On Saturday night, Texas fans got their first taste of the nausea and heartburn caused by rooting for a young, inexperienced team. In the semifinals of the TicketCity Legends Classic, the Longhorns failed to execute in the final minutes, allowing Oregon State to force overtime and eventually escape with a 100-95 win.

The team had little time to dwell on the loss, as less than 48 hours later they square off against a formidable NC State team in the consolation game. The Wolfpack was expected to be rebuilding this year under new coach Mark Gottfried, but have looked impressive in the first two weeks of the season and could make some noise in a top-heavy ACC this year.

By the numbers

NC State has been an enigmatic team so far this year, as suspensions and injuries have made it difficult for Coach Gottfried to find his optimal lineup. He’s utilized seven different starters so far this year, and it’s just a matter of time until sophomore star C.J. Leslie ups that number to eight with his first appearance in the starting five.

The Wolfpack’s strength lies in a talented frontcourt, which allows them to grab nearly 40% of their missed shots and score at will in and around the paint. NC State is shooting 57.1% from inside the arc, with 166 of their 314 points (52.9%) coming in the paint. It’s not just the big men putting back missed shots, though, as the guards and wings are incredibly adept at drawing the defense with penetration and dumping it underneath or kicking it out for open midrange jumpers.

Defensively, the team’s two weaknesses are perimeter defense and a tendency to send opponents to the free throw line. Fortunately for the Longhorns, they have been solid this season both behind the arc and at the charity stripe. Wolfpack opponents are shooting 42.9% from long range and have made at least eight three-pointers in every game.

The Wolfpack also has a defensive free-throw rate that ranks in the bottom third of D-I hoops. The Longhorns, meanwhile, are in the top 75 offensively in that category, so they could find success today by being aggressive with the dribble and attacking the defense. That approach could yield twice the success, as it not only would pile up the points, but also could put the Wolfpack bigs in foul trouble and level the playing field.

Meet the Wolfpack

The floor general for NC State is sophomore guard Lorenzo Brown, who was recruited as a shooting guard but has made a smooth transition to lead ballhandler. He still scores at will as his 11.8-point scoring average attests, but his 7-plus assists per game keep the offense clicking. Brown’s assist rate of 35.8% is currently second in the ACC, behind only UNC’s Kendall Marshall.

The true star of the team, though, is sophomore sensation C.J. Leslie, who made his debut against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. Leslie’s season started late as a result of receiving $410 in impermissible benefits, which he had to repay to charity. The NCAA dinged the sophomore for accepting $260 from a student so his brother could pay the application fee for an apartment and for borrowing another student’s car for a week, which the NCAA figured would have cost $150 as a rental.

With three games to cool his heels and watch the team, Leslie was ready to go against the ‘Dores. He scored 20 points in 27 minutes off the bench, shooting a blazing 77.8% from the field. The 6’8″ forward and McDonald’s All-American is a truly elite talent, but might not be quite up to game shape yet. In the final minutes of the loss to Vanderbilt, Leslie cramped up and had to leave the game temporarily to down fluids and get stretched out on the sideline.

Senior wing C.J. Williams is known for his defensive tenacity, but he’s still averaging 11 points per game so far this season. With former point guard Ryan Harrow’s transfer to Kentucky, Williams also gives Coach Gottfried another ballhandler to compliment Brown. He also does a solid job rebounding from the wing, as his 17 boards are third-best on the team.

The leader in that department is junior Richard Howell. He’s currently averaging a double-double for the Wolfpack, scoring 16.3 points per game to go with 10.3 rebounds. Conditioning issues limited his minutes last season, so the 6’8″ big man dropped 15 pounds in the offseason and has seen his playing time increase to more than 27 minutes per game this season.

Joining Howell inside is fellow junior DeShawn Painter. The 6’9″ center can stretch out the defense with a solid midrange jump shot and has even knocked down a couple from just inside the arc earlier this year. Down low, he’s especially good at sealing off his defender and immediately demanding the ball. The versatile Painter will prove to be a very difficult matchup for the Longhorns tonight.

Another player who can stretch the defense is Indiana native Scott Wood. He started three games before spraining his ankle in a win over Princeton on Wednesday and was forced to sit out against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. His status for tonight’s game is unknown, but if he is on the court, Texas will have to stick to him like glue. Wood made more than 40% of his looks from beyond the arc last season, and was an incredible 58.3% from long range before his injury this year.

NC State has a solid reserve guard in Alex Johnson, a transfer from Cal State Bakersfield who is eligible to play immediately as a graduate student. He brings hard-nosed defense to the team and gives the coaching staff another quality ballhandler to spell Brown. The experienced 5’10” guard is playing more than 30 minutes a game despite coming off the bench in all four games, and his quick hands have logged six steals so far.

Freshman forward Tyler Harris is slowly adjusting to the college game, but he has a lot to prove tonight in front of his friends from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey. The younger brother of former Tennessee star Tobias Harris, Tyler is a good outside shooter, but has looked uncomfortable so far this year. He’s bound to have a breakthrough game soon, so the ‘Horns will have to hope it doesn’t come against them.

The final piece of the core rotation is seven-footer Jordan Vandenberg. The Australian import is still a little raw and his lateral movement is slow and choppy on defense, but his height is an undeniable game changer. When he plays solid defense and stands tall, opponents have a very, very difficult time scoring in the post.

Vandenberg will have another frontcourt reserve joining him tonight, as NC State announced this afternoon that Belgian product Thomas de Thaey‘s amateur certification has been cleared by the NCAA and he will be available against Texas. The 6’8″ big man adds even more depth and size to the Wolfpack roster.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that NC State has one of the best-named, seldom-used players in the country with Staats Battle, whose name sounds like a Swedish advertisement for a throwdown between Ken Pomeroy and John Gasaway.

Keys to the game

1) Limit interior scoring – If Wood is back in action tonight, this will be a very tough task for the Longhorns. His three-point prowess stretches the defense and opens things up inside for the talented NC State frontcourt. Without Wood, however, the Pack becomes much more one-dimensional. Take away his 58.3% mark from behind the arc, and NC State is just 24.5% from three-point range. Without that threat, Texas will be free to zone the Wolfpack, but will have to communicate very well, as NC State moves the ball quickly.

2) Minimize second-chance points – Defensive rebounding has been a glaring issue for the Longhorns through the first three games, and unfortunately the solid NCSU frontcourt does a great job of getting back their missed shots. The Wolfpack reclaimed at least 39% of their missed shots in each of their three wins, but struggled when Vanderbilt kept them off the glass. Gottfried was frustrated by the contact inside, and it was clear his team was too. Texas will certainly not be as successful as Vanderbilt was, but if they can limit the damage from extended possessions, it will only help their chances tonight.

3) Keep J’Covan Brown involved – Brown had a tough second half and overtime against Oregon State, scoring just eight of his 25 points during that stretch. When he’s on his game and lighting up the scoreboard, the rest of the team is also elevated. Defenses have to sell out to stop his drives, which has allowed him to dish out a team-leading 23 assists. Texas must work to keep him involved for the entire 40 minutes tonight.

Keeping up with the game

As it was on Saturday night, this one is airing exclusively on Longhorn Network and streaming online at ESPN3.com. If you don’t have either of those options available to you (or you just want additional commentary), you can also follow along with our live updates from the IZOD Center via Twitter @LonghornRdTrip.

The young Texas Longhorns looked impressive in their first week of action, knocking off a pair of solid mid-major teams in Boston University and Rhode Island. The Longhorns proved versatile in their two wins, using stifling defense to knock off the Terriers, while the Rams forced them to win a high-scoring duel.

With action in the Legends Classic now moving to the championship rounds in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the opponents change from mid-majors to major conference foes. Texas landed the most-favorable draw, getting the chance to square off with rebuilding Oregon State in the semifinals.

The Beavers are led by fourth-year coach Craig Robinson, who immediately won favor in Corvallis by turning a 6-25 Oregon State team into 18-game winners in his first season on the job. Since then, the results have been less impressive. Robinson’s record in years two and three was just 25-38, and that came in a time period when the Pac-10 Conference was on a downslide.

This year, Oregon State has avoided any early-season stumbles, knocking off Hofstra and Cal-State Bakersfield along with D-II West Alabama. With the rest of their non-conference slate peppered with the likes of Chicago State and Towson, tonight’s game against the Longhorns is one of the few chances the Beavers have to prove that they’ve turned a corner with a win against quality competition.

By the numbers

With the Longhorns coming off a high-scoring win over Rhode Island, they will be very prepared for the up-tempo style of Oregon State. The Beavers have had at least 71 possessions in all three of their games so far, and their adjusted tempo of 71.2 possessions per 40 minutes against D-I opponents is one of the fastest in the nation. Texas has shown it is willing to get out and run, so we are likely in store for another fun, offensive showcase again tonight.

Defensively, the most glaring number for Oregon State is a 40% success rate for opponents behind the arc. This Texas team is full of long-range sharpshooters, so the Beavers will have to improve their perimeter defense. The Longhorns have connected on 42.6% of their threes so far, led by Julien Lewis (7-for-14) and J’Covan Brown (8-for-19). If either of those two are allowed free reign behind the arc, the Longhorns could win this one running away.

Another area of concern for the Oregon State defense is their propensity to send opponents to the line. Oregon State’s defensive free throw rate (measured as free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts) against D-I opponents is just a shade under 60%, putting the team among the worst 25 teams in the country in that category.

Texas made hay at the free throw line against Rhode Island, taking a whopping 44 attempts at the line. If Oregon State continues its trend of handing out free throws like candy, look for the Horns to once again manufacture a lot of points at the line tonight.

While the Beavers have sent opponents to the stripe quite often, they have at least evened things out by taking a bunch of free throws of their own. Their own free-throw rate is an incredible 74.5%, which was ninth-best in D-I hoops heading into today’s games. With that kind of aggressive play from the Oregon State offense, there is a strong possibility of interior foul trouble for Texas, which is cause for concern with such a thin frontcourt.

Meet the Beavers

The leading scorer for Oregon State is 6’4″ junior guard Jared Cunningham. Known best for his authoritative putback dunk against Arizona last season, he has exploded out of the gate this year with a flurry of points. On Wednesday night, he dropped 35 on Hofstra and is averaging more than 22 per game so far.

Joining Cunningham in the backcourt is tiny sophomore Ahmad Starks, who is averaging 10 points per game. At just 5’9″, the speedy Chicago product easily weaves through traffic with the ball and showed some skill from behind the arc in last year’s Pac-10 tournament. That long-range success hasn’t carried over into this season, though, as Starks is just 3-for-13 on his three-point attempts so far.

Forward Devon Collier will be playing in front of family and friends tonight, as the Izod Center is just a short ride from his hometown of the Bronx. In the offseason, he tried out for the Puerto Rican national team, and the experience against top-flight talent appears to have paid off. After averaging just seven points per game last season, the 6’8″ sophomore has averaged 15.7 so far this year.

Junior Joe Burton is a great passing forward, and his great court vision actually has him leading the team in assists. Listed at 6’7″, 280 pounds, Burton is a load to handle on defense, and that extra attention has allowed him to dish out 21 assists in three games to go with his 35 points. The Longhorns will have to make sure they keep an eye on the cutters when Burton has the ball in his hands, or they will likely give up a few easy buckets.

In the middle, Australian center Angus Brandt rounds out the starting five for Coach Robinson. Like Collier, Brandt added some international experience this summer, representing his country in the World University Games in China. His minutes have been limited so far this season thanks to foul trouble, but Brandt is still providing eight points and nearly three rebounds per game while averaging just 16 minutes.

With Brandt spending more time on the bench, redshirt freshman Eric Moreland has had to pick up the slack. A native of Missouri City, Texas, Moreland is tied for the team lead in rebounds despite not earning a single start. In addition to his skills on the glass, the big man is also known for stout defense, and he’s chipped in two blocks and three steals so far this year.

Along with Moreland, the Beavers are getting quality bench minutes from sophomore guard Roberto Nelson. Although he has just 15 points through the first three games, he showed flashes of his scoring prowess down the stretch last season. While playing a full 40 minutes against Arizona State last season, Nelson dropped 34 points on the Sun Devils, and he logged another 12 off the bench against Stanford in late February.

Senior forward Kevin McShane is the final player in Oregon State’s core rotation, a position he earned after three years as a walk-on. Now a scholarship player, McShane has played nearly 15 minutes per game this season and is currently the team’s third-best rebounder.

In addition to the eight-man rotation, Coach Robinson has also used Challe Barton and Rhys Murphy for short stints. The pair average a combined 18 minutes and eight points per game off the bench. Barton, a 6’3″ freshman guard from Sweden, has appeared in all three games. Murphy — a 6’7″ slasher with a solid three-point shot — did not play in the team’s most recent game against Hofstra.

Keys to the game

1) Control the defensive glass – The Longhorns are currently one of the worst teams in the country when it comes to limiting offensive rebounds. Texas reclaims just 41.9% of their opponents misses, which leads to far too many extended possessions on defense. Fortunately, the Beavers haven’t had much success with their own offensive boards so far, grabbing less than 30% of their own misses. This might be the perfect recipe for Texas to get some confidence on the glass.

2) Hang on to the ball – Texas has done a great job controlling the ball in its first two games, turning it over on just 14% of their possessions. Oregon State likes to push the tempo, and it typically leads to miscues from their opponents. So far, the Beaver defense is ranked 33rd in turnover percentage, forcing their two D-I opponents into mistakes on 27.9% of their possessions. The young Longhorns cannot afford to get sloppy against a team that will capitalize.

3) Knock down the threes – Oregon State’s defense has had issues guarding the perimeter, while the Longhorns have been strong from long range so far. Texas should get its share of quality looks from outside, so Brown, Lewis, and the rest of the Longhorns need to take advantage of that weakness and knock down the triples.

A final note

Texas will be playing in the second game of a doubleheader tonight, so a start right at 8 P.M. Central is unlikely. Texas and Oregon State will tip off 25 minutes after the conclusion of the Vanderbilt/NC State game, so give some extra time at the end of those DVR recordings.

Of course, only those with the Longhorn Network can record tonight’s game on their DVRs. For many fans in Austin and other parts of Texas, that means Craig Way and the internet are their only options for keeping up with the Horns tonight. Fans can watch online at ESPN3.com, and can also follow our live updates from the Izod Center via Twitter @LonghornRdTrip.

On Sunday afternoon, the Longhorns opened the season in impressive fashion, discarding the Boston Terriers in a 36-point blowout. The freshman-laden Texas roster looked active, athletic, and managed to at least temporarily placate the preseason fears of many Longhorn faithful.

Of course, there were certainly areas for concern. Texas big men had issues on the boards, while the guards were repeatedly outhustled by the Terrier backcourt for long rebounds. The offense looked stagnant at times, particularly in the first half against the BU zone.

A week from today, Texas will be squaring off with either a highly-talented Vanderbilt team or an NC State squad that looks rejuvenated under first-year coach Mark Gottfried. Today’s opening-round game against the Rhode Island Rams provides one last chance to work on the early-season kinks before facing major-conference opponents in New Jersey next weekend.

By the numbers

Rhode Island Coach Jim Baron, now in his 11th season at the helm in Kingston, loves to push the tempo. In the team’s season opener against George Mason, his Rams played at a pace of nearly 69 possessions per 40 minutes. In six of his 11 years on campus, Baron has fielded teams with adjusted tempos of more than 68 possessions per game, with the 2007-08 squad racing out to a breakneck adjusted tempo of 71.1 PPG.

This year’s team lacks size inside, and will likely have issues on the glass against bigger teams. Today, that might not come into play, as the Longhorns were outrebounded by a smaller Boston University team on Sunday evening. Rhode Island and George Mason were nearly even on the glass, with the Patriots holding a +1 rebounding margin on Friday.

Defensively, Rhode Island’s numbers were rather vanilla. While they allowed a pedestrian 1.001 points per possession, they blocked just 5.2% of George Mason’s shots and forced turnovers on 21.3% of the Patriot possessions. The Longhorns, meanwhile, had a suffocating defensive performance against Boston, posting block and turnover percentages of 25% and 34.2%, respectively.

Meet the Rams

Having lost three starters and two reserves from last year’s team, the Rams can relate to the rebuilding situation on the Forty Acres. Rhode Island welcomes a five-man freshmen class this season and will add two juco transfers in December.

The infusion of fresh blood means that former role players will have to step up this season for Rhode Island. In their season-opening overtime loss to George Mason, senior Jamal Wilson took charge. He exploded for 38 points, an unexpected career-high for a guy who averaged just 5.1 per game last season. The 6’5″ Wilson is an all-everything guy for the Rams, as he can play the 3 or either guard position, and provides rebounding from the wings.

Although Wilson was the headliner in Friday night’s game, the starting five all managed to provide double-digit scoring. Serbian sharpshooter Nikola Malesevic chipped in 12 points, but was only 2-of-7 from behind the arc. As a sophomore in 2010-11, Malesevic’s 45.8% mark from long range was tops in the A-10 and was in the top 20 nationally.

The only other upperclassman in the starting five for Rhode Island is big man Orion Outerbridge, who missed a potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer on Friday night. The 6’9″ forward scored 11 points and grabbed seven boards against the Patriots, a significant improvement on his 5.1/3.0 averages as a junior. On a smaller team that lost 67% of its rebounding, Outerbridge will have to be a double-double threat on a nightly basis.

Fortunately for the Rams, freshman Jonathan Holton was a rebounding machine in his collegiate debut. The Miami product snagged 14 boards in his 39 minutes and scored 12 points in the losing effort. In high school, he averaged 25.5 points and 15.5 rebounds as a senior, and scouts were high on his shot blocking skills. True to form, he swatted two George Mason attempts on Friday night.

The other freshman in the starting five is point guard Mike Powell, who struggled a bit in his collegiate debut. While he scored 11 points, he was just 1-of-6 from long range and had a troubling five turnovers to go with his six assits. At just 5’10”, the left-handed Chicago product might run into problems against taller, lengthy backcourts.

Against George Mason, the Rams ran nine deep, although freshman guard T.J. Buchanan played only five minutes. Fellow freshman Dominique McKoy made the biggest impact, scoring six points to go with two steals in 15 minutes. The Atlanta swingman shot 75% from the floor in his debut.

Sophomore Levan Shengalia played 14 minutes off the bench against the Patriots, grabbing five boards. He also committed four fouls, giving him a personal every 3.5 minutes. After missing all but one minute of last season due to a knee injury, it’s safe to say he was a little too amped up in his return to the court.

Freshman Rayvon Harris rounds out the rotation for the Rams. He didn’t make much of an impact in his collegiate debut, picking up three fouls and missing his only shot while leaving the rest of the stat sheet empty.

Keys to the game

1) Get back in transition – The Rams will force the issue this afternoon, looking for easy buckets before the defense gets set. The Longhorns did a great job disrupting the half-court offense of Boston on Sunday afternoon, but they’ll have to change their approach against the up-tempo look from Rhode Island. It will be interesting to see if Texas can once again put up impressive defensive numbers this afternoon.

2) Control the caroms – While Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman did grab 11 combined rebounds against Boston, they had even more in their mitts that they failed to control. Whether the ball was knocked out of bounds or it just bounced off their fingertips, it often seemed to be covered in Crisco when the Texas frontcourt was involved. Both big men need to secure the boards that come to them and give Texas a rebounding advantage against a smaller team.

3) Limit the damage from Malesevic – Although the junior was just 2-of-7 in his season debut, his career numbers underscore just how dangerous he is from behind the arc. The three-pointer is widely referred to as the great equalizer, and there’s no dobut that a big game from Malesevic could make things dicey for Texas. If the Horns can replicate their perimeter defense from Sunday, when they limited the Terriers to just 16% from long range, a Rhode Island upset will be much harder to manufacture.

Six months ago, the Longhorn basketball season came to and abrupt an unceremonious end. A string of bizarre decisions knocked Texas out of the NCAA tournament, but three more decisions would be made in the coming weeks that would leave the program reeling. Despite the threat of an NBA lockout, Tristan Thompson, Jordan Hamilton, and Cory Joseph all left the Forty Acres early and landed in the first round of the professional draft.

Six months later, there is still no movement on the NBA front. With the three former Longhorns now stuck in professional limbo, Texas fans are left to wonder “What if?” as stars like Jared Sullinger and Harrison Barnes begin their sophomore seasons at Ohio State and North Carolina. Without Thompson, Hamilton, Joseph Gary Johnson, Dogus Balbay, or Matt Hill, the 2011-12 Longhorns are completely starting over. J’Covan Brown and Alexis Wangmene are the only returning players to log any significant minutes in 2010-11, resulting in an endless sea of questions surrounding this year’s team.

Today, fans will finally get a chance to begin answering those questions, as the Longhorns tip off the 2011-12 campaign against the Boston Terriers in the Legends Classic. As is the case with most early-season tournaments, the results of this game have no effect on whether or not Texas advances to next weekend’s semifinals in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Rather, today’s season opener is simply a warm-up for the team, a chance to ease into the season and their new roles.

By the numbers

Although the Terriers are returning four starters from last year’s American East championship team, they have their own set of questions coming into the young season. The cause of the uncertainty was a late coaching change on campus, as Pat Chambers left in June to take the vacant head coaching spot at Penn State. Enter Joe Jones, who had coached Columbia for seven years before spending the last season as an associate head coach at Boston College.

Last year’s team was one that lived and died by the three. The Terriers took more than 40% of their attempts from behind the arc, and rode a 35.5% success rate to a 21-14 record. This year’s team seems to be following the same formula, as Boston took 28 of their 67 shots (41.8%) in Friday night’s season opener from behind the arc. The Terriers managed to make just 17.9% of their long-range attempts, though, and stumbled to an 82-74 overtime loss at home against Northeastern.

“There will be some concepts and some things Patrick was doing that we’ll keep the same,” Coach Jones told Blue Ribbon Yearbook’s Kathy Orton. “We definitely want to play fast. We want to get the ball up the floor.”

Jones’ career numbers make that claim seem slightly dubious, however. In his seven years leading the Lions, his teams averaged just 65.6 possessions per game, including a painfully slow 62.6 possessions per game in 2006-07.

To be fair, his teams at Columbia were far less talented than the current batch of Terriers, and limiting possessions is a solid tactic to use when you are outclassed by the competition. Unfortunately, Jones’ first game at BU seemed to be more of the same, as the team ran at a pace of 65.7 possessions per 40 minutes.

Defensively, last year’s team did a good job forcing misses, but their undersized roster proved deadly. Opponents grabbed 33.5% of their own misses, leading to far too many second- and third-chance points. The Longhorns have a rather inexperienced frontcourt this season, but will have the natural height advantage against a smaller BU lineup. Texas needs to exploit this weakness and score a chunk of points off of extended possessions.

Meet the Terriers

In the season-opening loss on Friday night, Boston was led by senior Darryl Partin, who is in his second year with the Terriers after transferring from La Salle. The 6’6″ guard dropped in 25 points in the losing effort and was able to keep a clean sheet in the turnover department. Last year, Partin coughed it up on more than 21% of the team’s possessions, so his ball control against Northeastern is a very welcome development for Terrier fans.

Sophomore D.J. Irving runs the point for Boston, and he logged an impressive 17-point performance against Northeastern. A member of last season’s America East rookie team, Irving had nine games in which he dished out at least five assists. Against Northeastern he logged just one, but the lack of ball movement seemed to be a team problem. On 28 baskets the Terriers had just eight assists, giving them a paltry 28.6% assist percentage. Although the season is less than a week old, that mark is currently the seventh-worst in all of D-I basketball.

Senior guard Matt Griffin also had just one assist against Northeastern, but added 11 points to the cause. At just 5’10”, the Rider transfer is the team’s best long-range threat, having connected on 45.8% of his attempts last season. He was once again the team’s most accurate three-point shooter on Friday night, knocking down 3-of-8 from behind the arc, while the rest of the team was just 2-for-20.

Senior forward Patrick Hazel is yet another transfer on the Boston roster, having joined the Terriers from Marquette. Now in his second season at BU, the 6’6″ Hazel is tasked with facing off against much bigger opponents in the frontcourt. Last season, his 10.8% mark in offensive rebounding was tops on the team, and actually placed him just outside of the top 100 offensive rebounders in the country. Against Northeastern, he grabbed five rebounds to go with his nine points, with three of them coming off of BU misses.

Sophomore Dom Morris rounds out the starting five. At 6’7″, he’s actually the tallest starter, a role he solidified down the stretch last season. As a freshman, he started the final 16 games of the year, and grabbed a combined 21 boards in back-to-back games against Binghamton and Vermont. On Friday night, he led the team with seven boards, six of them coming on the defensive end.

Off the bench, Jeff Pelage and Mike Terry, Jr. both gave significant minutes in the loss to Northeastern. Pelage is a 6’8″ senior who has been plagued by injury, suffering a hernia over the summer after missing 11 games last season due to a high ankle sprain . Despite coming off the bench, Pelage tied Morris with a team-high seven rebounds on Friday night.

Terry, a 6-foot guard out of Philly, provided 18 minutes off the bench against the Huskies. Although he didn’t log any numbers in the offensive categories, the sophomore set a career high with two steals in the season opener.

Freshmen James Kennedy and Zach Chionuma both made their collegiate debuts on Friday night, playing a combined 17 minutes off the bench. Kennedy, a 6’6″ forward, grabbed three rebounds and scored a bucket, while Chionuma added an assist and a basket.

Although the Terrier frontcourt is an undersized one, Coach Jones does have one big option on the bench. Mat Piotrowski is a 7’1″ redshirt freshman from Port Republic, New Jersey, but he did not see the court in the season opener.

Keys to the game

1) Lock down the perimeter – BU’s success depends completely on their ability to knock down the three-pointer, a fact made perfectly clear in their last two losses. Against Kansas in the NCAA tournament, Boston kept the game close until halftime on the strength of 46.2% shooting behind the arc. In the final twenty minutes, they were just a paltry 3-of-12, and the Jayhawks pulled away for a 19-point win. On Friday night, their 17.9% mark from long range again led to a loss.

For the Longhorns, perimeter defense was an issue that seemed to rear its ugly head as the most inopportune times last season. In losses to Colorado and Kansas State, Texas managed to repeatedly lose their opponents’ best three-point shooters, and Levi Knutson and Rodney McGruder made them pay. The pair of sharpshooters went 7-for-13 against Texas, handing the Longhorns back-to-back losses.

On paper, perimeter defense looks to be a strength for this year’s Longhorn team. With a bevy of talented guards and a coach who preaches staunch defense, fans are expecting less defensive lapses at the three-point arc. Today’s game will serve as a very early test of those expectations.

2) Establish an inside presence – This year’s Longhorn team is facing a lot of questions in the frontcourt, as the team’s most-experienced big men are Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman. Both have struggled in their limited minutes over the years, with a combined career average of just 3.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Coach Rick Barnes doesn’t need either player to be great this season, but he does need both to be serviceable. Against a smaller BU team, Wangmene and Chapman have an excellent opportunity to get their season off to a good start. If they both struggle against the Terrier frontcourt, the long-term prognosis will be troubling.

3) Get the freshmen involved – Rather than a key to the game, this point is a foregone conclusion. With six freshmen making up the bulk of the roster, there’s absolutely no way that the Longhorns could field a team without relying on first-year players. With much more difficult opponents looming on the schedule, these early-season games will serve to get the youngsters a taste of college basketball before the pressure is ratcheted up.

Although the college basketball season tips off in just six days, the question marks surrounding the 2011-12 Texas basketball team still loom large. Not since Kevin Durant’s 2006-07 season have the Longhorns been this young, and in a frustrating bit of coincidence for Texas fans, the influx of youth happens to coincide with a season in which there is no clear-cut favorite in the Big 12.

Texas and Kansas finished a combined 27-5 in conference play last season, and were simply a cut above the rest of the league. Third-place teams Texas A&M and Kansas State were both a distant three games behind Texas in the conference standings and four behind the champion Jayhawks. Fortunately for the rest of the league, that dominance is unlikely to continue, as the two teams lose a combined nine of their ten starters this season.

The Longhorns are certainly in much worse shape than the Jayhawks, as Texas loses its entire starting five and will have six freshmen making up the core of what should be a nine-man rotation. While Kansas loses four of their starters from last season, the winning ways will likely continue in Lawrence as eight players return, including Tyshawn Taylor, Thomas Robinson, and Elijah Johnson.

Who’s back

The most-experienced returning player for Texas is mercurial guard J’Covan Brown, who came off the bench in all 36 games last season. While he averaged just 10.4 points in 21.5 minutes per game, he had a breakout performance in the NCAA tournament. In those two games, Brown created off the dribble and repeatedly earned trips to the line. He didn’t miss a single attempt at the stripe, scoring 44 points in the two games while sinking 25 free throws.

In the frontcourt, big man Alexis Wangmene returns with a lot of room for improvement. The senior has yet to average 10 minutes per game in any of his three previous seasons and set a career high with just 2.3 points per game last year. Wangmene has always had issues with catching passes and corraling rebounds, so Texas fans will have to hope that his hands have become much softer over the summer.

The only other returning player — outside of the mop-up duo of Dean Melchionni and Andrew Dick — is Oregon product Clint Chapman. He sat out the entire 2010-11 campaign and used a redshirt, delaying his senior year in the hopes of alleviating the team’s frontcourt issues this season. Unfortunately, recruiting top-flight big men proved difficult for Rick Barnes and company, meaning that Chapman won’t be simply one piece of the frontcourt puzzle. Instead, he will have to make an immediate impact.

Chapman’s best season to date was his sophomore campaign, where he appeared in 32 of the team’s 35 games and averaged just two points in eight minutes per game. For a player who was a consensus top-100 recruit coming out of the Portland suburbs, his career has so far been a disappointment. With such a thin and inexperienced frontcourt, the Longhorns will need him to finally live up to expectations this season.

The newcomers

While Texas had a hard time filling its needs in the frontcourt, their backcourt-heavy recruiting class was still ranked fourth nationally by ESPN and eighth by Rivals. With four of the six freshman ranked in the top 100 of the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, the Longhorns have a very solid nucleus to build upon for the future. In the meantime, there are bound to be growing pains.

The jewel of the class is point guard Myck Kabongo. A McDonald’s All-American, the Canadian was also selected for the Jordan Brand Classic Game, and was described by many scouting services as the best pure point in his class.

For a player headed to Texas, that has invariably drawn comparisons to standouts T.J. Ford and D.J. Augustin, who led Texas to the Final Four and Elite Eight, respectively. While neither is a perfect parallel for Kabongo, there’s no debating the fact that Barnes’ teams excel with a solid coach on the floor. The mature, level-headed Kabongo certainly fits that bill.

Myck brings an offensive skillset that Dogus Balbay sorely lacked, and fortunately also has the defensive tools to make him a Barnes favorite. Kabongo can create off the dribble and boasts a preternatural ability to find open looks for his teammates. He’s also known for a solid three-point shot, which only serves to increase the effectiveness of his penetration game.

Joining Kabongo in the backcourt is guard Sterling Gibbs, the younger brother of Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs. Once committed to Maryland, Sterling decommitted following the retirement of Gary Williams and eventually signed to play on the Forty Acres.

At 6’1″, Gibbs has the body of a point guard, but he carries himself with the confidence of a two-guard. With both Kabongo and Brown in the backcourt, Sterling’s ability to both create and score will allow Barnes to tinker with his lineups. Considering the questions Texas faces in the frontcourt, it wouldn’t be surprising to see all three on the floor at times.

At the wing, Texas welcomes 6″5″ Sheldon McClellan and 6’3″ Julien Lewis. Out of Houston’s Bellaire High, McClellan is an athletic slasher with solid handles and a good — albeit streaky — track record behind the arc. Lewis is a strong 190 pounds, a necessity for a guy his size to finish against bigger players. Like Gibbs, Lewis is undersized for his primary position, but his ability to play both the two and the three will provide Coach Barnes more flexibility with his rotation.

In the frontcourt, Texas will need immediate contributions from freshmen Jonathan Holmes and Jaylen Bond. Holmes is a 6″8″ power forward out of San Antonio whose good ball handling skills and three-point range make him a difficult matchup for other bigs. He brings shot blocking skills that Texas will sorely need following the departure of Tristan Thompson, but scouts fear that he’ll need to bulk up to be able to battle down low in the Big 12.

Bond is a less-polished player, but has impressed coaches with his summer improvement. At the Big 12 media day, Coach Barnes guessed that Bond would be the team’s second-leading scorer, noting that Jaylen’s play over the previous two weeks had vaulted him past McClellan. In addition to inside scoring, the one-time Pitt commit will be asked to come up big on the glass.

At forward, Texas was also counting on big things from the 6’8″ lefty Kevin Thomas. Yet another product of Texas’ new Canadian pipeline, Thomas unfortunately failed to qualify academically and will now be forced to play at the JuCo level this season. Only time will tell if and when he can make his way back to Division I basketball.

The big picture

Not since the 2006 season has a Texas team been such a mystery heading into the year. Coming off of an Elite Eight appearance, that team was also gutted by early departures and had to be built on a foundation of seven freshman. Of course, one of those freshman was Kevin Durant, who became a cult hero during his impressive season at Texas.

Without a once-in-a-lifetime talent like Durant, this year’s Longhorn team will likely have a bumpy ride. With so many freshmen being counted on to play significant minutes, there will certainly be a lot of learning on the fly. Kabongo is already a very mature player, but he will have to adjust to the college game. His fellow freshmen will find that adjustment to be an even tougher task.

The Texas frontcourt is definitely going to be a weakness this year, which means fans will likely see their fair share of a three-guard look. Even when the Longhorns stick with a traditional lineup, they will probably be outsized by their opponents at almost every position. With all of the questions surrounding the production of the Texas frontcourt, perhaps we will even see Barnes experiment with a small, four-guard lineup like Villanova was forced to run in 2006 following Curtis Sumpter‘s injury.

In the backcourt, we’ll be watching to see how Brown and Gibbs play off the ball. J’Covan has found a lot of success in the past when he’s on the ball, creating with dribble penetration. Gibbs, meanwhile, is fairly small for a shooting guard, so his effectiveness might be limited against taller backcourts.

With an athletic roster and small frontcourt, it would seem like an up-tempo, high-pressure approach would play to Texas’ strengths. But with only nine players in the rotation, that strategy could easily lead to late-game and late-season fatigue. Foul trouble would also be a concern with any high-pressure defensive approaches, so look for the Horns to play sound, conservative half-court defense with a tendency to push for transition buckets.

The young Texas roster will have little time to ease into things, with non-conference road tests at UCLA and North Carolina set for December. Before that, they could even face a formidable Vanderbilt team in the final round of the Legends Classic on November 21st. Following that non-con is the first-ever round-robin schedule in a very deep Big 12 Conference, so this could be a very rough year for the Longhorn faithful.

Texas hasn’t had to sweat the NCAA bubble since 2005, when the team won 20 games and went 9-7 in conference play after an injury sidelined LaMarcus Aldridge and grades spiked P.J. Tucker. Depending on how quickly this young team matures, Selection Sunday might once again be a nervous one for the Longhorns and their fans.