I leave for the first true road trip of the season in about fourteen hours and am working for eight of them, so I figure I’ll jot down my initial thoughts on the Arkansas game and perhaps come back to it again next week once I get a chance to watch it on the DVR. Later this afternoon I’ll have an open thread for Knoxville suggestions, although from what I hear the town doesn’t have a whole lot. Hopefully I’ll be surprised.

The Texas-Arkansas rivalry was renewed on Wednesday night in front of a rowdy, near-capacity crowd at the Frank Erwin Center. Whether it was the Hogs’ Charles Thomas trying to give covert “Horns down” hand signs to the student section on free throw attempts, or the heated exchange between Thomas and Kevin Durant, the bad blood was still around fifteen years later. In an exciting, back-and-forth second half, Texas (8-2) finally came out on top, defeating Arkansas (8-3) by a final of 80-76.

I’d mentioned in my pregame that Razorback freshman Patrick Beverley had yet to have a true breakout game, his debut against Southeast Missouri State notwithstanding. He certainly had one against the Horns. While his nineteen points were ten less than he had against SEMS, the Longhorns are a bit of a tougher opponent than the Redhawks. On Wednesday night, Beverley was particularly deadly in a second half where Arkansas lit it up from behind the arc. After hitting only 27.3% of their threes in the first half, the Hogs upped their second-half rate to a much healthier 41.7 percent.

For Texas, it was once again a cast of stars. And while Kevin Durant was the biggest of them, dropping 28 points to go with 13 rebounds, there were great performances up and down Rick Barnes’ lineup.

Damion James was one, despite fouling out of the game. He provided a ton of minutes inside against Thomas and Steven Hill, and went 5-for-6 from the free throw line — a good step forward psychologically after the meltdown in the final minutes of the LSU game.

Then there was D.J. Augustin, who added another fourteen points, giving him 63 in his last three games. He had four steals on the night, although he got his hand in the passing lane on many more chances, knocking the ball out of bounds and disrupting the Arkansas flow. The kid is one of the most exciting players I’ve seen in my time on the Forty Acres, in every phase of the game. And when I’ve been priviliged enough to see T.J. Ford, LaMarcus Aldridge, and P.J. Tucker from my spot in the South O-Zone, that’s truly high praise.

Connor Atchley stepped up again, giving Texas 26 minutes off the bench. And while he fouled out, most of his fouls were not of the stupid variety, and they certainly took a hell of a lot longer than his four-fouls-in-four-minutes disaster back in New York. It appears that Connor’s light switch has finally been flipped, and I can’t wait to see his continued growth all season with the added minutes he’s rightly earned. Atchley was active underneath, and while he still needs to work on finishing putbacks and tip-ins, the fact that he’s mixing it up inside is huge for a team that is still searching for a consistent post presence.

A.J. Abrams brought his three-point stroke back to the Drum on Wednesday night, going 4-of-9 from behind the arc. He finished with 14 points and played all but two minutes of the game. Oddly enough, he didn’t get to the free throw line once. Perhaps coupling his outing against Arkansas with the one he gave against Texas State on Saturday, we can draw a conclusion about Abrams’ game. When his three-point shot was not falling against the Bobcats, he worked his way inside for more attempts off the dribble. Tonight, he only took two non-threes, making one. It’d be nice to see him get a nice, consistent mix, but you really can’t argue with 44% three-point shooting. And on a team that is playing this well offensively, it looks like A.J.’s scoring role with be of the catch-and-shoot variety.

The one oddity I noticed during the game was that there seemed to be two different Texas teams shooting free throws in each half. The Horns were a perfect 8-of-8 in the first twenty minutes, and made one of their first two in the second. Between those first ten and the final three that Texas made to finish off the Hogs, the Longhorns were 5-for-13 from the line for a huge chunk of the second half. And it wasn’t just Justin Mason who struggled from the line in the final twenty minutes, but Kevin Durant as well. Fortunately, both of them redeemed themselves at the line in the waning moments, as they combined to make those final three charity shots that I previously mentioned.

My player of the game goes to Mason, who made the clutch layup in traffic, drew the foul, and sank a free throw to put Texas up for good. While he only had ten points — albeit three of them were the biggest of the game — he dished out seven assists and gave Coach Barnes a solid 33 minutes.

I noticed a few interesting things on the defensive end, but will have to go back and watch the recording later to really get a feel for them. I find defense to be the toughest part to break down at home games, as I’m fairly busy with the jumping up and down and screaming myself hoarse. But I did catch Durant at the top of a 1-2-2 again for a brief moment in the first half, which I first noticed the Horns bust out on Saturday. I think Barnes is planning on using it as a change of pace, to force the opponent to make their own adjustments before Texas retreats back into a normal set.

I also noticed a bit more man than I’d expected early on, and was pleased with how well some of our guys were switching on screens. As the game wore on and Arkansas got hot from behind the arc, we were clearly having issues flashing out on shooters. But in the end, the only numbers that really matter are the one on the big scoreboard in the middle, and that showed Texas with a four-point advantage.

The team travels to Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday to face the Vols, their third SEC opponent in December. Coach Rick Barnes will be looking for his 200th victory at the helm of the Texas Longhorns, while the team will be looking to push their winning streak to a season-high four games.