For Texas fans beaten down by a horrid football season that seems interminable, last night’s tipoff of the 2010-11 basketball campaign was a welcome sight. The Longhorns cruised to yet another opening-night victory — the 11th in Rick Barnes’ 13 years on the Forty Acres — as they pulled away in the second half for an 83-52 win over Navy.

As always, the things we think we learned about teams in November and December rarely seem important by the time March rolls around. While glaring team flaws tend to be season-long issues, breakout performances against North Dakota Technical College can’t be fawned over. It’s likely that some Longhorn fans may be overly giddy following last night’s win, but just eight months after Texas came unglued in the national spotlight, restrained optimism is probably the best reaction.

In yesterday’s game preview, we posed three questions worth thinking about during the opening game. With 40 minutes and a W in the books, let’s re-examine those nagging questions…

1) Who will be the leader? – With a 26-point, 10-rebound night, Jordan Hamilton threw his hat into the ring in a big way. The sophomore was hustling all over the floor, getting rebounds from the wing and generally making smarter decisions than he did as a freshman. There is no doubt that Hamilton needed to have a big summer for the Longhorns to succeed this year, and it appears that he put in the work. Jordan didn’t press things or force up dumb shots, and he seemed much more confident on the floor than he did last season.

In addition to Hamilton, Gary Johnson put in another steady performance, earning a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. While he is not nearly as emotional a player as Hamilton, it seems that the quiet, scrappy forward is going to take charge this season. In the post-game press conference, even J’Covan Brown agreed. “Last year, I couldn’t tell you who was leading,” Brown said. “One day it was one person, one day it was another. I don’t think anybody’s going to take [Johnson’s] job.”

There’s no doubt that last year’s team had chemistry and leadership issues. The second-half meltdown at Connecticut in January was a microcosm of the season as a whole, with the Longhorns looking disheveled and desperate, lacking a strong figure to carry them through adversity. When that adversity inevitably comes calling this season, Texas fans must hope that Hamilton and Johnson can rally the troops.

2) How will the frontcourt come together? – A weird day ended in appropriate fashion, as Coach Barnes told reporters at the post-game press conference that they were “leaning towards” redshirting big man Clint Chapman. Just hours after the announcement of Shawn Williams‘ transfer, the news came as a shock. A shirt for Chapman means the Texas frontcourt consists of just Tristan Thompson, Johnson, Matt Hill, and Alexis Wangmene. Foul trouble or injuries could spell absolute disaster.

Fortunately, Hill and Wangmene proved themselves adequate reserves for the Horns. Granted, their performances came against a service academy, a far cry from the frontcourts Texas will see in conference play. But both men had far fewer mistakes than we’ve seen in previous seasons, and Wangmene even contributed offensively. Alexis’ eight points were a welcome sight after two seasons in which he averaged only two per game.

Thompson, meanwhile, warmed up quite nicely after some early-game hiccups. He couldn’t seem to handle a pass or dribble the ball in his first few minutes, but he finished the night with twelve points and seven boards. He ran the floor nicely, which is going to be huge for a team that demonstrated just how good they can be when the tempo is pushed.

Yes, the Texas bigs had some defensive lapses. And yes, all of them seemed completely befuddled by the idea of a double-team. But compared to some of the nightmare scenarios Texas fans have been dreaming up for this Longhorn frontcourt, last night’s slightly-above-average performance was oddly reassuring.

3) How deep is the bench? – Coach Barnes used every scholarship player at his disposal, except for the possibly-redshirting Chapman. Hill and Wangmene combined for 27 minutes, while each of the other seven Longhorns saw the floor for at least 22 minutes. Barnes experimented with quite a few lineups, resulting in a few eyebrow-raising combinations that lacked offensive punch.

Minutes in the backcourt will be interesting to track this season. Last night, the four guards played nearly identical minutes — Jai Lucas had 24, while Cory Joseph played 25, and Brown and Dogus Balbay posted 23 and 22, respectively. While beating a team soundly, it’s easy to spread the PT and give everybody their orange slices at halftime. But when things get tough later in the season, how will Barnes tweak the rotation? In the past, he’s been seemingly unwilling to give Brown much of a rope. Fans can only hope that this year the sophomore guard gets more time to shine.

A few other things worth nothing:

Transition defense was sorely lacking at times against the Midshipmen. On a Rick Barnes team, that simply won’t fly, and it was clear that the head coach was not at all pleased by the lax effort. With seven minutes to go in the second half, Navy had one fast break bucket where not a single Longhorn made an effort to stop the ball. Barnes immediately called a timeout and replaced Brown and Wangmene with Hill and Hamilton. There were other instances which weren’t quite as glaring, but it was clear that Texas had some issues picking up assignments in transition.

For the second year in a row, Texas is pushing the pace. And that is a very, very good thing. This team has far too much talent and athleticism to be bogged down by an anemic half-court offense. Last season, the Longhorns averaged 72.6 possessions per game after averaging between 64 and 68 per game over the previous six years.

Last night, the Longhorns ran an up-tempo game even more in the second half, and the results were fantastic. Texas outscored Navy 54-32 in the final 20 minutes, shooting over 57% in the half. In a much slower first half, Texas was stifled by the Navy zone, hitting only hit 41.7% of their shots from the field, including a frustrating 1-of-9 from behind the arc.

Finally, it must be mentioned that once again the Longhorns struggled from the free throw line. They hit just 56% of their free throws, including a 2-for-4 night from the typically-steady Brown. The upside, however, is that Texas’ free-throw rate improved dramatically. Measured as free-throw attempts per field goal attempts, the Horns’ FTR was 57.6%, a shocking increase from the 40% rate they had last season.

As a point of comparison, consider last year’s Kansas State team. The Wildcats were runners-up in the Big 12 Championship and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament while making just 67% of their free throws. What kept KSU afloat, however, was a free throw rate north of 50%. While the Wildcats missed a lot of free throws, they were at the line far more often than their opponents. With this year’s Texas team, it appears there is a dedication to getting to the rim, which often leads to the charity stripe. That’s one good way for the Horns to overcome these pathetic free throw percentages.

The Longhorns will be back in action again tomorrow night, wrapping up the opening round of the 2KSports Classic with an 8 P.M. home game against Louisiana Tech.