The Texas Longhorns return to action tonight, finishing out the Regional Round of the 2K Classic with a game against Alcorn State. As with all November tournaments, the Longhorns will “advance” to New York City on Thursday regardless of the result tonight, and will take on Iowa, followed by either Cal or Syracuse.

Even if the Longhorns needed a win tonight to reach Madison Square Garden, there would not be much cause for concern. The Braves have languished at the bottom of the SWAC for all three years of Luther Riley’s tenure, and based on their performance in Berkeley on Friday night, Alcorn State may be in for another long year.

By the numbers

With just one game on the books, the stats don’t look pretty for the Braves. Alcorn State fell behind by double-digits to Cal almost immediately, and ultimately lost by a 91-57 tally. Their adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency numbers currently rank 323rd and 304th out of 351 Division I teams, according to number cruncher Ken Pomeroy.

On a more granular level, there still wasn’t much the Braves did right against the Bears. Their effective field goal percentage was just 34.2%, while they allowed Cal a 59.2% mark and were crushed on the defensive glass. About the only statistical positives for Alcorn State in the opener were the fact that they didn’t turn it over very often, and they didn’t send Cal to the line with much frequency. Of course, the matador defense played by Alcorn State had something to do with the latter, but we’re trying to stay positive here.

Meet the Braves

The lineup situation for Alcorn State is incredibly confusing at the moment, so I’m not even sure who will be on the bench for them tonight. Big man Octavious Brown didn’t make the trip to Berkeley, and his status for the game in Austin is unknown. Players also switched jersey numbers, resulting in an administrative technical at one point in the game, because an Alcorn State player was wearing a different number than what had been provided to the official scorer before the game.

The team’s best player is Leantwan Luckett (No. 1), who is listed as No. 15, but decided to wear No. 1 against the Bears. Who knows what he’ll be wearing tonight, but you’ll be able to quickly pick him out, since he’ll be the one chucking up shots early and often. Luckett took nearly a third of his team’s shots on Friday night, even though he was only on the floor for 30 minutes, and despite connecting on just 27.8% of his attempts.

Luckett is quick and can get to the rim, but as his field-goal percentage might have told you, he has quite a bit of trouble finishing. Since he had issues against a Cal team that really only has a pair of true post options, he will certainly have even more problems against the size of Texas.

That inability to finish once getting to the rack also plagued Marquis Vance (No. 30). The 6’7″ sophomore forward has the ability to face up and drive to the bucket, but doesn’t have much in the way of quickness or tight handles. Vance was also a sizable portion of the Alcorn State offense on Friday, taking 21% of their shots, while posting 17 points. He also easily led the team with nine rebounds on a night where few other Braves were able to earn second chances.

Tyrel Hunt (No. 0) is the team’s other dynamic scoring threat, but like Luckett, he also had some issues finishing against size. He did utilize a nice floater to score some buckets in the lane, so his midrange game might be the team’s best option against a big Texas team tonight.

The starting five on Friday was rounded out with Tamarcio Wilson (No. 3) and Kenyan Pittman (No. 23), who combined for just four points in 57 minutes on the court. Key reserves for Alcorn State were Reginald Johnson, Jr. (No. 24), a freshman who was tabbed as Mr. Basketball in Louisiana last year, and George Thomas (No. 2), a 6’6″ junior who did not score in his limited action against Cal, but did snag four rebounds.

Keys to the game

Let us pretend for a moment that the only key to this game for Texas is not “just show up with five players in uniform.” Instead, let’s take a look at a few areas that Texas can exploit in the matchup with Alcorn State.

1) Run the floor in transition — Although Alcorn State didn’t turn the ball over very often, they did a terrible job early in the loss to Cal at stopping the ball in transition, leading to uncontested layups. The Braves also had very questionable shot selection, which set up the Bears nicely for numerous fast break points. The Longhorns have already shown their ability to add easy points on the break, and with big men that know how to run the floor in transition, they should easily take advantage of this weakness tonight.

2) Provide quick help on D — The Braves only logged assists on four of their 18 baskets, instead preferring to have one of their three stars isolate and try to get to the rim. Even when Cal offered help inside, the Braves were more content to force up a shot than look for an open teammate. If Texas is able to quickly help inside when they allow dribble penetration, they likely won’t fall victim to a timely assist, and should be able to force a ton of bad looks.

3) Attack with the bounce — When Cal didn’t manage to score on a fast break, they still found it easy to slice through the Alcorn State D with dribble penetration, and rotations by the Braves were horribly slow. Isaiah Taylor will likely have a field day against this defense, and should be able to pad his line with quite a few buckets and assists. We’ve heard a lot about Jordan Barnett‘s ability to finish with a nasty dunk, so perhaps he’ll even add a highlight or two on cuts from the wing.