Bill Self might be in trouble for saying hello to recruit John Wall. Really? AAU coaches and family members of recruits are hired on staffs or paid to speak at camps and clinics, and this is what catches the NCAA’s attention? Basketball recruiting needs some cleaning up, but this kind of crap is not what they should be focusing on. Hell, if the Dallas Morning News could dig up the dirt on the Big 12, then certainly the NCAA could do some actual good instead of policing interactions like the one Self and Wall had.

Andy Glockner debuted his Bubble Watch this week, with seven Big 12 teams worthy of consideration in the field of sixty-five. OU is his only lock thus far, but Baylor and Texas sit just outside that coveted circle at the moment.

Don’t look now, but St. Joseph’s might be hitting its stride as A-10 play kicks off. The Hawks certainly aren’t a candidate for an NCAA at-large bid at this point, but they’ve opened league play at 3-0 and are helping Texas’ computer numbers with every win. The Atlantic 10+4 is clearly Xavier’s to lose, but St. Joe’s has the luxury of only having to play the Muskies once in the league’s unbalanced round robin — and the Hawks get to host the game at their temporary home, The Palestra.

Through two games against lesser opponents, the two most notable things about the 2008-09 Longhorns were their sloppy ball control and an impenetrable defense. The big question was whether or not either of these trends would change against real competition. They didn’t.

Texas defeated St. Joe’s 68-50 in the opening round of the Maui Invitational yesterday, but turned the ball over 16 times in the process. That stingy defense remained, however, holding the Hawks to only 29% shooting, including just 4-of-21 from long range. Through three games, Longhorn opponents have been limited to 28.9% shooting from the field and 21.9% shooting from behind the arc. According to Ken Pomeroy’s metrics, Texas has the fifth-toughest defense in the country to date.

The downside, though, was the continued problems controlling the basketball. Texas had turned it over a nauseating 34 times in the first two games against Stetson and Tulane, and Coach Rick Barnes saw his team cough it up another 16 times against the Hawks. Many of the turnovers were unforced errors, with entry passes to the post being lobbed out of reach, or fast breaks being stifled by trying to squeeze the ball through three defenders.

The Longhorns are an incredibly athletic team, and it seems at times that they are too busy trying to run the other team out of the gym to actually slow down and play efficient basketball. With time, Barnes will certainly get this worked out; after all, he did say at the tournament’s Tip Off Banquet that “this team can be really good in a month.”

Bench play was a very bright spot in this game, with Alexis Wangmene, Gary Johnson, and Varez Ward looking great off the pine. Johnson was an absolute beast on the glass, logging a double-double with a 14/10 line. Gary oftentimes wasn’t even in the “right” position to grab a rebound, but used his athleticism and unbridled aggressiveness to get to the ball. If Johnson is providing these kind of 20-plus minute performances night after night, the Texas depth is going to keep opposing coaches up at night.

Wangmene stepped out in this one after seeing very little action in the first two games. Much like Johnson, Wangmene did most of his work by simply fighting down low. His 8/7 line doesn’t tell the whole story, either, as he added a block and helped Texas corral a few extra rebounds by just tipping the loose ball to teammates.

In the backcourt, Ward looked much more comfortable in the flow of the offense. He found the open man, providing four assists in only twelve minutes on the court. And perhaps most importantly for the young man, he made his first two free throws of the day to erase the bitter taste of his 0-for-6 season numbers from the line. Ward did miss his other two attempts, but it’s a nice psychological lift to get that monkey off his back.

As always, Damion James and A.J. Abrams led the way for the Longhorns, quietly putting up their typical double-digit scoring numbers. Abrams continued his hot start from long range, knocking down 4-of-7 behind the arc, many of which came with the tiniest bit of separation from the defender. A.J. still is looking to take runners off the dribble, a kind of shot that he had trouble making during his sophomore campaign. Last season, Abrams improved and was able to knock those down with regularity, but this seasons those runners are looking a bit more like the A.J. of old. Once he gets those to start falling again, defenses will really have their hands full.

DaMo didn’t grab quite as many rebounds as usual, but was quite impressive on the defensive end. He was often guarding smaller, faster players past the perimeter, but showcased enough lateral quickness to stick with his man. James had two steals and a block against the Hawks, but gave it back three times with those unforced errors mentioned above.

Sophomore guard Dogus Balbay is still a bit of an enigma at this point, just two games into his college career. Offensively, the speed we saw at times against Tulane doesn’t seem to translate to taking defenders off the dribble. He has a knack for finding the open man when he actually does get the D to collapse, but it appears that he can’t blow past the guards and into the paint to make that happen with any regularity.

On the other side of the ball, he is certainly showing that his reputation as a lockdown defender was well-founded, but at times looks like he may be pushing too hard to live up to that hype. When he stayed in position and played sound ball, St. Joe’s had no answer. But when Dogus over-extended himself to make a big play, that’s when the Hawks were able to squirt by and force the Texas D to rotate.

With the victory, Texas moves on to today’s semifinal against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. While St. Joe’s was definitely the bet team the Horns have faced to date, today’s match-up will be an incredible test. The preview of that one will be headed your way in the late afternoon. For now, it’s time to try out this whole surfing thing.

This morning the Longhorns kick off three days of high-caliber basketball on the island of Maui, taking on St. Jospeh’s in an opening-round clash. The weekend here has been much more packed with activities than anticipated, and the 10 A.M. tip time here on Hawaii’s second-largest island has created a bit of a time crunch. So, today’s game preview won’t be quite as in-depth as usual, but we’ll cover the necessities. Call it a game preview, Maui style.

About the Hawks

This isn’t the St. Joseph’s of 2004, which finished the regular season with only a single loss and fell just one win short of the Final Four. But the Hawks are still a dangerous team, led by their indomitable big man Ahmad Nivins. The senior forward was all-conference last year in the Atlantic-10+4, playing over 30 minutes a game for Coach Phil Martelli while averaging 14.4 points and 5.8 boards. In the first two games for St. Joe’s this year, Nivins is averaging a double-double, with 21 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.

Nivins will be relied on to help steady a team which lost its two leading scorers in forwards Pat Calathes and Rob Ferguson. But the Hawks also have a senior leader in the backcourt, point guard Tasheed Carr. The upperclassman is in only his second season with the team after transferring from Iowa State, but is the only player besides Nivins who averaged more than 30 minutes a game in 2007-08.

The biggest question for St. Joseph’s is which other big man will step up today. Nivins is without a doubt an incredible force down low, but the Longhorns are deeper in the frontcourt than they have been in years. If Texas sells out to defend Nivins, the other Hawks will have to provide enough offense to force the Longhorns to reconsider their gameplan. That means a lot of pressure falls on the shoulders of sophomore forward Idris Hilliard, a 6’7″ kid from New Jersey who has seen his playing time jump from just six minutes a game last year to almost 34 in the first two games this season.

Garrett Williamson is a guard off of Martelli’s bench that could create some match-up problems for Texas thanks to his height. The junior guard is listed at 6’5″, and the Longhorn backcourt has shown weakness against taller guards and wings in the past. Although significantly shorter than Williamson and Carr, Justin Mason will be asked to step up on the defensive end today. Varez Ward may also see an increase in minutes thanks to his lockdown D, provided his sprained ankle is completely healed.

There’s also a slight Texas connection on the bench for the Hawks today, as little-used Nigerian center Temi Adebayo played at Montrose Christian last year, the same school that produced phenom Kevin Durant.

For the Longhorns

So far this season, the big story for Texas has been their defense. Against Tulane, the Longhorns showed full-court pressure, guarded the Green Wave well past the perimeter, and constantly put hands in the passing lanes. Texas has forced 44 turnovers in their first two ballgames, stifling the opposing offenses before they can get started. But even when Stetson and Tulane managed to work the ball around, the Longhorns’ strong D has resulted in tough looks. Through two games, Texas opponents are shooting a paltry 28.7% from the field.

The problem spots so far for the Longhorns are turnovers and free throw shooting. Although Texas has forced a ton of miscues by their opponents, sloppy ball handling has given fans cause for concern. The Longhorns have coughed it up 34 times in their first two games against decidedly over-matched opponents, a number that will certainly never fly against top-level competition.

From the free throw line, Texas is shooting an abysmal 51% so far this season. The biggest criminals from the charity stripe have been Mason (3-of-7), Damion James (3-of-6), Clint Chapman (1-of-4), and Varez Ward (0-of-6). While there’s really no excuse for poor free throw shooting, at this point in the year we’re choosing to give Chapman and Ward a pass based on their youth. But James and Mason must be leaders for the team, and it’s tough to have confidence late in games if your go-to guys can’t knock down the freebies.

This is a game that Texas should win, but St. Joseph’s is definitely a team talented enough to spring the upset. Good teams are most often undermined by a sudden failure to execute the most basic fundamentals, so the Longhorns must control the ball and hit their free throws. Nivins will definitely score in today’s contest and likely wreak havoc on the glass, but if the Longhorns can do the simple things, they should advance to the winner’s bracket for a semifinal tomorrow.