Selection Sunday is a big day for basketball teams across the country, but it’s only a brief reprieve for coaching staffs before they must press onward with preparing for their next opponent. Once the brackets are announced, calls are made to small schools around the country, looking for film for this year’s random opponent from the Big Sky or Metro Atlantic or Big Central Northwestern East Valley Conference.

For fans, the hunt for information can be similar. Minutes after seeing their team’s name pop up on CBS or ESPN, thousands of fans fire up the internet and hunt for message boards and stats related to their next opponent. Here at Longhorn Road Trip, I’m going to make it easy on New Mexico State fans. Texas supporters who were late to the party might also find this a great guide to their new, young team. And hell, this might even be helpful to those folks who like to over-research their brackets.

Obviously the star of the team is freshman phenom and Player of the Year candidate Kevin Durant. A 6-foot, 9-inch swingman with freakish talent, KD sports a wingspan over seven feet. His range is limitless, as he can sink a ten-foot jumper or nail a three with a defender in his face. He’s also good at posting up in isolation or against the double team, usually kissing it in off the glass. And, of course, if you give him the lane, chances are good that a highlight dunk is on the way.

Critics have tried knocking K-Smoove’s defense, and while he does sometimes overhelp on the ball or leave a man open while coming over a screen, he was named to the Big 12 Conference’s All-Defensive Team. KD’s long arms give him the advantage of being able to come up with blocks even when beaten on the play, and he controls a ton of rebounds that most players wouldn’t have a shot at. When a team is having a cold shooting night, Durant is often the man limiting their possessions to one-and-done.

As fantastic as number 35 is, the real key to Texas’ offense is freshman point guard D.J. Augustin. As D.J. goes, so go the Horns. He can slash to the basket for a sick reverse layup, but is most valuable in finding passing lanes when it seems there aren’t any. His 6.7 assists per game are fourth in the nation.

Augustin is also very good at getting himself to the line, where he is an 83% shooter. It seemed that every time the Longhorns were in a tough spot on the road against a hostile crowd this season, it was Augustin who would drive to the bucket, draw the foul, and quiet the crowd with a pair of swished free throws. And while earlier in the year D.J. would often continue to attempt to attack the rim even when the defense was denying it, he seems to have matured to the point that he will pull it out and try to reset the offense.

If teams want to slow down Texas, they need to get Augustin on the bench. When he was out of the game against Kansas on Sunday afternoon, the Jayhawks made their biggest runs.

The other most consistent scorer for Coach Rick Barnes is shooting guard A.J. Abrams. Only a sophomore, Abrams is the oldest starter and the only player on the team who played significant minutes last season. He has one of the quickest releases I’ve ever seen, and is absolutely deadly as a catch-and-shoot three-point specialist. Unfortunately, A.J. also has a tendency to take a lot of running floaters off the dribble, and rarely finds success. He is most effective coming off of curls and screens for the Horns.

Abrams’ main liability is his defense. For starters, he is listed at a generous 5-foot, 10-inches, which allows taller guards to easily shoot over him. He also has a tendency to get beat off of the dribble by quicker guards. A.J.’s defense has improved somewhat throughout the season, as Barnes challenged him with the toughest assignments in the homestretch of conference play. A team with quick guards will certainly present a problem, however.

An emerging star for Texas is Damion James, who was named Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Texas for his senior season. James has a sweet mid-range jumper, and is becoming a defensive presence in the middle. He’s blocked at least one shot in thirteen straight games, including four against A&M in College Station. James’ weaknessses are his conditioning and tendency to pick up fouls quickly.

The fifth starter for Coach Barnes is Justin Mason, an Amarillo product who has been struggling lately. Jay May was producing admirably on the defensive end for much of the year, but has seen his minutes decline over the last three weeks as both his offense and defense have tailed off. If Mason can return to form, he is a viable scoring threat that makes teams pay for focusing too much on Durant and Augustin.

The Texas bench is relatively thin, making this team vulnerable against an opponent with quality depth. The first man off the pine is usually redshirt sophomore Connor Atchley. While not a superstar by any means, Atchley is a serviceable frontcourt reserve. Unfortunately, he has also been slumping for as long as Mason. Atchley is susceptible to the ball fake, but still manages to get his blocks each game. He has a sweet three-point stroke, but does not seem to have much confidence in it. If Atchley scores very much, it will be off of easy layups and putbacks.

During last week’s Big 12 Tournament, a new man provided significant minutes off the bench to relieve the overworked backcourt. Senior transfer guard Craig Winder came in and provided a spark in all three games, ratcheting up the defensive intensity and showing hustle all over the floor. The only downside with Winder is that his breakneck pace sometimes results in stupid fouls — he has fouled on three-point shots on three or four ocassions this year — and poorly-chosen shots taken too early in the possession.

The other bench players for Texas do not generally provide a ton of minutes, and all are youngsters. Big man Matt Hill has only been healthy for the last four games after missing over a month with a stress fracture. With the lack of quality minutes for Hill this year, it is tough to give a definitive book on the kid.

Dexter Pittman is a massive freshman who has lost over 70 pounds since reporting to campus this summer. The sudden weight loss means that his conditioning isn’t quite up to par, so he usually doesn’t see the floor against high-tempo, high-pressure teams.

J.D. Lewis is the other guard option off the bench for Texas, but rarely sees the floor. He will come in solely to spell Abrams or Augustin, or in late game situations where a three might be needed.

By looking at the stats, we can see that Texas has one of the most efficient offenses in the country, scoring 122.1 points for every 100 possessions, adjusted to reflect opponent strength. Their defense leaves a bit more to be desired, as their adjusted defensive efficiency checks in at 59th nationally.

The biggest weakness of the Texas defense is guarding the perimeter. Although the Longhorn defense has improved since getting absolutely torched from three-point range by the Kansas State Wildcats, they still have problems shutting down the three in late-game situations. Both Texas A&M and Kansas exploited this in the last two weeks of the season, and a hot three-point shooting team could cause problems in the NCAAs for the Horns.

That’s about as exhaustive as I’m going to get with the team, considering we’ve got to hit the road in about seven hours. If you have any more questions about the Longhorns, feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ll try to get a response out when we pull into rest stops with wireless access.

If you’re a University of Texas grad who happens to be living in the Pacific Northwest, we’d love to see you in the burnt orange section for Friday’s game — and hopefully Sunday’s, too. While priority is being given to Longhorn Foundation donors, basketball season ticket holders, and students with the LASP, I can guarantee you that there will be tickets left over from our allotment when the 12 P.M. deadline passes.

So what to do if you want one of those remaining tickets? Call the Texas Box Office at (512) 471-3333 after 12 P.M. CDT on Tuesday, or click on over to TexasBoxOffice.com and place an order. You can’t order tickets for the session including the Oregon-Miami game and Notre Dame-Winthrop match-up, but there may be tickets available outside the arena if you’re interested in those two games. Each session ticket is $56, while the service charges come in at $10 per order.

Orders can be picked up at will call from the arena in Spokane on game day, beginning an hour before the session. I hope to see some of you Seattle and Portland-based Longhorn fans at the games.

The Longhorn Road Trip just got a whole lot longer. Thanks to the genius of the the NCAA Selection Committee, Texas — a “protected” four seed — will be playing its first two rounds over 2,000 miles from home, with a possible Sweet 16 date in East Rutherford, New Jersey their reward for a pair of victories.

Does anybody actually know anything about Spokane, Washington? Or have any tips of what to see along the way? I’m guessing there won’t be a whole hell of a lot once we get past Denver, but looking at mountains for 891 straight hours ought to be grand. If you’ve got any sights or restaurants for us to check out, feel free to leave them below in the comments.

Honestly, the entire Big 12 got shafted by the committee. A&M is a 3-seed that gets sent to Lexington, while Memphis gets sent to New Orleans as a 2-seed? Why aren’t the Tigers close to home in Lexington while the Aggies play closer to home in Nawlins? And that doesn’t even address the fact that A&M could end up playing Louisville in the second round, only 75 miles down I-64 from the UL campus.

Then Kansas is given a 1-seed, but is rewarded with a regional where 2-seed UCLA gets to play only five hours from home? I realize that the top seeds are only supposed to be protected in the first two rounds — unless, apparently you’re a top four seed from the state of Texas — but is preserving the S-curve so important that a 1-seed should get jobbed that badly?

Why not ship UCLA to the San Antonio regional and send Memphis out to the San Jose regional? I’m assuming, of course, that the S-curve held perfectly for these top eight seeds. If that’s so, you’ve got the overall third-best team (Ohio State) playing the fifth-best team (UCLA) if chalk holds to the Elite Eight, while the fourth-best team (Kansas) gets the sixth-best (Memphis) and no top seeds are absolutely screwed by road games in the second weekend.

That’s enough bitching for now. At least Texas has two winnable games in front of them. We’ll be driving to Spokane on Wednesday and Thursday, so there will likely be few updates to the website in the middle of the week. A preview of the New Mexico State Aggies should be coming on Thursday night once we arrive at the hotel.

It’s a rainy morning here in Oklahoma City, but it’s still Championship Sunday for the Big 12 Conference. Despite the weather, the Ford Center is sure to be full of loud, blue-clad KU supporters — and a bunch of other Jayhawk “fans” wearing maroon and road-cone orange. Last Saturday these teams played for the Big 12 regular season title, and now, just eight days later, they meet with the conference tournament on the line.

For Texas, this is their fourth appearance in the Big 12 tournament title game, but the Horns have yet to hoist the trophy. Kansas, meanwhile, has dominated the league since its inception in the 1996-97 season. The Jayhawks are 3-1 in Big 12 championship games, including a win over the Longhorns last year in Dallas.

Kansas is an amazingly solid team from top to bottom, despite the lack of a senior on their roster. Guard Brandon Rush, a Terrence Howard lookalike, leads the team in scoring in his sophomore year. Joining him in the backcourt is another great scorer, Mario Chalmers. The pair combined for 36 points in the win over Texas last weekend.

In the first matchup, the Jayhawks easily won the battle on the glass. As the hot Longhorn shooting began to cool, Kansas grabbed nearly every miss and limited Texas to one-and-done possessions. Big man Julian Wright is a beast on the boards for KU, as his rebounding average is the only thing higher than his socks. Wright is pulling down eight boards a game, and had thirteen against the Longhorns in the last meeting.

Sasha Kaun is the closest thing to a weak link on the Jayhawk roster, and that’s not saying very much. The big white guy could be a star on most any other team, but is really a fifth scoring option when he’s on the floor. He’s prone to point-blank misses and is painfully bad at the free throw line, but his 6-foot 11-inch frame could still easily cause problems for a much smaller Texas team.

Freshman superstars Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins are both McDonald’s All-Americans that come off the bench for Bill Self’s Jayhawks. Nothing like the luxury of a few McD’s AA’s coming in to spell your starters. Collins is a fireplug of a guard, and possibly the fastest guy I’ve seen on a court this season. He’s averaging nearly ten points a game despite averaging only 20 minutes, and is a very solid shooter from behind the arc.

Arthur — who chose the Jayhawks over the Longhorns — was picking up a ton of fouls quickly as a starter early in the year, but has really found his niche as the sixth man. He’s averaging ten points and five boards a game in only nineteen minutes, so he will without a doubt be providing double-doubles if and when he regains his starting role next season.

Russell Robinson is yet another great guard for Coach Self. He finds passing lanes that most don’t even know are there, and is averaging four and a half assists and 28 minutes per game. Besides the preternatural passing sense, I’m not sure why he’s such a favorite of the Jayhawk fans. I really hope it’s not just because they love shouting “New York!” when he’s introduced before games.

After yesterday’s win over a tired OSU squad, today the Longhorns could be the ones suffering from bonked legs. Texas has a much shorter bench than the Jayhawks, and the Longhorn starters have had to play more minutes over the last two days. But after the incredible comeback win on Friday night, I’m starting to believe that this Texas team could really fight through anything and be in a position to win at the end of every game.

The Horns are obviously not going to repeat their incredible shooting performance from the first half of last Saturday’s game. But at the same time, I don’t think they will play as poorly as they did in the start of the second half. I’m sure that Kansas will come out showing intense pressure extended out to the perimeter, as that is what threw the Horns out of their offensive rhythm. Hopefully Texas will be able to adjust a little better than they did in the second half last Saturday.

Texas also needs to improve its rebounding if it wants to fare better in this one. They need second-chance opportunities, and they can’t afford to give up easy follow-up buckets to the Jayhawks after shutting them down on defense. Without an improvement on the glass, the Longhorns won’t be able to turn this matchup into a victory.

I’m sensing another close game between the Big 12’s top two programs, but think the Jayhawks will ultimately win another conference tournament. Texas certainly has a shot in this one, though.

Don’t forget the Selection Show on CBS tonight at 5 P.M. Central. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to chime in with my thoughts until late, late tonight, as we’ve got a six hour drive back to Austin once they unveil the brackets. I’d really rather hang myself with pantyhose than go to Columbus, so if you happen to see that the Longhorns are being sent to Ohio for the first and second rounds, try not to laugh.

Just a quick hit from Oklahoma City, as we’re soon heading to the Ford Center to try to scalp our way into the semis. While it was hilarious to see the Ags fall flat on their faces after talking shit all afternoon, the win by Oklahoma State is making tickets harder to come by.

If you happened to miss last night’s incredible comeback victory over Baylor, you saved yourself the craziest rollercoaster of emotions I’ve ever experienced at a sporting event. Of course, you also didn’t get to see the biggest comeback in Big 12 Tournament history and in Rick Barnes’ tenure on the 40 Acres. C’est la vie.

Kevin Durant started the game by missing his first ten or eleven shots. But the cold shooting wasn’t limited to KD. Tons of good looks from the Horns were just rimming out, and point blank shots were banking hard off the glass. Combined with Baylor’s hot shooting, Texas’ offensive impotence gave the Bears a huge 18-point halftime lead.

In the second, BU pushed the lead as large as 20 points before the rally began. Kevin Durant scored 24 points in the second half alone and kept the team fired up as they dug their way out of the hole. The surprise player of the game was senior Craig Winder, who played twelve minutes off the bench in relief of a largely ineffective Justin Mason. Winder scored eight points, including a bucket with just under two minutes left to take the lead.

All told, it was a game that truly defied explanation. But I may try to revisit it after the weekend comes to a close. For now, we push onward to a quick look at this afternoon’s game.

The win sets up a semifinal matchup with the Oklahoma State Cowboys today at roughly 3:20 P.M. For a recap on their star players, please check out my pregame thoughts from the triple-overtime game in Stillwater and the blowout in Austin.

I think the key thing to remember in this one is that the Pokes are going to be playing their fifth game in eight days. While the Horns have a short bench, they did get some good minutes out of Winder last night to keep the three starting guards fresh. The OSU fatigue might not be a visible factor until the game gets to crunch time, but the Horns need to make sure they are ahead or within striking distance when those final five minutes roll around.

For now, it’s off to downtown OKC and the Ford Center. TV is ESPN2 for this contest (Big XII markets check your local listings), so be sure to tune in. Otherwise, you just might miss a 30-point comeback or a four-overtime thriller.

For the third time in six weeks, the Texas Longhorns and Baylor Bears are going to tangle on the hardwood. The first contest resulted in a narrow five-point victory for the Horns in Austin, while the final minute of the game in Waco turned into a nailbiter with Texas finishing on top by a point. This time, the two teams play on a neutral court in the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City.

Baylor advanced to the tournament quarterfinals by absolutely dismantling the 6-seed Missouri Tigers, 97-83. But while the green-and-gold faithful were certainly pleased with the school’s first tourney win since 2001, perhaps the biggest Bear fan on Thursday night was Connor Atchley.

Over the last four games, Atchley has hit something of a slump. He seems to have lost the confidence he was building late in the season, losing position on rebounds and disappearing from the offensive mix. But in his two games against Baylor this season, he was the most important Longhorn on the floor. In the previous two match-ups, C.Atch had a combined 24 points, fourteen rebounds, and three blocks. If there’s anything that’s going to get his confidence back for a great March run, it’s another shot at the Bears.

It’s certainly tough to beat the same team three times in one season, particularly one that has played you tough in the first two battles. Tonight is a scary proposition, as Texas comes into this contest with nothing but pride on the line. The Horns are already assured an NCAA berth based on their resumé, and seem to have played themselves well beyond the dreaded 7-to-10 seed range. At this point, the Big 12 Tournament is nothing but an opportunity to get a pretty trophy. Granted, if Texas is to win another game over A&M, the argument could be made that they deserve to slide up the S-curve — but is that even worth it with the short bench at Rick Barnes’ disposal?

If you can’t remember what to look for in the Baylor Bears, you’ve got both of my earlier game previews to provide greater detail on the opponents. In the first game, Texas played a Baylor team at full strength, while the second time around, superstar Aaron Bruce rested a bum ankle on the bench.

As always, Kevin Rogers is a threat against a less-talented Texas frontcourt. But he’s also very foul prone, which serves well to negate that threat. In both of the first two games, he finished with four personals. The rest of the Baylor frontcourt plays well below their potential, leaving Texas most concerned with the perimeter game of the Bears.

Bruce is obviously a tough defensive assignment. In the first game, Baylor constantly ran screens along the baseline to free up their Aussie star for open three-point looks. We’re sure to see a ton of the same tonight, although Texas cannot afford to only focus on Bruce. Austin-product Curtis Jerrells can knock down the three, as can Henry Dugat and young Tweety Carter. It seems that Texas has taken some steps forward in their perimeter defense since the early February disasters, but tonight will certainly let us know exactly how far they have progressed.

Horn fans should also keep an eye on the production from Damion James and Matt Hill. Late in the season, James has really blossomed into the offensive threat we were all looking for, and his increased output will be necessary for a deep March run. Having all five starters as viable scoring options makes the Longhorns a very tough team to game-plan for, particularly with the short turnarounds between tournament games.

Meanwhile, Hill is coming back from a stress fracture that sidelined him for a month and a half, including both of the earlier games with Baylor. With Texas essentially running a six-man rotation during the homestretch of the season, it will be extremely helpful for Matt to provide some much-needed bench relief in the frontcourt. I don’t think that Dexter Pittman will fare well against Baylor’s up-tempo attack tonight, so that leaves only Atchley and Hill to rotate in for Barnes down low.

As I mentioned earlier, a win today is not that important for Texas. The 2003 Final Four team lost their first Big 12 tournament game and then went on to win four straight games in the Big Dance. I would not be disappointed to see Craig Winder out there eating up minutes for Coach Barnes while he rests the overworked backcourt of D.J. Augustin and A.J. Abrams. If that results in a loss, so be it. I’d rather our team be on a full tank of gas next Thursday or Friday. And besides, who honestly wants to spend a whole weekend in Oklahoma?

I’ve been toying with the idea of another year of Longhorn Road Trip during the 2007-08 season, but today’s scheduling news has me geeked beyond words. Mark Rosner of the Austin American-Statesman posted the story to his blog earlier today, announcing that the Horns would host Wisconsin and play Michigan State in Detroit next year.

Readers of this blog may have noticed my infatuation with the Badgers, thanks in no small part to a former co-worker from my days in Belmont. And granted, Wisconsin is going to be rebuilding next year much like we were this season. But I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to see the Badgers here in Austin and then get to see a game up in ‘Scon in the 08-09 season. Hopefully Bo Ryan will still have some hair left by then.

So what’s on the slate for next year’s schedule? Check out this nice package of non-conference opponents:

at UCLA in December
at Michigan State (Detroit)
at Arkansas
home against TCU
home against Wisconsin
plus, a November tournament in Austin/New Jersey

I was waffling on the idea of another season following the team, but that schedule right there may have pushed me over the edge. You can be sure that I’ll revisit the topic during the offseason.

Quarterfinal preview coming at you early on Friday morning before I drive to Oklahoma City.

That sound you just heard? It was a major-conference bubble bursting as the Horizon League Championship came to a close. Wright State upset Butler in front of a raucous home crowd, stealing the auto-bid and sending the Bulldogs to the at-large pool.

Congratulations are also in order for the North Texas Mean Green, who won the Sun Belt Championship just minutes later. For UNT, it is only their second NCAA bid in school history, with the other one coming 19 years ago. In 1988, they were a first-round victim of the mighty North Carolina Tar Heels.

Watching the final seconds of that Butler-Wright State game really epitomized everything that March Madness is about. Throw in the fact that it was on Wright State’s home floor instead of a neutral court, and the chill factor went through the roof.

Sophomore guard Will Graham hit four free throws in the final twelve seconds to ice the game. After he had made the third to put his team up by two possessions, he pounded his chest and pointed into the crowd. Reading his lips was easy. “I love you!” he shouted. His teammates locked arms and jumped with the excitement only a championship can provide.

Just two seconds later, the final buzzer sounded and fans stormed the court. Like UNT, this year will mark only the second time that the Wright State Raiders will be dancing in March. You see that, Michigan State? A championship is truly worthy of a court-rush.

Selection Sunday is still five days away, so there’s a lot of basketball left. But with Butler likely claiming an at-large bid, the pool for bubble teams just got a bit more shallow. Who will miss out thanks to this game? Kansas State? Illinois? West Virginia?

No matter who ends up staying home, the moral of this story remains the same — during Championship Week, the little guys hold all the power.

Kansas held off the Longhorns and held up their 50th conference championship trophy

Two years ago I sat in the very top row of Allen Fieldhouse, sweating off ten pounds in that sauna of a gym as the Longhorns were whipped by twenty-five. LaMarcus Aldridge was on the bench with an injury, while P.J. Tucker was watching in Austin due to academic ineligibility.

So when we drove into Lawrence on Saturday morning, my hopes were high for a better performance. After all, it’s tough to lose by more than 25 points. And I felt that this Texas team could hang with the Jayhawks and keep themselves within ten at the final buzzer. Little did I know that the Horns were going to play absolutely out of their minds in the first half and have all of their fans thinking upset.

Texas (22-8 overall, 12-4 Big 12) started the game shooting absolutely lights out. The Horns hit 57% of their shots, including a ridiculous 11-of-14 from behind the arc. There was one stretch where they scored on 12 straight possessions and even held a 16-point lead with less than three minutes remaining in the half.

But Kansas (27-4, 14-2) refused to go away, shooting 50% in the first half to keep Texas within arm’s reach at the break. The Jayhawks trailed by only 12 at halftime, and came out of the locker room with an incredible surge. Within four minutes of play, Kansas had retaken the lead at 58-57. During that stretch, the Horns made only four free throws.

Kansas stifled the Longhorn offense in the second half by extending the pressure out to the perimeter. In the first half, they had been content to try to double down on Durant when he touched the ball, and the Horns were utilizing the open man it created to make the Jayhawks pay. But with the pressure turned up around the arc, the Texas guards seemed frustrated. A big man would try to set a high screen, but before the guard could even dribble around it, the Kansas defender had fought through, turning it into a double team.

Finally, down four with about eleven minutes left, Kevin Durant attacked the rim from the wing. His shot missed, and as Texas fans looked for him to follow for the inside rebound and putback, we instead saw him crumple to the floor. He tried to get up and limp away, but fell once more. Our basketball lives flashed before our eyes. KD headed to the locker room and all hope seemed lost.

But D.J. Augustin and A.J. Abrams stepped up in the absence of their teammate, scoring seven points over the ensuing two minutes to keep the Longhorns within one point. Unfortunately, Kansas hit the glass hard and extended that lead back out to nine before Durant returned from the locker room.

Texas was able to get the defecit down to six in the final minutes, but continually made mistakes on the offensive end after stopping the Jayhawks from scoring. A charge by Abrams negated one possession, while a fast break was killed when Abrams tossed the ball to Augustin when he was standing on the sideline. But despite those brain farts, missed free throws by Kansas and a late flurry of threes by the Horns made it a three-point game with time running out.

Durant grabbed a rebound off of a missed Kansas free throw, and the Horns pushed it up the floor with only 22 seconds left. Justin Mason missed a three from the corner, but Augustin controlled the carom with 12 seconds left. Instead of pulling it out and using the remaining time to find a good look, he tried to immediately go back up for three with a pair of Jayhawk defenders in his face. Julian Wright came from behind and stuffed the try as Durant, J.D. Lewis, and Abrams all stood wide-open elsewhere around the arc.

While it’s certainly frustrating to lose a 16-point lead and a chance for a second-straight stunning upset, this game shows huge progress for the Longhorns. Kansas is likely a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, or at least one of the first 2-seeds if they lay an egg in the Big 12 tournament. And this young Texas team hung with that top-flight Kansas squad on the road, in a hostile environment, and without its biggest star for a chunk of the second half. I’m sure I sound like an Aggie fan grasping at moral victories, but you can’t be anything but encouraged by that performance.

In addition to Durant’s insane 25-point first half and 32-point night, there were other standout performances for the Horns. Damion James played tough inside against a bigger, more experienced, and more talented Kansas frontcourt. James had twelve points and seven boards on the night. Point guard Augustin did not miss a minute of play and chipped in with 19 points. But more amazingly, he dished out 13 assists to only three turnovers for his third double-double of the year.

Connor Atchley had a tough game inside, but I feel will bounce back admirably on Friday. A game against Missouri or Baylor should really increase his confidence, which is what I think he needs desperately at this point. Fans wanting more out of C.Atch should root for Baylor to upset Missouri on Thursday, as Connor had his best games of the year in the two earlier meetings with the Bears.

Matt Hill came back from injury and gave the Horns 13 minutes. He didn’t look at 100% and later told me that he was still feeling a bit sore, but played incredibly well for a guy who has been out of commission for a month and a half. And when you remember that his last outing resulted in a line with 5 fouls and a row of zeroes, his two points and three boards are a step in the right direction.

Texas now has nearly a week to rest and allow Durant’s ankle to heal back up. They have earned a bye through the first round of Big 12 Tournament play and will not play until roughly 8:30 P.M. on Friday night. In the meantime, I’ll be adding some road trip stuff to the site and perhaps throw in some updates from Championship Week. The calendar finally reads March, and I couldn’t be happier.

Andy Katz always gives the Horns good press. He was all over us at the start of last season, and stuck with the team through their lowest point in December when they lost to Duke and Tennessee consecutively by a combined margin of about 172 points. If I remember correctly, he even had Texas in his pre- and post-season Final Four picks. And while the Horns didn’t get a chance to finally beat Duke in Atlanta and make that prediction a reality, they did come within one win of getting there for a second time in four years.

Wednesday, Katz followed Kevin Durant around on the day of the A&M game, which included a fifteen-minute visit between Durant and the students waiting outside the South O-Zone entrance. For the previous two or three conference games, KD and Dexter Pittman had come out of Cooley Pavilion to meet with the students in line. But with the huge crowd waiting for the Aggie game, it turned into a madhouse.

The resulting article is a great read and even makes it sound like we have good student fan support. (It appears that we fooled Katz, whose Wisconsin Badgers have students who actually “get it” and can create an intimidating atmosphere.) And since I chatted up the Longhorn-friendly reporter, I even was quoted in two consecutive graphs of the article.

“You should see it on the road,” says fifth-year senior Ryan Clark. “I’ve been to every game, every one, all 31, including exhibitions, and he’s just as big a superstar on the road as he is here at home.”

Clark is so dedicated to Horns hoops that he says if Durant comes back for his sophomore season, then he’ll come up with a reason to return for his sixth.

While my mother certainly doesn’t like that idea, I have to say a sixth year wouldn’t be so bad if I was watching KD lead the Horns to a national title. And I could always take the Matt Leinart plan and fill the schedule with ballroom dancing.