With the Tech game less than 24 hours away, we’ll dispense with the introductions and get right into some post-game thoughts.

1) The game ball goes to Alex Oriakhi – Much has been written about Kemba Walker‘s performance in overtime, and there’s no denying that he single-handedly willed his team to victory in those extra five minutes. But without the sudden re-emergence of sophomore big man Alex Oriakhi, there’s no overtime for the Huskies to even play in.

Oriakhi looked like one of the nation’s most dominant bigs when he broke out at the Maui Invitational. In the three-game tournament, the sophomore tallied 45 points and grabbed 35 rebounds, logging double-doubles against both Michigan State and Kentucky. After re-entering the mainland, Oriakhi seemed to lose his mojo. He averaged just over eight points and six rebounds in the eight ensuing games, and saw his numbers dip even more in conference play thanks to foul trouble.

Against the Longhorns, Oriakhi tore down an eye-popping 21 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive end. He chipped in 11 points, and came up with the biggest block of the night when he rejected Texas’ game-winning attempt with ten seconds left in regulation.

If this is Alex Oriakhi that shows up the rest of this season, UConn will be a very tough team to beat. Without him, the Huskies are reduced to the Kemba Walker Show, and recent weeks have proven that he won’t be able to carry his team alone for much longer.

2) Free throws finally caught up with Texas – As a team, the Longhorns are currently the proud owners of a 64.8% free-throw mark. That’s good enough for 275th place in the country. To put it another way, there are only 70 teams in all of Division I basketball worse at the stripe than Texas.

Against UConn, the Longhorns made just 14 of their 23 attempts. Big man Tristan Thompson was a frustrating 1-of-6 from the line, including two excruciating misses in overtime. Jordan Hamilton was just 1-of-3 when he headed to the stripe, with one of his misses coming on the front end of a one-and-one.

It seems elementary to say that shooting 60.8% at the line cost a team the game when it was decided by just one point in overtime. But what is most frustrating about this never-ending free-throw nightmare is that while not only will it cost the Longhorns some wins against good teams, but it is likely also going to cost Texas a road game against a sub-par opponent. Losing an exciting, back-and-forth game to UConn is excusable. Losing in Lincoln or Norman? Not so much.

3) Damned if you Dogus, damned if you don’t – The Turkish Minister of Defense — better known by his given name of Dogus Balbay — is the biggest reason why Kemba Walker struggled so much on Saturday afternoon. It took 18 minutes for Walker to crack the scoreboard, and he finished regulation with just 15 points. Unfortunately, if you look at the substitution patterns late in the game, Balbay’s complete uselessness on offense essentially allowed the Huskies to force overtime.

With the Longhorns down one and just under two minutes on the clock, Coach Barnes called a timeout and subbed in Cory Joseph for Balbay. The offense-for-defense maneuver worked, and Texas took the lead on J’Covan Brown’s jumper. As Balbay watched from the bench, Walker immediately attacked the rim, drawing a foul on a helping Thompson en route to a three-point play.

There were a lot of moments in this game that all added up to a loss for the Longhorns. But Texas needs something, anything out of Balbay on the offensive end that will allow him to play more minutes. The team simply can’t afford to give an opponent’s best player an easier match-up in the most crucial minutes of the game.

4)Benchwarmers finally warmed up – J’Covan Brown had, without a doubt, his best game to-date on the 40 Acres. Sure, he still took a few questionable shots, but on Saturday afternoon, even two of those went in the bucket. He matched Jordan Hamilton with 20 points, despite playing 12 less minutes. From long range, a place he had struggled in mid-December, Brown was two for three. And on a day when nobody’s free throws seemed to go in, J’Covan made all four of his.

While not as strong as Brown’s performance, Matt Hill‘s contributions were important. He struggled early, but bounced back to come up with some key defensive stops and snagged a few defensive rebounds when Texas couldn’t even buy one. He logged six total boards in the game, and actually posted the best defensive rebounding numbers on the team when adjusted for minutes.

5) If at first you don’t succeed, hope you’re playing Texas – Easy putbacks have been a thorn in the side of the Texas defense all season long. Against North Carolina, those second-chance points nearly cost the team a big victory. With the Huskies scoring 24 of their own second-chance points on Saturday afternoon — 17 of them in the second half — the Longhorns were lucky to claw back and force overtime.

The worst part of the rebounding impotence is that it masked what was a quality defensive effort from the team. Texas held the Huskies to 38% shooting from the field, which is even more impressive when you consider how many shots UConn took just a foot or two from the bucket.

The optimist will simply chalk this up as an aberration, a result of the Longhorns selling out in an effort to stop Walker. The pessimist will declare that this is the inevitable result of having a frontcourt with little experience beyond the starters. The answer may lie somewhere between the two extremes, but there’s no doubt that the upcoming battles in a rugged Big 12 Conference will settle the debate. The first big test for the Texas frontcourt arrives next Wednesday, when the Longhorns take on an A&M squad that is currently eighth-best in the nation on the offensive glass.

Next up: at Texas Tech (8-8); 6 P.M., Tuesday

A year ago, a road game against UConn served as the turning point in a disappointing season for the Texas Longhorns, a season in which they ascended to the nation’s No. 1 ranking before spiraling into a free-fall that ended with a first-round NCAA exit.

When the Longhorns blew a 10-point second-half lead in Storrs last season, ultimately losing to the Huskies by 14 points, they had already suffered their first loss of the year to Kansas State. But the team’s inexplicable collapse in the final 20 minutes against UConn served as a microcosm of a season in which the team had an equally-frustrating implosion down the stretch.

With UConn losing both Stanley Robinson and Jerome Dyson in the off-season, this year’s match-up between the two teams seemed like an easy chance for Texas’ revenge. The Huskies entered the season as one of the youngest teams in the country, with a frontcourt surrounded by question marks.

Then, the Maui Invitational happened. Kemba Walker, who spent his summer working hard in NBA skills camps and with the USA Select team, exploded onto the national scene with 90 points in three games, leading his young team to a tournament title with wins over Michigan State and Kentucky.

The potential is certainly still there for a Texas revenge win. In recent weeks, the Huskies have struggled as they entered conference play, suffering a pair of road losses to Pitt and Notre Dame, while being forced to overtime by a South Florida team that now holds a 6-10 record. Stat guru Ken Pomeroy gives Texas a 78% chance to win this afternoon, projecting a 74-68 win for the Horns.

By the numbers

Coached by longtime legend Jim Calhoun, the Huskies are sound on both ends of the court. Their skill on both offense and defense gives them a per-possession scoring differential of 0.218, which ranks 29th nationally. As a point of comparison, the Longhorns rank 15th in that category, holding a 0.264 differential.

In eight of the last nine seasons, UConn has led the nation in blocks. The one year they didn’t claim the top spot, they slid all the way down to second. This year, the solid team defense has them blocking shots at a ridiculous pace once again, swatting 18.2% of their opponents shots. While not yet tops in the nation, that mark puts the Huskies at third in D-I basketball.

Thanks to that intimidating inside presence, the UConn defense simply doesn’t let teams score easily inside. Their defense is allowing opponents to shoot just 39.5% inside the arc, a mark that is 7th in the nation. The Longhorns come into today’s game just as stout inside, allowing just a 38.6% success rate, good for 3rd in the country. If today’s game settles into a half-court affair, it will either be a low-scoring battle or a showcase of three-point shooting.

On offense, the Huskies make their possessions count. Their turnover rate is a scant 17.8%, 38th in the country, while their offensive rebounding percantage is 4th in the country. UConn grabs 43.5% of their misses, but those numbers may be deceptive thanks to an incredibly weak non-con schedule.

The Huskies have played five opponents who place in the bottom 100 of Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, and the team’s recent foray into Big East play seem to indicate that perhaps that schedule left them a little unprepared. In UConn’s last two games — a road loss to Notre Dame and an overtime win at home over South Florida — the team grabbed just 31.5% of their offensive rebounding chances.

Meet the Huskies

If you’ve watched any college basketball at all this season, Kemba Walker needs no introduction. The junior guard is averaging 26.1 points per game, while his quick hands on defense have led to 2.4 steals per game.

The biggest knock on Walker’s game coming into the season was his lack of a long-range shot. A lightning-quick guard, Kemba was often stifled by defenses who sagged off thanks to his inability to knock down threes and long-range jumpers. As a member of both Chris Paul’s and LeBron James’ skills camps this summer, Walker put in tons of hours, and developed a long-range threat that has made him nearly unstoppable. Shooting 35.9% from behind the arc this year, Walker now forces defenses to play him tight, allowing him numerous opportunities to blow by and score at the rim or on pull-up jumpers.

Inside, Alex Oriakhi has made huge strides in his sophomore season. The Huskies desperately needed a post presence entering the season, and he has improved his offensive game enough to make an impact. Oriakhi has always been a solid rebounder, but his 10.5 points per game this season are more than double his five point-per-game output from last season. With 8.4 boards per contest, the sophomore is by far the leading rebounder on the team, and his work on the offensive glass is key to keeping the UConn offense clicking.

Jeremy Lamb is the only member of the deep six-man freshman class who has started every game, and his length and athleticism are invaluable at the wing. He’s scoring 7.7 points a night while pulling down 4.8 boards, and his long arms help when he’s out of position on defense.

Fellow freshman Roscoe Smith has joined Lamb in the starting lineup for UConn’s first three Big East conference games. He’s another lengthy, athletic kid, and he embodies the strong, physical post defense that UConn is famous for. This season, he’s averaging nearly two blocks a game and is second on the team with 32 offensive rebounds.

The other UConn big man who has cracked the starting lineup in Big East play is senior Charles Okwandu. The seven-foot Nigerian product isn’t much of an offensive threat, but he runs the floor well in transition, making it difficult for teams to get open looks even on the fast break.

While his raw block numbers aren’t tops on the team, tempo-free stats reveal that Okwandu is the best shot blocker on the team. In his limited minutes, the senior was blocking 12% of all opportunities heading into the Notre Dame game. Had he played enough minutes to qualify for the leaderboard, that would make Okwandu the 17th-best shot blocker in all of D-I basketball.

Coming off the bench, UConn has an exciting freshman guard in Shabazz Napier. Like Walker, he’s incredibly quick with the basketball, and he isn’t afraid to shoot from anywhere on the floor. He brings a much-needed three-point threat to a team that struggled behind the arc last season, and he’s averaging nearly two steals a game. The Longhorns will want to be careful when pushing the ball up after missed UConn baskets, because Napier loves to steal the initial outlet pass and turn it into an easy layup.

Sophomore forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel also comes off the bench for Coach Calhoun, and he provides even more height at the wing. He gives the Huskies a very good rebounder from the 3 or the 4 spot, but coaches are hoping he can also add a three-point threat to his arsenal. So far this season, Coombs-McDaniel is just 6-of-27 from behind the arc, and it’s limited him to about 15 minutes a game.

Freshman Niels Giffey comes to Storrs by way of Berlin, Germany, and he brings the outside shot that so many European players love. Giffey is yet another really tall wingman for UConn, checking in at 6’7″, and his height makes him a valuable defender against teams with solid outside shooters.

Big man Tyler Olander is another freshman for UConn, and he started a handful of games for the team at the beginning of the year. Now, he’s relegated to the bench, and his minutes per game have dropped to about 13 per contest. He’s not a flashy player, but he’s a hard-nosed guy who scraps for rebounds.

In the offseason, senior Donnell Beverly was being pegged as a potential leader in the backcourt, someone who could work with Walker and provide a steady hand when the young team hit speedbumps. As it’s turned out, Napier and Lamb have contributed almost immediately, and Beverly hasn’t been needed for more than nine minutes a game. Statistically, he hasn’t been much of a factor this season, but he will give the younger guards a few minutes of rest this afternoon.

The most recent addition to the team is seven-footer Enosch Wolf, another European product who is still a very raw talent. His enrollment at UConn was delayed by a semester, so he missed out on practically the entire non-conference slate, and as a result, he doesn’t have a real role in the rotation. Enosch has only played six minutes per game in his first three appearances, but his nasty, tenacious play inside will undoubtedly be a key for the team in years to come.

Keys to the game

Make Walker work for his points – It’s no secret that Kemba Walker is going to score a bunch of points this afternoon. He had 12 straight games in which he scored at least 20 points, and the streak was finally broken when he chipped in “only” 19 in the loss to the Irish. What seems to be key, however, is how often Walker keeps the ball away from the rest of the offense when he’s scoring.

When Walker takes more than 40% of his team’s shots, they are 1-2 this season, with the one victory being a narrow four-point win over Wichita State in Maui. If the Longhorns challenge Walker’s shots and provide good help defense when he inevitably beats his man, they can make it much tougher for him to earn those points. If he is taking 20-plus shots tonight, Texas should find itself on top when the buzzer sounds.

Keep the Huskies off the offensive glass – Connecticut makes teams pay by extending their possessions on the offensive end. Make a good stop against the Huskies, and you’re often frustrated by an offensive board leading to an easy putback or an opportunity for the offense to re-set. Against quality competition in their last three games, the UConn frontcourt has looked much more mortal than they did in the first two months of the season. If Texas can limit the second and third-chance points, it will be tough for UConn to steal a road win.

Attack inside – The frontcourt was the big question mark coming into the season for the Huskies, and it’s still a bit of an enigma as the calendar turns to 2011. Alex Oriakhi has seen a severe drop in his production since Big East play began, averaging just 7.6 points and 3.3 boards per game. While many guys would love to have that line, Oriakhi started the season with three double-doubles in his first five games, including ones against Michigan State and Kentucky.

The biggest limiting factor for Oriakhi in conference play has been foul trouble, as he played just 19 minutes against Pitt and 23 against Notre Dame. If the Longhorns can attack Oriakhi and saddle him with fouls, the Huskies will be forced to rely on Okwandu and Wolf, two guys who lack the offensive threat that Oriakhi brings to the court.

Beat the defense – As with Michigan State just a few weeks ago, the best way to beat the skilled UConn defense is to push the ball in transition and score on the break and on the secondary break. The Huskies do a good job of staying in front of their men in the half-court, and solid help defense allows them to block a ton of shots when opponents do actually beat their man. As Notre Dame proved in a win over UConn on Tuesday night, if Texas can beat the defense down the floor, they will find it much easier to knock off the Huskies.

The University of Texas released the non-conference schedule for the men’s basketball team yesterday, and the Longhorns once again have a top-flight list of opponents before Big 12 play. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to check out the full season schedule, or simply click this handy-dandy hyperlink.

Texas opens the season with the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, which culminates in a pair of games at Madison Square Garden against two of the tournament’s other three regional hosts — Illinois, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. The Terrapins and Panthers were both NCAA tournament teams in 2010, and both advanced out of the first round. While the Illini did not make it into the Big Dance, hopes are high for their 2010-11 campaign, and ESPN’s Andy Katz even ranked them 15th in his first preseason poll.

The Longhorns also face a trio of perennial powers in this season’s non-conference slate. Texas first travels to Greensboro, North Carolina to tangle with the Tar Heels on December 18th. As we reported on Twitter last week, the two schools were in talks to move this year’s game to the Bahamas. With this year’s contest staying Stateside, it fulfills North Carolina’s “semi-home” game in the current contract and now leaves the two schools free to revisit the Nassau option in future seasons.

While the Tar Heels were sent reeling following their loss to the Longhorns last December, they seemed to put the pieces together in the post-season and surged to the NIT finals, where they lost to Dayton. With another year under the belts of the young and talented Carolina team — plus the addition of freshman stud Harrison Barnes — the Tar Heels are set for a solid 2010-11 campaign.

Just four days later, Texas heads to East Lansing for an on-campus match-up with Michigan State. The Spartans are coming off their second-straight Final Four, and return all of their key players outside of Raymar Morgan. Although the Longhorns escaped with a victory against MSU in Austin last December, they have historically had trouble with Tom Izzo‘s teams. A true road game against a preseason-Top 5 squad will certainly be a challenge for the Horns.

In early January, Texas hosts Connecticut at the Frank Erwin Center. Like the Tar Heels, the Huskies had an abnormally mediocre season last year. Unlike North Carolina, however, Connecticut managed to knock off the Horns in the midst of their struggles. The Huskies are bringing in a pair of 4-star guards and return Kemba Walker, so expect coach Jim Calhoun to have his team ready for another exciting match-up.

The Longhorns will also face two more major conference opponents in Southern Cal and Arkansas. Texas knocked off both of those teams in 2009-10, and are looking for another clean sweep this year. The Trojans are still embroiled in NCAA drama, as their school’s lawyers are fighting sanctions that were handed down earlier this month. Coach Kevin O’Neill certainly has his hands full rebuilding the program, but his squad matured nicely at the end of last season.

The Razorbacks, meanwhile, will be without star guard Courtney Fortson, who declared for the NBA draft and signed with an agent in April. Arkansas fans are lamenting the decision, as Fortson went unselected in Thursday night’s draft. They can take solace in the fact that sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke will still be on the court for Coach John Pelphrey, though.

In addition to the major names, the Longhorns filled the remainder of their non-conference slate with a slew of mid-major opponents. Navy and Louisiana Tech are Texas’ opening round opponents in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, while in-state foes Lamar, Rice, and Sam Houston State are all making trips to the Frank Erwin Center. North Florida and Coppin State round out the non-conference sked for the Horns with match-ups in December.

Well, that escalated quickly.

The Longhorns fell victim to a second-straight loss on Saturday afternoon, turning a ten-point lead in the opening minute of the second half into an epic meltdown that resulted in a fourteen-point road loss. Texas seemed completely lost and overwhelmed as the game careened out of control, the rowdy crowd of 10,000 fueling the Connecticut surge.

So what exactly happened? How did a team that was enjoying a double-digit lead suddenly look like a frightened high school JV team? Fortunately for both this author and my readers, the answers to that question will be short and sweet.

What looked good

There were very few things that looked good on this afternoon. So few things, in fact, that it’s incredibly easy to chalk up this loss and the final nineteen minutes of it to aberrational play that will hopefully never be seen again from a Longhorn team.

Early on, Texas seemed to grasp the simple idea of drive-and-dish that we touched on in the game preview. The Longhorn guards were aware of the defensive presence the Huskies boast inside, and were perfectly content with drawing attention off the dribble and dishing for easy layups or open jumpers. Eight out of the 16 first-half buckets for Texas came off of an assist, with two of the unassisted scores coming on fast breaks.

In addition to occasional uses of dribble penetration, there were a handful of times where the Texas ball movement didn’t seem reminiscent of a high-speed Pong battle around the perimeter. On one particular possession in the second half, Jai Lucas lobbed in an entry pass to Dexter Pittman, who was immediately double-teamed by Lucas’ defender and Pittman’s man. Almost immediately, Big Dex rifled the ball back to a wide-open Lucas. The tiny guard missed his three-pointer, so this won’t go down as even a moral victory in the eyes of the biggest Texas homer. But for one brief moment, Pittman did exactly what he was supposed to with the basketball, and the Longhorns were actually set up to capitalize, although they failed to do so.

Far too often, Dexter brings the ball down low, typically leading to a turnover against the double- or triple-teams. In addition, Texas normally has only the offensively-challenged Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay waiting on Dexter’s side of the court as a kick-out option, which means there is absolutely no three-point threat for the defense to worry about. In this instance, Pittman kept the ball high and recognized the presence of a three-point threat waiting. If Texas could actually have multiple possessions like this in one game, that outside threat might actually open things up inside for the much-maligned big man.

The Longhorn defense looked good in brief stretches, although there was a horrible trend of playing solid defense for 30 seconds before letting a big man make a clean cut for a wide-open backdoor layup. Time and again, Texas would shut down Connecticut with great denial on the perimeter, only to give up the easy, demoralizing bucket. There were far more awful things about the defense on Saturday afternoon, but we’ll get to that in the following segment…

What needed work

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, this game wasn’t in the 8-and-under Little Dribblers league, so things weren’t finished after just 24 minutes. Texas absolutely collapsed in the second half, and that means there will be a lot for Coach Barnes to work on before Wednesday night’s game with Texas Tech.

The most glaring problem for the Longhorns was a complete lack of transition defense. This was one of our keys to the game in yesterday’s preview, and it is the one thing that the UConn offense does exceptionally well. But even with that information being very public knowledge, Texas seemed to have no interest in getting back on defense to turn the game into a half-court battle. The Huskies scored 20 points on fast breaks, including twelve in a 7:30 stretch of the second half where they turned an eight-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

As briefly mentioned earlier, the other big problem for the Texas defense was breakdowns late in the shot clock. Great defensive stands don’t mean a damned thing when you only hold a team for 30 of 35 seconds, and that sort of glaring defensive miscommunication is even worse when it results in the wide-open, point-blank looks that UConn was getting.

In one of our tweets from the game, it was mentioned that you won’t beat many teams who are shooting 55% from the field. While that’s certainly true, the defensive issues mentioned above certainly didn’t help matters. It would take quite an awful team to have a bad shooting night when they are racing down the court for uncontested fast break points and cutting back-door for open layups that Jim Abbott could sink.

The final problem contributing to the Connecticut surge was the Longhorns’ lackadaisical ball control in the second half. Thanks to three Balbay fouls in just fifty seconds, the point guard role was filled down the stretch mostly by Mason and Jai Lucas. While both are serviceable points, they aren’t exactly staunch lockboxes with the basketball, and neither is the man you’d want to lead your team out of a double-digit hole in a hostile road environment. They combined for three turnovers down the stretch, with Jordan Hamilton and Damion James adding four more. Without Balbay on the floor to slow things down, the Longhorns looked absolutely clueless with the basketball.

While Texas was busy coughing it up and helping Connecticut to stretch their lead out to thirteen points, the perpetual free-throw nightmare resurfaced to exacerbate the problem. The Horns missed five consecutive free throws as the Huskies were pulling away, and made just 4-of-10 in the second half. While this Texas team is never going to be a good free throw shooting squad, going 1-of-6 in the most critical stretch of the game is just as bad as three dumb turnovers.

The road ahead

Texas has the good fortune of following up this brutal road trip with a home game against Texas Tech. And while the Red Raiders are vastly improved this season, they are still a much different team away from the confines of United Spirit Arena. A solid, convincing win should help the Longhorns get back on track before a tough home game with the Baylor Bears on Saturday, a squad that has finally added quality defense to its usual array of offensive talents.

Tickets still remain for both games, and judging from the typically flaky nature of Texas fans, neither will likely be a sellout thanks to the current losing streak. But this team deserves fan support, regardless of the results of these two tough road games.

If you want to save a few bucks on tickets and support your hometown team, check out Bevo’s Bargains through the Texas Box Office. Fans can save $2 per ticket for the Tech game by donating three books to the less fortunate, while military, fire, EMS, and police can enjoy the same discount if they order their tickets in advance. Girl Scouts are eligible for the $2 for the Baylor game, and must also order tickets in advance.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more content, as we have more photos to share from this year’s trips and perhaps some notes from the road. On Tuesday, we’ll take a statistical look at the struggles Texas has encountered in its last three games, and discuss how those flaws could be addressed down the stretch.

Not a lot of time for a proper game preview this afternoon, as we have to race around the central Connecticut area to pick up fellow travelers, grab some pre-game grub, and head to Storrs early enough to check out the campus. As such, we’ll jump right to our keys for today’s game…

Solid transition defense – UConn doesn’t force very many turnovers, but when they do, you can bet the ball will quickly be pushed up the floor. The Huskies also earn a bunch of points by beating their opponents down the court after misses. UConn’s offense has been fairly stagnant lately, but they are able to make up for that recent scoring anemia with these easy transition points. Texas shouldn’t be so concerned with transition buckets that they give up on offensive rebounding chances, but the Horns certainly need to be ready to backpedal down the floor.

Drive and dish – The Huskies are the best team in the nation when it comes to blocking shots, swatting more than one in every five opportunities. Against Kansas State, another great shot-blocking team, the Horns had their greatest success when the guards penetrated, drew defensive help, and then dished to a big man on the blocks. When Texas simply tried to force things inside, they were typically bogged down by double- and triple-teams, and the offensive either stalled or turned it over. If the Longhorn guards can penetrate this tough defense, it should open things up against the formidable UConn frontcourt.

Weather the crowd – We mentioned via Twitter that Monday night’s crowd was the loudest we had heard in four-plus years of traveling. Texas managed to fight through the crowd and the momentum that comes with it, fighting back from an eleven-point deficit to even take the lead. Today’s crowd could be just as electric as Texas plays its last game with the No. 1 crown.

The Huskies have been in a recent backslide, losing four out of seven, and will be playing without the leadership of legendary coach Jim Calhoun. Connecticut also doesn’t have a true “great win” on its résumé yet, and this afternoon’s contest definitely provides that opportunity. If that’s not enough to get a storied Big East crowd fired up, I don’t think there’s much that will.

This shouldn’t be a high-scoring, up-and-down game, so any scoring runs that either team can manage will be even more important than usual. If the Longhorns find themselves falling behind as the frenzied crowd starts to froth at its collective mouth, they will simply have to play smart basketball or risk digging a hole they can’t climb out of.

One final note… – Connecticut is the fourth-best team in the country when it comes to keeping opponents off the foul line. For Texas, that is outstanding news, especially coming off of a 9-for-22 free-throw performance against Kansas State. But it also means that the Longhorns must be able to knock down their shots against a very well-coached defense. Connecticut will keep the Texas players in front of them, while a steady frontcourt holds things down inside if the Longhorns happen to make it to that second wave of defenders. If Texas has a bad shooting day against this team, it could be a long, ugly afternoon.

After a week’s absence in the blogpoll, we’re back in the mix with today’s ballot. Here are our votes, with the official compilation poll to come later today:

Rank	Team
1	Pittsburgh
2	Connecticut
3	Oklahoma
4	Memphis
5	North Carolina
6	Louisville
7	Duke
8	Missouri
9	Wake Forest
10	Michigan St.
11	Villanova
12	Marquette
13	Clemson
14	Arizona St.
15	Kansas
16	Gonzaga
17	Purdue
18	Illinois
19	UCLA
20	Washington
21	Louisiana St.
22	West Virginia
23	Xavier
24	Florida St.
25	Texas

It was an interesting week with losses by half of the top ten teams from the last poll. Only Wake Forest and UConn suffered their defeats at the hands of other top ten teams, while North Carolina, Michigan State, and Oklahoma all lost on the road to unranked opponents. As a result, it was a little easier to ignore the instinct to slide teams up and down based on the most recent results and instead reshuffle everyone based on their complete body of work this season.

The middle of the pack all held their own by winning their games this week, but our votes differed slightly from the consensus of last week’s blogpoll, when we didn’t submit a ballot. We chose to slot Marquette ahead of Clemson based on a more robust list of quality wins, although they could quickly take a nosedive with an absolute nightmare of a schedule awaiting them over the final two weeks. The Golden Eagles have to face UConn and Louisville this week before closing the season with a road trip to Pitt and a home game against Syracuse.

After that quality in the middle of the poll, things were a bit dicier with the lower rankings. Five of the bottom seven teams lost a game this week, and practically every other team that could have been considered for the 24th or 25th slot dropped at least one game as well. LSU slides up two spots to No. 21 in our ballot, but it’s more a reflection on the lack of other candidates than a rousing endorsement of the Tigers. They are playing in an incredibly weak SEC, leaving a home win over Washington State as their only remarkable victory this year.

The full compilation ballot will be released later this afternoon.