I raved about A.J. Abrams’ hot shooting in the exhibition games, and I mentioned it as something to watch for on Thursday night in the opener. It turns out I was just a day premature with my little tip. Abrams shot absolutely lights out in Friday night’s quarterfinal matchup with Chicago State, dropping 28 points in a 92-66 win over the Cougars.

The game started out quickly, with Chicago State refusing to back down. The Longhorns first five or six baskets were all three-pointers, and I believe that Abrams’ first 15 points came on his first five three-point attempts. He even nailed a three while being fouled, but suffered a rare miss at the line to lose the four-point play. This game really showcased his quick release, as defenders who were sagging on him only slightly were unable to react in what seemed like a milisecond between his reception of a pass and the shot.

I’m sure that opponents next week in New York will be ready for A.J., but one of the most exciting things about this team is our number of weapons. Shut down Abrams, you get Durant and James. Shut down K-Smoove, and Abrams and James will light you up.

It wasn’t all candy and gum-drops at the Frank Erwin Center, though. Coach Barnes was visibly frustrated on the bench with the defense of some of our post players. He also got irritated with a lot of fouls our defenders were giving up fifteen and eighteen feet from the hoop on dribble penetration attempts.

One problem that stood out which I didn’t see Barnes rip into the team for — although I’m fairly sure he must have at some point — was our lack of rebounding. I mentioned here yesterday that the small Chicago State team should have been abused on the boards, and in the end we finished with a 43-37 edge on the glass. But many of those rebounds came in the late minutes when the Cougars had seemingly given up.

But if you take a peek at the box score, you’ll see that Chicago State beat us in second chance points, 19-13. And that’s where our inability to rebound really stood out. We’d make a defensive stop, but allow them second and third opportunities to score. Against the Alcorn and Chicago and Tacoola States this won’t really matter. But when we play Michigan State, LSU, Gonzaga, Kansas, and down the line of our tough schedule? It’s something that has to get drastically better. And that’s why I’m glad we have Rick Barnes running the show.

It took only two games for Kevin Durant to log his first double-double, ripping down 13 boards to go with his 21 points. Most impressive were his five blocks. He is going to be a real problem down low for other teams, especially if he manages to stay in position most of the time. Although, with that freakish wingspan he managed a few blocks from behind the play, too.

And speaking of blocks, it seems like it’s going to be a strong point for this Texas team. Chew on this: in the first two games, the Longhorns blocked a total of 22 shots. And since it’s always fun to project these things early in the year when they spit out ridiculous, record setting numbers, I have to do that here. If the team continues on its insane rate of blocking shots, they would swat away 330 in the regular season. By comparison, last year’s team — with LaMarcus Aldridge’s long arms inside — blocked 186 shots. Crazy extrapolations aside, I think we will do considerably better than that this year.

Our defense did a very solid job shutting down Chicago State’s star from the night before. David Holston scored 43 against St. Bonaventure in the opener, but was held to only seven points by the Longhorns. In fact, Holston didn’t even tally a point in the second half despite leading his team with 38 minutes played.

Damion James had another good game, scoring 14 and shooting 6-for-7 from the line. At the few times when it seemed that the team wasn’t focused on defense or rebounding inside, Damion typically took charge, holding the blocks and fighting for the ball. Everybody knew about Kevin Durant coming in, but I think James is going to be quite a popular player on the Forty Acres.

Jay Mason continues to impress me coming off the bench. He knows what is going on out there, and because of that is a very efficient interchangeable part in Barnes’ system. Jay had eight points last night, but also dished out three assists and recorded a steal. A very clean, positive stat sheet for the young man.

The team held on to the ball much better last night, save for the first two possessions of the second half. The Longhorns finished with 19 assists to 9 turnovers, but a few of those turnovers were on mishandled passes from Augustin. I prefer these types of turnovers to the out-and-out steals, because with time, teams start to sense when their teammates will give them the ball and where. And when that happens, the turnovers should definitely decrease.

Dexter Pittman and J.D. Lewis hardly saw the floor on Friday night, and Matt Hill’s time on the court was largely quiet. He played only 13 minutes off the bench, but didn’t manage to get to the line like we had seen in the opener and the two exhibitions. It’s definitely not a cause for concern, just an observation. When you have A.J. Abrams hitting 8-of-11 three-pointers, it’s only natural that some other guys seem to get lost in the shuffle.

All told, it was an enjoyable opening two weeks in Austin. The crowds were disgustingly thin, particularly in the student sections, but I give huge thanks to all who came out. Y’all are the ones who will truly enjoy how far this team has come by March, while the Johnny-Come-Latelys are still asking us who this D.J. Augustin kid is.

Four days until I head to New York for the team’s next two games. In the meantime, I’ll have some content so be sure to keep checking in. And good luck to our football and soccer teams this weekend in their games.