Texas survived a last-minute comeback by Baylor

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly. Connor Atchley owns the Bears. The same Connor Atchley who would induce fan cringing every time he came into the game last year. Now he’s playing well enough that many of those same fans experienced that same kind of worry last night when Atchley limped off the court late in the game. Ladies and gentleman, your most improved player for 2006-07 is Connor Freakin Atchley.

The Longhorns (19-7 overall, 9-3 Big 12) once again struggled against Baylor (12-13, 2-10), needing a second-half surge to secure a 68-67 victory. And just as in the victory back in Austin, the key to the UT run came in the form of a tall, lanky white guy wearing number 32. Atchley hustled all over the floor, scoring a career-high 15 points and pulling down eight rebounds. He was even credited with two steals and another block — his 14th straight game with at least one — and continued to set the best screens on the court for the Horns.

Time and again, Atchley came free on the low blocks for easy dunks. And on Kevin Durant’s second-worst shooting night, it was refreshing to see another Longhorn moving without the ball to create some offense. Between Damion James’ easy layups against OSU and Atchley’s dunks last night, it looks like the Horns are finally getting some consistent scoring from the frontcourt.

Despite Durant’s tough night from the field (5-for-16), he kept Texas on the scoreboard by getting to the line repeatedly in the second half. He shot 90% at the line on ten attempts and grabbed just about every 50/50 ball that came loose. KD’s fourteen boards gave him his 16th double-double on the year and ninth in twelve conference games.

Unfortunately, the thing most Texas fans will remember about this game was the near-meltdown in the final minutes. But while Texas gave up the lead and ultimately lost to Tennessee in a similar fashion back in December, this time the Horns were able to escape with a road win.

Up 68-60 with 1:40 to play, the Horns missed four free throws, turned the ball over twice, and allowed the Bears a final 11-second possession to win. Without any timeouts, Baylor wasn’t able to draw up a play and the final shot was an awkward, desperate one thrown up by St. Michael’s grad Mark Shepherd. And when you’ve got a former teammate of Ian Mooney wrist-flicking a 17-footer at the last second, the odds are against the miracle bucket.

Once again, Texas allowed far too many open looks from behind the arc. This happened most often against the 2-3 zone, as the threes made against our man defense was often the result of a jab step giving the shooter just enough breathing room to get it off. I’ll take those threes any day — although not biting so hard on fakes does remain an area to improve for the Horns — as opposed to failing to get out on shooters in the zone.

Fortunately, it now seems that Barnes is committed to running a man defense more often, utilizing the zone when the personnel on the court requires it or he’s trying to protect Augustin or Durant from foul trouble. I’m a huge fan of this defensive mix, and hope to see it continue the rest of the year.

Most importantly for Texas, this win gives them 19 on the year with four games to play. While all of the remaining games could easily show up in the loss column, it seems that the first three are also winnable. I’ll look at the road ahead in my conference breakdown tomorrow, but it’s not hyperbole to say that this was a “must-win” game. The Horns are now just steps away from a dance ticket in March, and possibly even a chance to play themselves above that dreaded 8/9 seed range.

Next game is Tuesday at the Drum against Tech, but in the meantime we’ll have more new stuff here at Longhorn Road Trip. Three weeks to Selection Sunday!

While this post is appearing on the website at 10 A.M., I’m actually at work pulling the five-to-noon shift before heading up to Waco. Isn’t technology great?

In case you missed it, my Baylor re-preview went up yesterday afternoon, followed by a long-overdue recap of the Phoenix trip.

The Horns take the hardwood tonight at 7 PM Central, but in the meantime, there’s tons of college hoops around the country. In the Big 12, Texas A&M travels to Norman to take on the Sooners at 2:30, while Oklahoma State tries to right the ship at home against Mizzou at 12:30. The Kansas Jayhawks will be waiting for the Aggies to falter again, as they chalk up another pancake win at home against Nebraska at 3 P.M. PhogBlog has your preview of the blowout.

The big game of the day is coming, predictably, in primetime. North Carolina heads to Boston College (8 PM Central, ESPN) in a game that is absolutely huge in the crazy ACC. The Golden Eagles are atop the league, with a half-game edge over the visiting Tar Heels. Winner takes first place, although both VaTech and the Hoos of UVA are tied with North Carolina coming into Saturday.

In an oddly-timed out-of-conference matchup, Memphis heads west to play a reeling Gonzaga team. You know, the one that embarrassed Texas on national TV just two months ago. Unfortunately, the Horns don’t get another shot at them this late in the season, because it looks like anybody has a chance against the Zags as of late. Their seemingly infinite home-win streak was snapped at 50 on Monday night by Santa Clara, and Loyola-Marymount even knocked off the Bulldogs only a week earlier. Memphis looks like the heavy favorite in this one, even on the road. But if Gonzaga can defend their home court, it will help the Texas RPI and SOS, if only ever-so-slightly.

Baylor post-game and maybe a Houston trip wrap-up will be coming your way on Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, enjoy all the hoops and the laugher up in Waco.

Click here to open the Phoenix photo gallery in a new window.

Phoenix is an oasis in the desert, a sprawling bit of suburban excess that somehow fills one of the most uninhabitable places in the country. You’ve got Glendale, Scottsdale, Avondale, and really just about every type of “dale” you could want. And considering a “dale” is a valley, I’m surprised that the fine folks of Arizona didn’t create their own Deathdale to compete with that more-famous valley over in California. Hell, the name would even go along with the ancient population of Arizona, or at least suggest their impending fate.

This introduction isn’t my way of saying I hate Arizona. Rather, it’s a nice enough place, with lots of sun and great winter weather. But when you really think about it, it’s still a desert. Where they built a bunch of cities. And I guess that may make heatstroke a reasonable explanation for the absurd frontage-road traffic lights they have. Let’s put it this way — if I’m sober and the painted markings on the road read like Cyrillic, that’s probably not a good thing.

Like I said earlier, there’s a lot of old people in the greater Phoenix area. A lot. I used to think Florida was where retirees go to die. Apparently the annual hurricane onslaughts have moved them all to Arizona. But when you couple that with the gorgeous young co-eds of Arizona State, it’s a very weird cross-section of American life. There’s a ton of golf courses, which is a must for any retiree-friendly area. But the nightlife is also pretty respectable, not that Playboy’s “#1 Party School” needs bars to have a good time.

In my three days in the desert, I managed to catch two college basketball games and an NBA one, all in the same place. Friday night, I saw the Phoenix Suns-Milwaukee Bucks game, which only further underscored my belief that the League has absolutely nothing on the excitement of college basketball. While the Suns had the hottest strippers dance team I’d ever laid eyes on — my apologies to the Oklahoma State pom squad — the style of play and lack of fan involvement is really a drag.

After the game, we Bomar-ed an In-N-Out double-double somewhere in Annendalevilledaledale. While a general rule of thumb on my trips is to eat at places considered “local” and avoid chain restaurants, a huge exception had to be made for In-N-Out. Unless rumors of expansion into the Dallas market come true, the closest place an Austinite can find these delicious burgers is in Arizona. ..just a hop, skip, and 15-hour car ride away. So you’ll have to excuse my simplistic meal choice on this trip, not just once, but again on Sunday before I left town.

Downtown Phoenix is a really nice area in the midst of renovations, including what looks to be a trolley being built through many of the streets. I’m a huge proponent of mass transit, especially in sprawling urban areas like Phoenix and Austin. Not to get too far off on a tangent, but the thing being built in Phoenix looks a lot more useful than the light rail being thrown up in Austin. Like, for instance…it actually goes through downtown.

Breakfast was eaten at a nice little place not far from the arena called First Watch. I later found out that this is also a chain, but considering none of us had ever heard of it, the place was new to us. They had a ton of great, healthy breakfast options, including about 22,583 variations on the omelette. After a good, filling breakfast and a quick visit to an outdoor mall a few blocks away, it was time for a Saturday that was all about basketball.

The Horns opened the doubleheader with a game against Gonzaga that I’d generally like to forget. But if you’d like to revisit it for some reason, feel free to read my post-game wrapup.

That nightmare was followed by a great matchup between Illinois and Arizona in front of an absolutely deafening crowd. I’d say the arena was probably about 75% Arizona folks, 15% Illini faithful, 8% Gonzaga fans, and the small burnt orange contingent. Even though they were outnumbered, the Illini fans roared with every basket as they took a huge first-half lead. Arizona mounted a comeback and eventually won, but every single score resulted in an eruption of noise from one group or the other. And in a small NBA arena built specifically for basketball, that sound reverberated. Just a night after finding the NBA wine-and-cheese crowd a bit on the comatose side, I was reminded why college basketball is still the best thing around.

Somehow our group of four UT fans had bought seats on the 2nd row behind the basket, but right in the middle of where the U of A band was supposed to be sitting. Apparently there had been a mistake in the ticketing office, because there were only about four rows of fans who had been sold seats there, and the usher staff was prepared for our arrival. They moved all of us a section to the left, even closer to the benches, leaving space for the Wildcat band. And they were a really entertaining bunch. Seeing fans, cheerleaders, and even the band from a university that is truly a “basketball” school really makes a Longhorn fan pine for that kind of involvement in the Frank Erwin Center. I know we’ll never fully get there, but I’d love to see some huge steps taken in the near future.

Saturday night we called ahead to Richardson’s (map), what many call the best restaurant in town. It serves what they have dubbed “New Mexico cuisine” and is a very popular choice, despite its odd location in what amounts to a tiny strip mall on the north side of town. After waiting nearly two hours — and catching the triple-overtime football game between Rutgers and West Virginia on the bar TVs — we were treated to an absolutely amazing meal. I enjoyed some of the best enchiladas I’ve had, a delicious combination of blue-corn tortillas, turkey, and an incredible mushroom-cheese sauce. The only tip I give to those willing to brave the long wait for Richardson’s is to avoid the margaritas. Horribly overpriced and overrated, they tasted more like an alcohol-free limeade than anything. Perhaps we’re spoiled coming from Texas, but those margaritas eran teribles.

Sunday we spent the late morning hours touring the Desert Botanical Garden. It’s a place not far from the criss-crossing streets of suburbia, yet still quiet enough to feel removed. Considering it’s a garden in a desert, most of the plants are cacti. And evidently there’s about a million different kinds of cacti that can grow out there. Some of my favorites are in the photo gallery from this trip, although there was no way I could have captured all of the variety housed at the Desert Botanical Garden.

If you happen to go, I’d suggest doing it without kids, or at least with ones that have taken a nap earlier in the day. The paths can get to be repetitive and tiresome for the little ones, so they may lose interest and get bored. Be sure to check the guestbook on your way out, though. The comments left by field-trip kids are absolutely priceless, if not a bit harsh. My favorite? “It has been a year since I came here. I changed a lot, but this place didn’t.”

All told, it’s not a bad place to visit. And if you take away a shitty performance against the Zags, it was a pretty good weekend getaway. I’m not sure I could ever live in Phoenixdale, but I wouldn’t mind coming back if any future NCAA brackets happened to send us through the area.

Baylor’s Golden Titty Palace (photo from World Stadiums)

Tip: 7 PM Saturday, FSN

It’s only been three weeks, but it’s once again time for the Baylor Bears and Texas Longhorns to tangle. This time, the stage is the Golden Titty Palace along the banks of the Brazos River in Waco. Last time out, Baylor (12-12 overall, 2-9 Big 12) made a great push for an upset behind an insane shooting percentage from star Aaron Bruce. In the end, the Longhorns (18-7, 8-3) prevailed with a late comeback and sealed an 84-79 victory.

The key difference this time? Aaron Bruce won’t even be playing. He sprained his ankle last week and will be missing his second-straight game when the teams meet tomorrow. Bruce accounts for 15% of their offense and plays the second-most minutes on the team with just a hair under 30 per game. In Austin, he led the Bears with 25 points, one of only two Baylor players in double digits. The slim chances the Bears had to pull off the upset at home may have gone down with the Aussie.

Without Bruce, the Baylor threat from outside is much, much weaker. Tweety Carter and Curtis Jarrells can both hit in the low 30-pecents, while Henry Dugat — Bruce’s replacement in Wednesday’s starting lineup — is also shooting the three-ball above 35%, although he takes a few less shots than the others.

If you don’t recall the other stars for Baylor — and I use that term loosely — you can take a quick gander at the first preview. This time around, Baylor will likely try to force it inside even more without Bruce, which makes big man Kevin Rogers an even bigger factor. In the game on Wednesday, Rogers blew up for 27 against Mizzou while Bruce was on the sidelines.

Mamadou Diene is still seeing very limited minutes, so his injury may still be causing problems. On Wednesday, he played only 13 minutes against the Tigers, leaving forwards Tim Bush and Patrick Fields to pick up the slack. Bush saw his playing time jump to nearly 30 minutes in the contest, and secured 11 boards with the extra time on the court.

While Coach Drew and the Bears appear to making a concerted effort to get the ball inside, they are still a good screening team that knows how to get their guards open around the perimeter. Carter is a hell of a freshman who can knock it down from long range, and he’s going to be a consistent scorer over his next three years in the green and gold. Austin-native Jerrells always manages to terrorize the Horns, and he’s coming in on a hot streak; in his last seven games, he’s averaging over 16 points.

At this point, the Longhorns just need to work on neutralizing their disadvantages inside. The Bears outrebounded Texas by three in Austin, which is an acceptable deficit for tomorrow’s game as well. But if it is too one-sided in this contest, it could lead to a lot of easy inside looks for Baylor and a lot of short possessions for the Horns.

In conclusion, the keys for Texas…

Shut down Rogers - Without Bruce, he is going to be the focal point of the offense. He’s definitely going to get his points — 20-plus would not be a surprise — but can Connor Atchley and Damion James keep him from taking over the game?

Limit the rebounds - Baylor is a bigger team, although Texas is playing more man-to-man since the last time the teams met. The Horns must keep the second-chance points to a minimum while securing their own offensive boards.

Draw fouls - What better way to neutralize the Baylor big men than to get them on the bench? Diene will likely see only 10-20 minutes, leaving the Bears with only Rogers, Bush, Fields, and Lomers. The drop in talent is huge after their top three frontcourt guys. Get them to the pine and this will be a cakewalk.

Last night, Kansas easily handled Colorado at the Coors Event Center, the only arena in the Big 12 I’ve been to that completely lacks a home court advantage. Hell, for Texas it even skewed neutral if not in favor of the Horns. I would not be surprised to hear that there was more blue and red in the stands last night as the Jayhawks steamrolled the Buffs by 29. It keeps KU right in the hunt for the conference title, as they await a stumble from Texas A&M.

There’s not a whole lot going on in the world of basketball today, besides some games out west in the Pac 10. USC heads to Arizona at 9:30 PM (Central) in a game that is absolutely huge for the up-and-down Wildcats. After losing five of six, including that embarrassment at home to UNC, Arizona has won their last three. They are tied for fifth in the stacked Pac 10, but a visit from UCLA is just two days away. A win tonight is necessary to stop another momentum-killing losing streak.

In Austin, we don’t get this game, but instead UCLA at Arizona State followed by Oregon State at Stanford. Good choice on that one, FSN. Perhaps Austin viewers will find the A-10 clash between UMass and Fordham (8 PM, ESPN2) a bit more thrilling. If not, there’s always the 2004 Powerade Jam Fest at 10 on the Duece. I might just have to clear my calendar for this lineup.

At 6 PM (Central), there’s a generally useless game back east, as St. Francis takes on St. Francis. The two schools — one located in Loretto, PA, and the other in Brooklyn — are in the midst of abysmal seasons. The loser gets the glory of having a 21-loss season, while they both will still be slumming it in the bottom of the Northeastern Conference. If I haven’t sold you on watching this painful display of mediocrity, I’m just not sure what else I can do.

I’ve been toying around with the GoogleMaps API to create a clickable map of the places I’ve visited that will hopefully organize things a little nicer and spruce the place up. Tomorrow I’m dedicating the entire afternoon to the site, so look for some new content and a Baylor re-preview.

Apologies to anybody who tried to watch the news piece last night. John Hygh from Fox 7 called me while I was on my way to work and let me know that a story on DeLoss Dodds’ induction into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame was going to air last night instead. Unfortunately, I don’t have internet access at my work and the post was just left sitting there announcing something that wasn’t going to happen.

Instead, my story will air next Tuesday, which is a tough break considering we’ll be playing Texas Tech at the Drum right about then. It will also air the next day during their morning show, so it sounds like there will be four times in the span of about 13 hours that it will be on. I think my own mother will be tired of my face at that point.

Last night was absolutely crazy in the Big 12, as A&M went down to Tech (again), K-State lost to Nebraska, and OU lost to Iowa State. That puts the Horns in sole possession of 3rd place, only one game back of the leading Aggies. And now Kansas has a pretty good shot at the title, needing only to run the table and have A&M falter in one of their remaining five.

Tuesday was also good for Texas’ RPI, without the team even taking the court. Tennessee knocked off Kentucky and Michigan State beat Michigan, pushing the Horns to 49th in Ken Pomeroy’s RPI approximations. The Tech win also stopped their wicked slide down the charts, keeping them at 34th. Texas has three wins against the top 50, with Oklahoma State (25th) and Arkansas (39th) providing the other two.

The biggest thing about the Tech victory is that it keeps them in the NCAA tournament talk. They now have two wins over A&M, a win over Kansas, and a win over Arkansas to put on the resumé. And with home games left against Colorado and Baylor, Bobby Knight’s squad should have 18 wins easily. Their other three games are at Texas, home against Oklahoma State, and a road finish in Ames, Iowa against the Cyclones. If they hold serve at home and steal a road game, we’re looking at a 20-win team heading into a conference tournament where they could likely pick up at least one more.

Tonight’s Big 12 game has the Kansas Jayhawks traveling to Colorado for what should be the first of four consecutive easy wins. Elsewhere, the Greg Oden Show airs on ESPN as Ohio State goes to Happy Valley to take on Penn State (6 PM), while the Texas RPI will fluctuate a little based on the results of Cincinnati-Villanova (8 PM).

Fox 7 News in Austin is running a human interest piece on my quest that will air twice tonight. Your first chance to catch it is during their 5 P.M. broadcast, and it will air around 5:40ish. The second is during the 9 P.M. news, and will be on around 9:40ish. That’s right, I get the House lead-in, coincidentally the only person who is a bigger asshole than myself.

Special thanks to Fox 7’s John Hygh for the interviews and being interested enough in my pursuit to think it’s something a wide audience would be interested to learn about. I can only hope that people seeing it might think, “If somebody can care about UT basketball that much, maybe it’s something I’ve been missing out on.” Call me quixotic or my dreams too grandiose, but I really do think that we can cultivate an intense, passionate basketball fanbase on the 40 Acres.

If anybody out there in the land of interwebs knows how to get the story on a computer, I’d love to know what to do. I’m going to try ripping it from a DVD-R, but we’ll see how that goes.

The Texas Longhorns played their best team game of the year last night, routing Oklahoma State 83-54 in front of a huge home crowd and a national audience on ESPN. The loss was the third in the last four games for the Cowboys (19-6 overall, 5-5 Big 12) and continued a streak of futility on the road in conference play dating to February 4th of last year. For the Longhorns (18-7, 8-3), the victory made their coach the winningest one in school history.

For the second-straight game, Kevin Durant had what was — for him — an average game. A great night for most mere mortals, Durant finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds after only scoring five in the first half. It was Durant’s eighth double-double in eleven conference games, and his 15th on the season.

But just as in the Iowa State game, the rest of the Longhorns stepped up. With the Oklahoma State defense stifling the superstar in the first twenty minutes, the offense was spread around. Damion James scored early on pick-and-rolls that resulted in wide open layups. D.J. Augustin hit threes when Durant set high screens for him. In the end, all five Texas starters reached double figures in scoring.

The biggest surprise of the night was seeing A.J. Abrams sticking JamesOn Curry in a man defense right out of the gate. Abrams has often struggled on defense, and Curry was responsible for 28 points in the first meeting between the two teams this year. But A.J. was a thorn in JamesOn’s side, staying in his face well behind the three-point line, fighting through screen after screen, and holding the guy scoreless for the first 18 minutes. Curry was called for a charge in the first half that was clearly a result of his frustration at being unable to shake the pesky little defender.

The focus on a single defensive task seemed to up Abrams’ confidence. He returned to his catch-and-shoot ways, knocking down three of his seven three-point attempts and another two-point jumper. He only took one bad shot on the run, as he cut across the lane and popped an 18-footer off the dribble. On this night, though, everything was falling for the Longhorns, and Abrams had another two points.

Just like the frustrated Curry, Mario Boggan also had a quieter night than the first time around. Boggan had gone off for 37 and 20 back in Stillwater, but scored only 16 and secured three rebounds in this one. Connor Atchley was a big part of the Longhorns’ defensive success underneath, as he maintained good position in the paint and stood straight up. James did the same, and time after time the post attack of the Cowpokes was limited to multiple, frantic pivots and ultimately a highly contested shot.

While Texas did not take care of the basketball very well, they did capitalize on turnovers and played the transition game that makes their offense click. The Longhorns actually turned it over 16 times to the Cowboys’ 15, but outscored them on those turnovers by a wide 22-11 count.

Texas also managed to outrebound OSU this time around. They took a 34-30 advantage on the glass, despite giving up fourteen offensive rebounds to the Pokes. But the Longhorns kept their opponents from capitalizing on those offensive boards, winning the second-chance battle 18-13.

All told, this was a glimpse at what a complete game would look like for the Horns. It really bodes well for the rest of the season that our entire team can produce offensively. And, for three of the last four halves of basketball, the Texas defense has played a hundred times better than they did the rest of the season. Sure, there were occassional lapses on the defensive end last night, but I’ll easily take 36 minutes of suffocating D over a 52% 3-point shooting night from KSU.

The best part of the night for me as a fan was having the ref call the cops on myself and two friends. In all of the years watching games from the student section, I have been responsible for and have heard some less-than-tasteful stuff screamed towards opponents and refs. But this was the first time I’d ever had a cop speak to me about it…and this time nobody had even cursed.

The scene was this: Augustin is called for a foul heading into a TV timeout. The basket is counted, even though those of us watching next to the play think the OSU player was fouled on the floor. Someone screams “Are you kidding me?” Another yells “That’s horrible.” As the teams head into the huddle, the white-haired ref turns around and stares at me. “I hope you didn’t breed,” I tell him. That’s it. Apparently we had pricked his delicate ego and the law had to be called.

The cop comes over and suggests we direct our attention to the players and not the refs. As we let him know that we are keeping it clean for those around us, the ref leans across the baseline, looks at us, and says, “Tell them they’ve messed with the wrong crew.” I’m going to choose to ignore the fact that he was talking through the cop while looking at us. But his crewmate Steve Welmer loves our fans and chat us up every time he’s in town. Even the third ref joked with our section later in the night. But this thin-skinned little man apparently had something to prove. Are you surprised that he’s the same one who gave Sutton a technical later in the night?

Crybaby refs aside, it was a great night from start to finish. In the early afternoon, Dexter Pittman and Durant came out of Cooley Pavillion to meet with those of us who had camped out for the ballgame. Later Damion James talked with us as we loaded up our cars with the camping gear. It’s really nice of the players to let the fans know that the support is appreciated, especially in a time when so many people are jaded and think of athletes as self-centered, money-hungry prima donnas. I think we’re lucky to have a good group of quality people that just so happen to be great basketball players.

We’ve got a long week off before the road game with Baylor on Saturday. If you still need a basketball fix, Tech takes on A&M tonight at 6 PM central on ESPN2. Throughout the long week, I’ll try to get around to some more pictures and some of the tales from the road.

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to listen to my interview on ESPN Radio a couple of Fridays ago, it is now here on the website for you listening pleasure…or displeasure. A huge thanks to Hobo Davis for covertly recording this at his office and getting it on the interwebs. It may take a second to load, as it’s currently on another server.

I started off with a reference to their argument regarding whether players or coaches are the “rock stars” in college basketball and a not-so-well-received joke about our attendance issues. After that it’s all pretty self-explanatory. But feel free to laugh at me for completely forgetting to mention LonghornRoadTrip.com at any point in the interview.

Tip-off is only five hours away. Where will you be?

I just rushed back here to “Camp Erwin” after my Spanish class, having been mulling over something for most of the 50 minutes. In my Oklahoma State preview this morning, I completely overlooked the one big difference between tonight’s game and the one played on January 16th — a 6-foot, 10-inch, 290-pound difference.

When the Pokes and Horns tangled last month, the only significant bench minutes in the frontcourt came from Connor Atchley, who had to step up with Damion James in foul trouble. Atchley played 22 of the 55 minutes, while Matt Hill came in for a three-minute stint in which he only recorded a block.

Between that game and tonight’s contest, Coach Barnes has made a commitment to playing Dexter Pittman more. It’s just one small way to try to make up for our small lineup and lack of a post presence. And while Big Dex has yet to play more than nine minutes in a conference game, he is active down low in the short times he is on the floor.

Tonight I’m expecting to see a good seven to ten minutes from the big man, spread out over short appearances like those given to him against ISU on Saturday. Hopefully the small time frames will still allow Dexter a chance to make a difference offensively, as it would be huge for him to pick up some fouls in the paint on Boggan and Monds. If the small chunks make it tough for him to get into the flow, we may end up getting no discernable benefit besides keeping some fouls off of James and Kevin Durant.

So here’s to a solid night from Dex. Eight minutes, five points, and five boards sound good? Works for me, too.