This isn’t going to be much of a game preview, as we spent the night drinking in Conshohocken, got almost no sleep, and have to pick up some others at the 30th Street Station in an hour or so. But here’s some quick things to look for from Villanova in today’s game.

Can we stop Sumpter?
Last year the Horns didn’t have to face Curtis Sumpter, as he went down with injury early in the year and the Cats switched to a four-guard lineup. Texas is going to have a tough time matching up with Nova’s taller team, particularly the versatile Sumpter who can hit from pretty much anywhere on the floor.

Can we keep them off the offensive glass?
This was a huge problem for Texas late in regulation and throughout the three overtimes with the Cowpokes on Tuesday night. And rebounding isn’t going to get any easier against the big men for Villanova. Senior Will Sheridan is the most efficient offensive rebounder according to Ken Pomeroy’s exhaustive statistic analysis. Sophomore Dante Cunningham will see a ton of minutes down low, where he’s hitting at a 68.3% clip. Texas can’t afford to give these two guys a ton of offensive boards and easy putbacks.

Will Scottie Reynolds go off?
Freshman guard Scottie Reynolds has been on an absolute tear as of late, scoring 27 in Wednesday night’s dismantling of Notre Dame. In Nova’s five conference games, Reynolds is averaging 17.8 points per game. It’s not quite a Durant-esque 34 PPG in conference play, but Reynolds is certainly hot and can make a big difference in this one.

Will the three-point shooters get hot?
Eminem wannabe Mike Nardi also returns for Villanova this season, and can hit from three-point range with ease. Last year, Texas was able to eke out a three-point win by shutting down the Cats’ shooting behind the arc. To be successful in this one, the Horns won’t need to shut them down quite as much from three-point range, because the return of Sumpter makes Villanova a more conventional team than the 05-06 midget squad. But that doesn’t mean that Texas can lay off of Nova’s shooters. They can hit a ton of threes and change the complexity of the game in only a few minutes.

That’s all for now from Philadelphia, where I hear it’s always sunny. Hook ’em Cats!

TV: ESPN2, 8 PM Central

The road ahead to Stillwater looks to be a treacherous and icy one, so it looks like we’re going to have to get an early start and take it slowly. With that in mind, I’m going to save the Oklahoma post-game for later this week and do a double-dip with the Okie State postgame. Here’s a look ahead at tonight’s game.

The Longhorns (13-3 overall, 3-0 in Big 12) have moved up to #21 in this week’s AP poll, while they have once again cracked the USA Today Coaches poll, coming in at 23rd. Those rankings could be short-lived, however, as the team takes on its first real Big 12 test in the #12/#14 Oklahoma State Cowboys (15-2, 1-1).

Unfortunately for Horn fans, the Cowboys present a huge matchup problem. They have a very solid frontcourt that is going to get a huge chunk of points in this contest. The star is Mario Boggan, who is averaging 21.1 points per game and 7.4 rebounds. He is coming off of a very poor game against the Kansas Jayhawks, in which he had only eight points while turning it over five times and not securing a single rebound. Based on Boggan’s presence and our lack of an inside game, I would expect Texas to be running a lot of zone in this ballgame. Hopefully the Horns can keep him from having a huge bounce-back game, but I wouldn’t bank on it.

Joining Boggan in the Cowboys’ strong frontcourt is center Kenny Cooper. While he is only averaging 3.8 rebounds per game, he is an absolute beast on the offensive glass. He is grabbing 17.7% of his offensive rebounding chances according to Ken Pomeroy, which is good for seventh individually in the entire nation. Cooper’s numbers are actually a bit deflated because he was not the starter until Obi Muonelo went down in December. Damion James and Kevin Durant are going to have their hands full snatching their defensive boards from this vacuum.

JamesOn Curry is back for Sean Sutton’s Cowboys, and he’s looking much more like the budding star we saw back in 2004-05. He’s eating up the most minutes for Oklahoma State, playing about 35 a game. JamesOn Trial is also the team’s second-leading scorer, dumping in 18.5 a night, although that average has dipped to sixteen a game in OSU’s two Big 12 games.

Junior Marcus Dove is likely going to be shadowing Kevin Durant all night, as he is really only on the court for defensive purposes. On the offensive end, Dove is a huge liability, turning over the ball 37% of the time he touches it and only averaging 6.2 points a game. He is definitely going to have his hands full with KD, but he will also certainly be one of the best defenders that Durant has had to take on thus far.

Oklahoma State has two weaknesses — depth and ballhandling. In particular, sophomore guard Byron Eaton and Dove have a tendency to turn the ball over. Kansas exploited this in their 30-point pounding, forcing the Cowboys to turn it over 20 times. Texas should look to do the same and try to capitalize with a bunch of transition buckets.

The lack of depth on the Cowboys bench will be a bit harder to exploit because of the weakness of Texas’ own bench. The Cowboys only really run seven deep now that they have lost Muonelo, although Adarius Bowman joined the team after the football season and gives them a few extra minutes off the end of the bench. Texas has a severe drop-off in talent between the starting five and sixth man Connor Atchley, so while depth is a glaring problem for OSU, it is just as bad or worse for the Horns.

Texas needs to look to push the tempo in this ballgame and keep it from settling into a half-court affair. While Oklahoma State also tends to play an uptempo game, their big men would likely dominate on both ends of the floor if the offenses settle into their sets on a regular basis.

Personally, I’d love to see a win in Stillwater, especially considering I’ve witnessed Longhorn losses on the two visits I’ve made to Gallagher-Iba Arena. But having Boggan inside concerns me with the lack of an opposing post presence in the burnt orange and white.

Having seen this team survive against a rabid road crowd in Tennessee — the final two minute brain freeze notwithstanding — I think that they will hold their own in the noise machine of GIA. If they can dictate the pace and style, the Longhorns should have a shot. And on the road, that’s about all you can ever ask for.

The pick: The gut and the brain are pointing at Boggan and picking the Pokes. But the heart and its burnt-orange blood supply just can’t pick against Kevin Durant quite yet. Texas survives an incredible test, keeps an undefeated conference mark, and exorcises my own Gallagher-Iba demons.

TV: ABC, 2:30 PM Central

This update comes from a very dry tent outside a very wet Frank Erwin Center, where the hardiest of O-Zoners are counting down the minutes to tipoff. Pre-game campouts are a great tradition at UT, and although they are not to the degree and scale of Duke’s Kasoisuoaiuofiueskyville, they are hopefully a step towards a more dedicated student fanbase. Or we could just continue to not fill our arena when we have one of the best players in the country. I could see how that’s more appealing……when compared to a screwdriver to the testicles.

Oklahoma comes to town in about thirteen hours, and they’ll be playing without their favorite elbow assassin, Longar Longar. Sans Longar — whose middle name is unfortunately not Shortar — the Sooners will be effectively losing four inches of height on the floor. In addition to being a lanky freak-of-nature, Longar is also one of the nation’s best offensive rebounders. His two-game suspension will hopefully allow the Horns to force OU into more one-and-done situations in their half-court set.

After having already lost freshman Keith Clark to injury at the end of December, Longar’s absence will leave Jeff Capel’s Sooners with a shortened bench. After coming off the pine for much of the season, senior forward Nate Carter will likely see his minutes increase. Oklahoma already starts three guards, and I can’t see Capel going to the four-guard look that Villanova toyed with last year when facing their own injury problems.

Sophomore Taylor Griffin may be the toughest assignment inside for Texas. While he only averages seven points a game, he is statistically one of the best defensive rebounders around. He snatches nearly one out of every four defensive rebound opportunities, which could present a problem if Texas is taking quick shots from outside that aren’t falling.

Senior guard Michael Neal has not been having a good season so far, but if the past is any indication, the Longhorns need to be wary of his three-point stroke. He’s only hitting at a 22.4% clip this year, but was knocking down threes over 44% of the time last season.

Joining Neal in the backcourt is freshman standout Tony Crocker. The first-year star dropped fifteen points on a tough Alabama squad in a road loss earlier this month and is taking about a quarter of his team’s shots when he’s on the court. On a Sooner team that spreads the ball out pretty well, that is actually the highest rate on the squad. If Oklahoma is going to pull off an upset without their big man, they may need a big game from this diaper dandy.

For Texas, this game should likely be an easy win. The Sooners are no longer the Big 12 powerhouse of past years, although it will not take Capel long to rebuild the program to that point. That being said, there are still a few stats that fans can keep an eye on. Oklahoma typically goes to the line less than their opponents while committing less fouls. This means that they are very prone to picking up their fouls while the opponents are shooting. As a result, Texas should look to attack the basket, especially without Longar’s flailing elbows in the lane.

The Sooners also have one of the lowest adjusted tempos in the country, while the Longhorns generally have a very high number of possessions per ballgame. Oklahoma has a top-five defense rated by efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions), while Texas has the sixth-most efficient offense in the country. Will the Sooners be able to grind the pace down and play their style of basketball, or will Texas force transition and run the score into the 80’s and above?

Of course, one thing we can always count on is a solid game from Kevin Durant. Through the first two conference games, KD is averaging 35.5 points and 14.5 rebounds. While he certainly can’t keep up that insane pace for all sixteen games, he should still see some pretty hefty numbers in this contest. I’m confident in predicting a fifth-straight double-double for the kid.

Texas Box Office announced that there were 1,600 tickets available as of 9:30 AM on Friday. Any student seats not used in the mezzanine will also go on sale at tipoff. So, if you’re in the Austin area and don’t have plans yet, give TBO a call and grab a pair upstairs. Otherwise, tune in to ABC at 2:30 central for all the action.

The Missouri Tigers (11-3) come to town tonight as Texas plays its first home game in the Big 12 this season. Unfortunately for fans of greasy, curly hair, Quin Snyder will no longer be at the head of the Mizzou bench. But for Tiger fans, they are feeling fortunate to have a new, highly-heralded coach in Mike Anderson.

Missouri comes in off of a bad loss against Iowa State where they blew a sixteen-point lead in the second half…..at home. Their offense completely shut down, as they scored only seven points in the last seven minutes of the game. While Texas probably won’t be lucky enough to see that level of futility from the Tigers, it is reassuring to know that this up-tempo team does occasionally go cold.

The Tigers run fairly deep on their bench, with nine players giving at least 14 minutes a game. But it’s freshman Stefhon Hannah who is the driving force of the team. Hannah leads the team in both points (16.1 PPG) and minutes (30.4 MPG), and is also averaging 3.4 steals per game. While that leads the nation, he is also fifth in the nation when the steals are adjusted by the minutes each player is on the court.

In addition to Hannah, the Missouri offense also likes to run through center Kalen Grimes. While Grimes only plays seventeen minutes a game, he gets a ton of touches down low. He’s not the most efficient player on offense, but he will clean up on the glass. He is particularly great at offensive rebounding, but manages to secure his share on the defensive end as well. When Grimes is in the game, it will be interesting to see who the Horns use to match up with him, and whether or not they can successfully keep him off the glass.

My favorite player on Mizzou is Matt Lawrence. While he’s a horrible defender and will repeatedly get beaten off the dribble tonight, he’s going to make up for it by nailing a ton of threes. Coming into the game, he is hitting from behind the arc at an incredible 53% clip. If the Horns try to run a 2-3 zone against this guy, he is going to make them pay.

Missouri is going to play a high-tempo, pressure style of basketball. They average over 75 possessions per game and are second in the nation at forcing turnovers, making their opponents cough it up on 29 percent of their possessions. For a comparison you can easily grasp, Tennessee forces opponents to turn it over on 25.5% of their possessions, so the intensity will be even higher tonight than it was in Knoxville.

For Texas, we can of course look for a huge game from Kevin Durant. At this point, it’s a lot like saying the sun will come up in the morning. But, as always, the fun comes in seeing who else steps up and has a great night or a key bucket. I’ll also be interested in seeing if Damion James can follow up on a great performance in Colorado and also keep his foul trouble in check.

Tip is at 7 PM tonight at the Drum, so please come on out. Missouri is no slouch, yet there are a ton of tickets available and many students are still away on break. If the FEC is as empty and dead as it was for the conference opener against Baylor a year or two ago, there will be almost no home-court advantage. And this team definitely deserves a big, energetic crowd.

If my guilt trip didn’t work, you can catch the game in the state of Texas on FSN. But you’d better text message me scores from the OSU/Kansas game if you’re going to be sitting on your couch.

The Texas Longhorns (10-3) open their Big 12 slate tomorrow in Boulder against the struggling Colorado Buffaloes (4-6). The hosts come into the match-up as losers of four of their last six games, including three home losses to Wyoming, Pepperdine, and Colorado State.

The weather in the Denver area has been abysmal the past few days, as yet another storm dropped up to a foot of snow in some areas. Hopefully the weather will keep some of the CU fans at home, considering the struggles Texas has had in Boulder. Two years ago, the Buffaloes knocked off Texas 88-79. Even the Final Four team in 2003 struggled at the Coors Event Center, taking one of their only seven losses on the year, 93-80. While Colorado has been drawing less than 3,000 per game at home, an even lighter crowd than usual can only help the Longhorns’ chances in an arena that has all kinds of bad juju.

This season appears to be an opportunity for the Horns to reverse the trend, as Colorado has failed to find any consistency in the first half of the year. As usual, their star player is junior Richard Roby, who some thought might try to make the leap to the NBA in June. Instead, he returned for a third year in which he is averaging a shade under 18 points a game while playing thirty minutes for coach Ricardo Patton. After that, the offense drops off. Senior guard Dominique Coleman is the team’s second-highest scorer at only 10.9 per game

Their leading rebounders are forwards Jermyl Jackson-Wilson and Jeremy Wilson, who are combining for 13 boards a game. Jackson-Wilson is also the team’s leading blocker, as he’s swatted eighteen so far this season. And if Colorado has done one thing well in this disappointing year, it’s block shots — the Buffs are logging 5.4 a game so far. Unfortunately for them, this will likely be negated by a Texas team that has 84 blocks of their own.

The 2005 win in Boulder was keyed by a hot-shooting Colorado club that was absolutely burying its threes. This year, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. The Buffs are hitting only 27.9% of their three point attempts, including Roby’s abysmal 23.4% behind the arc. Despite Roby’s struggles, he has jacked up the most threes for Colorado. I have no problem seeing the defense let him take those shots until he proves that he can hit.

Colorado has also struggled handling the ball, turning it over seventeen times while only recording fourteen assists a game. Once again, it looks like a key for Texas will be forcing turnovers and scoring points in the transition game. And by key, I don’t actually think this is so paramount that we’ll lose if we fail to do it. But with this young group of Horns, I’m never sure what is going to happen until the final horn sounds.

While stats and trends from past years are never a good indicator of how current teams will fare, consider this fun little tidbit: Rick Barnes has never lost a Big 12 conference opener in his eight years, while CU’s Patton sports a 1-9 mark….and that one win came all the way back in 1996.

So with all that said, what’s most important for Texas tomorrow?

1. Show up to the gym
2. Play at their talent level, not down to the opposition’s

Ta-da! It’s that easy. And so when CU officials put out a press release on their website today suggesting fans “assess travel conditions and exercise good judgment and caution,” the message was clear — “Stay home, because we’d rather not have our fans witness this one.”