In the first 14 years of the Rick Barnes era, the Longhorns lost just two home openers. In fact, in the last ten years, no team had started their season with a road win at the Frank Erwin Center. Friday night, a Texas squad with no scholarship upperclassmen came perilously close to ending that streak and suffering an embarrassing upset at the hands of Fresno State.

Texas never led the visiting Bulldogs by more than five points, and did not take the edge for good until less than two minutes left in the game. Poor shooting and a rash of first-half turnovers rendered the Longhorn offense ineffective, making things interesting down to the final second. Fresno State’s desperation heave from the backcourt missed the mark at the buzzer, allowing the Longhorns to survive with a 55-53 opening night victory.

Sophomore Sheldon McClellan led the way for Texas, putting in 20 points — 18 of them in the second half — to carry his team to victory. Expectations were high for McClellan coming into the season, as fans and pundits both looked for the gifted scorer to have a breakout season. With Myck Kabongo sidelined during an NCAA investigation and Jaylen Bond suffering from an ankle injury, it was even more necessary that McClellan live up to those expectations against Fresno State.

For the first twenty minutes, it didn’t look like the sophomore was going to do so. He missed a trio of three-pointers to start the game, and didn’t even crack the scoresheet until notching a pair of free throws with 5:25 to go in the first half. Another missed three-pointer and a missed layup rounded out McClellan’s first twenty minutes, as he and the Longhorns headed to the locker room in a 25-all tie.

The poor start didn’t deter McClellan, as he turned up the aggressiveness in the second half. With Texas running staggered baseline screens to free him up, the sophomore repeatedly received the ball on the wing and immediately took it at the defense. Driving baseline and slashing to the lane, he put the Bulldogs on their heels and earned trip after trip to the line. McClellan finished the game with a perfect 14-of-14 mark at the charity stripe, grinding out the points to push Texas into the win column.

While Sheldon was struggling in the first half, freshman point guard Javan Felix was making an early splash. The New Orleans native scored six of Texas’ first eight points, showing off his soft touch on runners in the lane before pulling up for a jumper from the elbow. The hot start was short-lived, though, as Felix quickly tailed off and finished the game just 5-of-15 from the field. He lost his touch on the floater, and the Fresno State defense was able to challenge and sometimes even block that free-throw line jumper.

Although Felix only finished with one assist on the night, he set up his teammates numerous times with nice feeds into the post and kickouts for wide-open threes. Unfortunately, the Longhorns simply couldn’t knock anything down and wasted some great opportunities. On many possessions, Texas was fouled down low and had to earn their points from the line, something that doesn’t show up when looking in the assist column. Although Texas had just three assists on eighteen made buckets, the team posted a solid free-throw rate of 49%, essentially earning one free throw for every two field goal attempts.

Though Felix was the one who turned heads on Friday night, the freshman who entered the game with all of the hype was McDonald’s All-American Cameron Ridley. His defensive performance was promising, as he stood tall in the paint, didn’t bite on fakes, and challenged the Fresno State bigs. Despite being limited to just 13 minutes, Ridley logged three blocks and owned the paint with the steady resolve of recent Longhorn standout Tristan Thompson.

As encouraging as Ridley’s performance was on the defensive end, his struggles on the other end of the court kept him on the bench down the stretch. The 6’9″ big man was called for a pair of offensive fouls, had trouble handling post feeds, and was very slow to react to double teams from the Bulldog defenders. His one offensive highlight came on Felix’s lone assist, when the point guard spun in the lane before dumping a jump pass to Ridley on the baseline. Cameron took one powerful step and flushed it home for an and-one opportunity, but missed the ensuing free throw.

The Longhorns were led on the boards by sophomore Jonathan Holmes, who consistently crashed the glass from the wings and high post. He snagged 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, making up for the huge hole left by Bond’s injury. While Jonathan didn’t have much success scoring inside, his ability to extend possessions was key on a night that Texas had trouble putting the ball in the hoop.

Texas’ 44.1% mark on the offensive glass kept possessions alive, but it was the Longhorn defense that kept Fresno State within reach. Texas opened both halves in a 2-3 zone that surprised the Bulldogs and led to long possessions with questionable shot selection. However, the second-teamers let the Fresno State guards find cracks to exploit with dribble penetration, leading to some easy buckets in the first half.

For the game, Texas limited Fresno State to just .914 points per possession. Getting that many freshmen to buy into a defense-first concept is certainly a big deal, but exuberance should be tempered by looking back at the FSU offense from a year ago. The Bulldogs were in the bottom half of D-I hoops according to Ken Pomeroy, whose adjusted offensive efficiency rating gave them just .989 points per possession. Their effective field-goal percentage was one of the 100 worst in Division I, checking in at only 46%. Texas’ defensive performance was definitely stout on Friday night, but fans should limit their excitement until after the Horns face tougher competition in the second and third days of the Maui Invitational.

While the bad shooting was certainly a big culprit, the Longhorns also had issues running their sets early in this one. The Longhorns worked hard in the first half to get their scorers open with baseline screens, but the Texas bigs repeatedly allowed the sets to get too stretched out. On different possessions, Holmes, Connor Lammert, and Ioannis Papapetrou all found themselves holding the ball four or five feet beyond the perimeter, hoping to make an entry pass against tight Fresno ball pressure. Even with perfect execution on the baseline, that feed would have been far too difficult and dangerous to make.

The Longhorns also struggled to make any long jumpers, hitting just one of their 13 three-point attempts. The numbers aren’t worth panicking over after just one game, but outside shooting could prove to once again be a major issue for Texas this season. Last year’s squad held the ignominious distinction of being the school’s worst three-point shooting team (32.78%) in the last 13 years, and the Horns lost the top two shooters from that team in J’Covan Brown and Sterling Gibbs. Their departures leave Coach Barnes with five rotation guys who combined for a hideous 30.7% mark from long range in 2011-12. If this young Texas team actually challenges last year’s marks for three-point futility, the Horns are going to struggle to score against a ton of packed-in defenses.

Up next: vs. Coppin State (0-1); Monday, 7 P.M. CT

For most college basketball programs, a rebuilding year consists of a losing record, numerous growing pains, and simmering discontent in the fanbase. For Rick Barnes and the Texas Longhorns, the 2011-12 campaign was certainly a rebuilding year. With just one returning starter and a whole host of freshmen on the roster, making the NCAA tournament for a 14th-straight year seemed to be a pipe dream. Somehow, Barnes and the Longhorns were not only able to avoid a losing record, but even managed to squeak into the NCAA field once more.

While Texas finished above .500, the Horns weren’t able to skip out on the growing pains and fan discontent. With a freshman-laden roster, Texas repeatedly fell short in one- and two-possession games, failing to execute at crunch time. Although the Longhorns overcame those difficulties and defied all reasonable expectations by making the NCAA tournament, fans ignored the short-term storyline and instead focused on the recent trend of post-season disappointments. Fair or not, the Texas fanbase has long been known as a “What have you done for me lately?” type of crowd, and the Longhorns have not advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2008. Although Barnes has built Texas into a nationally-relevant program and recruits at the highest levels, critics point to the lack of trophies inside Denton Cooley Pavilion.

That attitude puts additional pressure on this season, especially when combined with the struggles of the football team. It’s no secret that Texas is a pigskin state, and when Mack Brown was having success on the gridiron in the late 2000’s, the corresponding success on the hardwood was just an added bonus for the school’s fans. With message boards and radio shows already filled with negativity over the current football season, Coach Barnes and the Longhorns will be under the microscope of an already-irritated fanbase.

As if those pressures weren’t enough on their own, the Horns will have to start this season without sophomore point guard Myck Kabongo. Last month, Yahoo! Sports was the first to report on an NCAA investigation into Kabongo’s relationship with agent Rich Paul and whether or not he received improper benefits on a trip to workout with former Longhorn Tristan Thompson in Akron, Ohio. The NCAA has still not ruled on the matter, and Texas will not play Kabongo until the governing body hands down its decision.

Starting in his place will be 5’10” point guard Javan Felix, an ESPN Top 100 recruit from St. Augustine in New Orleans. While it would be unreasonable to expect immediate greatness from the freshman, the early buzz on Felix is exciting. The length of Kabongo’s absence is still up in the air at this point, so getting major minutes for Felix in low-risk games against Fresno State, Coppin State, and Chaminade will be huge for his development. If Kabongo is still unavailable when the Longhorns start facing foes from BCS conferences, the freshman point guard — and Texas — will truly be tested.

The Horns will also hit the floor tonight without sophomore Jaylen Bond, the team’s most tenacious rebounder. The Pennsylvania native injured his ankle in practice this week and will not be available against the Bulldogs. As a freshman, Bond led the team with offensive and defensive rebounding rates of 13.3% and 21.4%, respectively, but did not play enough minutes to qualify for the national rankings.

Texas hopes that freshman Cameron Ridley is able to make up for that presence on the glass. A 6’9″ center, Ridley was a McDonald’s All-American and consensus top-twenty recruit, so he’s expected to immediately make a mark on the 40 Acres. He’s got the size and the physical tools to make a splash, so fans are hopeful that he can quickly adjust to the more competitive college game.

Ridley and Felix are just two of seven freshman joining the Longhorns this season, once again making them one of the youngest teams in the country. Big man Prince Ibeh brings quickness and athleticism to the table, giving the Horns a defensive presence that can alter the game inside. Greek import Ioannis Papapetrou, already nicknamed “Papi” by Kabongo and his teammates, should help to stretch the floor with his European background. There’s not much known about his skills at this point, so it will be interesting to watch his role develop throughout the course of the season.

Connor Lammert and Demarcus Holland are two freshmen who aren’t expected to make major contributions in their first year. Lammert is a the younger brother of Texas Tech’s Clark Lammert, and he’s another skilled-shooting forward who can help stretch the defense. Holland is a combo guard who can put it on the floor to generate points, but he struggled from outside in high school. If Kabongo is out for an extended stretch or misses the season entirely, Holland will provide some extra depth in the backcourt, although he is much more useful at the two.

The seventh member of this year’s freshman class is Danny Newsome, a walk-on from Langham Creek outside the Beltway in Houston. While he’s not going to provide meaningful minutes this season, he could perhaps develop into a new sidekick for the always-entertaining Melchionni Report.

With so many fresh faces on the roster, the success of this year’s team will likely ride on the development of the five-man sophomore class. Although Kabongo and Bond won’t be taking part in tonight’s game, all eyes will be on Julien Lewis, Jonathan Holmes, and Sheldon McClellan to see how much progress they made in the offseason.

Lewis was a very streaky shooter as a sophomore, so much so that you could generally tell what type of night he was going to have after just one or two shots. While it’d certainly be nice if he developed into a dead-eye over the summer, it’s much more reasonable to hope that he will make better decisions this year on nights when he is struggling. If he can defer to teammates on his off nights, perhaps the Longhorns can avoid some of the 1-for-10 performances like he delivered at Missouri last year.

Holmes quietly provided a lot of good minutes last season, and his rebounding really improved down the stretch of Big 12 play. If he can continue to clean up the offensive misses and perhaps improve the three-point shot he liked to test out last year, Holmes could be a key leader on this young squad.

The most important sophomore on the roster, though, is McClellan. Fans saw flashes of his brilliance last year, when he would take over a game for just a few possessions at a time. Conventional wisdom holds that players make their greatest leap in the summer following their freshmen season, so Texas fans have high hopes that McClellan is going to be an unstoppable scorer this year. If he has the confidence and killer instinct that Coach Barnes has been trying to instill in him from Day One, Sheldon could be a difference-maker in the Big 12.

Coach-speak aside, the numbers seem to paint an excellent picture for McClellan, as well. John Pudner is a political professional who imported the Sabermetrics WAR (Wins Above Replacement player) formula to college basketball and named his new measurement “Value Add.” His entire player database is available online, and it offers my fellow stat-nerds hours of enjoyment.

The most interesting aspect of Pudner’s analysis, as it pertains to Texas, is the massive benefit he projects the Longhorns will receive from McClellan this season. Based on minutes, usage rate, and efficiency numbers from last season, Sheldon is ranked as the 37th most-valuable player this year. That’s the third-highest ranking in the entire Big 12, checking in just behind Jeff Withey of Kansas and Rodney McGruder of Kansas State. If McClellan can come anywhere close to making that kind of an impact this season, the Longhorns will surprise a lot of folks across the nation.