 2-3 from that stretch. The pressure is on to win right now.

Texas faces Oklahoma State at home today after getting worked over on the road in Stillwater earlier this season, 64-51. We don't have to re-live it, but I can tell you that Texas shot seven free-throws the entire game and turned the ball over 14 times, leading directly to 18 Cowboy points. Oklahoma State had 24 free-throw attempts, and shot 8/17 from three, this despite being one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the Big 12 coming into the game. It was an unmitigated disaster for the Longhorns, and in a way "exposed" them as their first true conference road test, given Kansas State's COVID issues when Texas visited Manhattan.

Here's Oklahoma State's starting lineup.

Here's Texas' likely starting lineup.

I have two primary concerns when watching this Texas team from a lineups perspective:

• They don't play their starters together enough.

Texas plays a different starting lineup nearly every week, and for the players that do start, it doesn't really matter, because they're getting subbed out two minutes into the first half anyway. It's hard enough to build rapport with an entirely new team. It's nearly impossible when you don't play together for more than two-to-three minutes at a time.

They sub out the guards immediately, and yet also leave guys like Dylan Disu and Tre Mitchell out of these rotations despite the fact they are both consistent players who can make moves on both sides of the floor. This was especially frustrating against Kansas State, where the Wildcats dominated in points in the paint, 28-16, and yet Mitchell and Disu combined for 18 minutes. Meanwhile, Christian Bishop played 24 minutes and scored two points.

It has to be so frustrating for fans of this team to watch arguably two of Texas' best players ride the bench while other guys struggle. I understand that Beard values defense over offense, but Disu is an excellent defensive player. You also can't win games when you can't score. Texas has been handicapping itself with its substitutions.

• Their rotations are too large.

I get the story of Tristen Licon, and how inspirational it is, and how he never gave up and gives it his all on defense. But the guy cannot consistently score against high-level D1 competition. He played down the stretch against Iowa State (11 minutes, most of which were in the second half), which at the time, was a game Texas seemed capable of winning. It's like playing four-on-five offensively, especially the way that the Cyclones were trapping Texas' guards.

I understand the necessity of playing Cunningham and Askew as well, but playing them at the same time for long periods is a death sentence on the offensive side of the ball. Beard has to realize that offensively, that tandem doesn't work. Brock's entire offense is opportunistic, coming on spot-up threes when he's wide open and put-backs off of missed shots; he can't create offense. Askew has hit a few shots over the last few games, but is so passive with the ball in his hands. He dribbles around for 10 seconds before passing it off, or passes it immediately. Having two guys that can't (or won't) put a shot up unless the shot clock is winding down is damaging and hurts the other three guys on the floor as well.

Defensively, teams can sag off of Askew, knowing he won't shoot. They don't have to fight over ball screens, allowing his defender to swarm inside on the help if Askew feeds it into the post. Cunningham is easy to guard as well. Again, I'm not saying you can't play these guys at all, but what I am saying is that you can't play them together for extended intervals.

In order for the Longhorns to start winning games, they have to play their best players together for longer. I'm not saying Beard needs to become Tom Thibodeaux and run his starters into the ground. But 18.5 minutes per game for Tre Mitchell is absurd and costing this team points. Yes, I understand he's had some bad games. But he's also not in a rhythm because he's not playing enough.

We'll see if this changes today.

Predictions:

ML: I think Texas wins (-395), but Oklahoma State +315 seems like a good value bet here

Spread: Oklahoma State +8.5

O/U: over 126.5