Texas feeling dejected after another close loss

AUSTIN, Texas — Halfway through the Big 12 schedule, the Texas Longhorns have the look of a desperate team.

Losses are mounting and coach Rick Barnes and his players are struggling to find ways to explain close games that end in defeat. Texas is 0-7 in games decided by six points or less and has lost five of its last six.

Now one of the most consistent programs in the country — 13 consecutive NCAA tournaments — is looking at the very real possibility of being left out of the party in March.

The good news? Texas may finally have a chance to turn things around.

A stretch of five ranked opponents in six games is over and the Longhorns (13-9, 3-6 Big 12) get to wallow around in the bottom of the league standings for a while in search of a couple of wins.

Four of the Longhorns' next five opponents are currently under .500 in league play, starting Saturday at Texas Tech (7-13, 0-8)."It is always disappointing when you are losing. We are going to stay together and we are going to smile," said junior guard and team leader J'Covan Brown. "At the end of the day it hurts ... It starts with me. I have to find a way to get wins."

Texas certainly had its chances.

Losses to Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Missouri have come down to the final seconds. Monday night's 67-66 loss to the No. 4 Tigers was the latest. The Longhorns rallied from 13 points in the second half and took the lead in the final minute on a basket by Brown.

But Texas couldn't stop Missouri's Michael Dixon Jr. from driving to the basket for a late layup that ultimately proved to be the winning basket. Freshman Myck Kabongo missed a baseline jumper to win.

"For some reason, they're just not turning into wins right now," Kabongo said.

Texas players, particularly Brown, looked dejected after letting another potential upset get away and suffering another blow to their NCAA tournament hopes. They also resorted to blaming game officials for not calling a possible foul on Kabongo's final shot.

Barnes did too, but softened the complaints about the non-call by pointing out Texas already had a lead in the final minute and couldn't make a defensive stop to win.

"We had two games here, against both Kansas and Missouri, when we needed to get a stop on the other end, and we didn't get it. It's tough when you're trying to get over the hump. It seems like plays like that don't go your way," Barnes said.

While an optimist could note that Texas played some of the best teams in the county down to the final seconds, a pessimist might note that all those losses could leave Texas forgetting how to win.

Texas knew a rough season was possible but the Longhorns are off to their worst start in Big 12 play in 14 years. The Longhorns had to replace all five starters from a team that rose as high as No. 3 in the rankings last season. A roster full of freshmen has shown flashes of talent but can't seem to pull out a win.

Most of Texas' struggles have been on offense. While Brown is capable of putting up 30 points or more in a game, he has struggled at home and Texas has yet to find another reliable scorer. The offense was so ragged against Missouri that Texas played nearly 25 minutes before registering its first assist.

The Longhorns are 0-6 against ranked teams and are running out of opportunities for a statement game that will prove they are worthy of making the NCAA tournament. The only two remaining opponents currently ranked are No. 6 Baylor (at home Feb. 20) and No. 8 Kansas (on the road Mar. 3).

"One thing I know about our team," Kabongo said, "we are not going to back down."

'Dejected': Some Unemployed Give Up The Hunt

People wait at a job fair in New York City's Queens borough on Thursday. While millions of out-of-work Americans continue to seek employment, others have given up looking.

The unemployment rate slipped a notch to 8.1 percent in April, but not because employers went on a hiring spree.

Instead, the jobless rate appeared to improve because fewer people were applying for positions. Last month, the civilian labor force shrank by 342,000 people.

Economists say many of those workforce dropouts were "discouraged" workers who moved to the sidelines after months, even years, of trying to nail down jobs.

Traci Polacco has just joined the ranks of the discouraged. She had been working as an intake coordinator at a Denver hospital when she got laid off in November. For months, she tried hard to find a job.
"I've come close to having second and even third interviews, but haven't come close to grabbing that brass ring," she said in a phone interview.

Two Unemployment Measures

Notes

The "broader unemployment rate," or U-6, includes the unemployed, those working part time because they cannot find full-time work, or those who have given up looking.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Melanie Taube and Nelson Hsu/NPR

'Feeling Very Dejected'
This week, she made up her mind to stop looking. "I've been feeling very dejected and depressed," she said.
So she has moved in with her mother in Michigan, and is halting her job hunt until she can regroup. Her plan is to get accepted into a nurse's training program and find some sort of job this fall to help pay for her educational retooling.

For now, "I just needed to take some time off" from the disheartening job search, she said. "The frustration comes when you apply to places like Subway, and you're told you're overqualified."
The reasons for today's discouraging job market are numerous. One factor is the loss of state and local government jobs amid budget cutbacks. Last month, private employers added 130,000 jobs, but governments cut 15,000 positions. That meant April saw total job growth of just 115,000, down from March's revised total of 154,000 jobs.

Most economists had estimated that employers added about 160,000 last month, so the Labor Department report was seen as a disappointment even though the jobless rate slipped from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent.

Fewest Workers In Decades
With so many workers dropping out, the share of adults working or seeking jobs is down to 63.6 percent. That's the lowest level since the 1981 recession, when far fewer women were in the paid workplace.
This trend toward a smaller workforce has been in place for some time now. In 2011, roughly 2.7 million people left the job market, and only 945,000 came into it. There are lots of reasons for this — some benign and some very worrisome.

Among the not-so-bad reasons: More baby boomers are entering their early 60s and retiring. In theory, they could keep working or looking for work, but many are retiring when they reach 62 and become eligible for some Social Security benefits.

Many younger people are choosing to leave the labor force to return to the classroom and improve their job skills, and others are staying home with young children or aging parents.
But substantial numbers of potential workers have been unemployed for so long that they are dropping out and hunkering down.

NPR/Labor Department GRAPHIC: Tracking Payrolls, Unemployment

"Though the unemployment rate fell in March and April, both drops reflected fewer people looking for work, not more employment," Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight, said in his written assessment.

People tend to drop out after a long stretch of unemployment — and those searches have been especially lengthy during the Great Recession and its slow-moving recovery. The latest Labor Department report shows that in April, unemployed Americans were out of work on average for 39.1 weeks, or about nine months. More than 4 in 10 unemployed workers haven't seen a paycheck for six months or more.

Some Bright Spots
The reasons for the underperforming job market are numerous. One factor is improving technology, which can allow employers to boost output without adding workers. U.S. companies are actually creating more goods and services than they were back in 2007 — before the recession — and yet they have about 5 million fewer people on their payrolls.

Some economists say things may get better before too long because the jobs report did contain some bright spots. For example, the job-creation numbers for March and February got an upward revision by a total of 53,000.

Alan Krueger, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement that while "much more remains to be done" to fix the labor market, the private sector is improving.
Private sector jobs have grown "for 26 straight months, for a total of 4.25 million payroll jobs over that period," Krueger said. Factories have added 489,000 jobs since January 2010, he noted.
As for Polacco, she says she will pick herself up in the fall and resume her job search while pursuing her goal to become a nurse. "I'll be hitting it hard again," she said. "I'm hoping I'll be able to find something then."