Home games against mid-major opponents haven’t been that enjoyable for Texas or its fans in recent weeks. Against Rice, the Longhorns barely escaped with a three-point victory. Days later, a 21-point win over Lamar was marred by sloppy, uninspired basketball. This afternoon, Texas finally did what it was supposed to do against an overmatched opponent, dispatching Texas State with ease.

At first, it seemed like the Longhorns still hadn’t recovered from the beating USC laid on them just six days earlier. Texas allowed Texas State far too many easy looks out of the gate, and the Bobcats made their first five shots en route to an early 10-9 lead. The Longhorns were struggling against the zone as well, taking three of their first four shots from behind the arc, while making just one of them.

The struggles were short-lived, however, as the Horns surged past the Bobcats and never looked back. Texas State managed to stay within three points of Texas for the first 13 minutes of the game, but that was as close as they would get. A 16-4 run closed out the half for the Longhorns, who put on a scoring clinic throughout the final 20 minutes. All three Texas walk-ons even managed to see action in the final two minutes, with Andy Dick‘s runner pushing the Horns over the century mark for a 101-65 win.

What looked good

The offensive outburst for Texas was fueled by a bevy of three-pointers. The Longhorns were 11-for-19 from behind the arc, and the success was a result of smart, patient basketball. The Longhorns moved the ball around well, kicked it out when driving lanes were cut off, and didn’t force up bad shots.

Many times this season, Texas players have dribbled the air out of the ball before taking bad shots — particularly from behind the arc — and wasting possessions. This afternoon, the only long-range bombs coming off the dribble were a result of good ball screens to free up Cory Joseph and J’Covan Brown. In fact, the only “bad” look from behind the arc was one that Brown was forced to put up just before the shot clock expired.

In addition to taking and making open threes, the Longhorns destroyed the Texas State zone with the help of Gary Johnson‘s midrange game. He made a handful of jumpers throughout the first half and headed to the locker room as the team’s top scorer with ten points. His ability to find soft spots in the middle of the zone and then calmly knock down those jumpers is going to be important this season as teams try to test the Texas shooters with the 2-3 look. It’s also worth noting that Johnson added nine boards to his 14 points, including some scrappy work on the offensive glass when Texas was struggling in the early minutes of the game.

The win also marked yet another career-high for the freshman Joseph, who chipped in 19 on 7-of-11 shooting, including an eye-popping 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Cory started off the year slowly, averaging just over six points per game through the first four contests. It was clear that he wasn’t quite comfortable enough to embrace the scoring-point role that people had hyped for him coming out of high school. But Joseph has quickly adjusted to the college game and his role with this team, as he’s doubled his scoring average to 12.8 over the last five games.

Perhaps lost amidst the three-point barrage was the fact that Jordan Hamilton quietly had one of his best games of the year. He may not have led the team with a 20-plus point performance, but he played great team basketball across the board. Hamilton did manage to score 16 points on the afternoon, but also grabbed 10 boards and dished out five assists. He took the open three when it presented itself, but often he was attacking off the dribble from the wings, forcing the Texas State defense to react. When it didn’t lead to good looks at the rim, Hamilton was able to quickly shovel it to waiting teammates in the paint and on the blocks. If Jordan can play this unselfishly throughout the year, the Longhorns will be a better team.

What needed work

On defense, the Longhorns had a glaring weakness in the post. It was far too easy for Texas State to toss lob passes in to their big men. If Texas is going to overplay the passing lane in an effort to deny the entry, there has to be help defense on those lobs. Time and again, the Bobcat big men were able to catch the ball in mid-turn and lay it in with no resistance. The Longhorns need to be more alert when off the ball on defense so they can react quicker in help situations.

The Texas forwards also picked up too many fouls on fadeaway jumpers. The Longhorn frontcourt was generally doing a good job of standing tall when the Texas State forwards were trying to face up or make a move with their backs to the basket. Unfortunately, Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill then erased all of their good defensive work by bailing out the opposition with weak fouls on those fadeaway Js. The Horns need to let their opponents take those low-percentage shots and work on establishing good position to rebound the inevitable misses.

Finally, our “What needed work” section can never be complete without a few sentences about free throws. As a team, the Horns shot 66.7% from the line this afternoon. That’s a slight improvement over the team’s season average, but still below the nation’s median. Once again, the bulk of the issues came from Tristan Thompson, who was 4-for-9. His difficulties at the line are likely never going to change, but for a player who has a free-throw rate above 108 — meaning he actually attempts more free throws than field goals — a free-throw percentage of 48.4% is just not going to cut it.

Next up: vs. North Florida (4-5); Tuesday, 7 P.M. CT

Los Angeles and New York City are separated by 2,800 miles. The performances by the Longhorns in those two cities might have been even further apart.

Texas impressed the basketball nation with their gutsy effort against Illinois and Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. With another national TV audience on hand for last night’s game against USC, the Longhorns immediately erased those memories with one of the ugliest, most uninspired performances in years. The Trojans, coming off back-to-back road losses against Nebraska and TCU, completely shut down the Texas offense and easily dissected their defense, cruising to an easy 73-56 win at the Galen Center.

What needed work

We have to flip the script on this game report and open with all of the bad news. There’s almost nothing good worth noting, so we can save those few shiny nuggets for the end. The bad things, on the other hand, could fill a Dostoevsky-sized novel.

Just four days after their second-best defensive performance of the season, the Longhorns played the worst defensive game all year. USC was shooting 57% from the field in the waning minutes of the first half, and finished the night with a 48.9% mark. Their efficiency numbers were off the chart, as the Trojans scored a scorching 1.129 points per possession.

We’ve wondered all season what would happen when a thin and inexperienced Texas frontcourt met up with a physical, talented team. We finally got a chance to see it, and the results weren’t pretty. Nikola Vucevic matched his season average with 16 points in the first half, and finished the night with 24. Alex Stephenson chipped in a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

It seemed that Coach Rick Barnes was trying to match the USC size in the first half, as most of the time Tristan Thompson was sharing the court with either Alexis Wangmene or Matt Hill. The problem was that it quickly became apparent that Vucevic couldn’t be contained by one Longhorn defender, yet he still ended up isolated on Wagmene or Hill on multiple occasions. Vucevic constantly abused the Longhorn frontcourt, but was almost never doubled when he touched the ball.

On offense, Jordan Hamilton was clearly pressing in front of his friends and family, and said as much in the post-game press conference. It took him fifteen minutes to make a basket, and even that came on a goaltending call. Hamilton heated up in the second half and finished with 12 points, but by then it was far too late for Texas to make a threatening run.

The offensive struggles extended to the entire team. USC was one of the best defensive squads in the country last season, and they will likely finish near the top of those rankings again in 2010-11. The Longhorns were clearly frustrated by that excellent defense and forced up a ton of bad shots. J’Covan Brown was hot early on, which unfortunately meant that he continued to shoot all game long, even when good looks weren’t there. Although he led the team with 17 points, J’Covan shot just 33% from the field, including a 1-for-9 performance in the second half.

One of the most puzzling things we saw from our seats in section 112 was the lack of playing time for Dogus Balbay. The Longhorns were being picked apart on defense, yet their best defensive player only saw the court for nine minutes. If there was an injury limiting his playing time, it wasn’t apparent from our vantage point.

What looked good

The only thing that the Longhorns did well on Sunday night was shoot free throws. Coming into the game, the team’s percentage at the line was hovering around 62%, but they knocked down 80% of their attempts against the Trojans. Thompson, who has been battling mental demons at the stripe all season long, still only made two of his four attempts, but the rest of the team was excellent.

In addition, concession prices were incredibly reasonable. At a sparkling arena located across the street from one of the priciest universities in the country, you wouldn’t expect to find a 33 oz. soda for just $3.50. And the free Coke Zeroes being handed out as we left the arena went down a lot easier than the 17-point drubbing we had to sit through. So, there’s that.

Next up: vs. Texas State (2-4); Saturday, 3 P.M.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it still was a win — the 300th win at Texas for Coach Rick Barnes, in fact. But in a game where the two teams combined for more turnovers than field goals, it sometimes felt more like an episode of Benny Hill than a Division I collegiate basketball game.

Texas (6-1) and Lamar (4-3) had a combined 44 turnovers on the night, but it was the Longhorns who finally found an offensive rhythm. While the Cardinals held a six-point lead over the Longhorns five minutes into the game, Texas turned up the defensive pressure and ran away with it. Over the ensuing 18 minutes of basketball, the Longhorns outscored the erratic Cardinals by a 43-16 margin and never looked back. Texas cruised the rest of the way, enjoying an easy 76-55 win in front of 5,473 burnt-orange faithful.

What looked good

The Texas defense was stellar for most of the night. The Longhorns held Lamar to just 25.7% shooting from the field, giving the Cardinals an offensive efficiency of just 0.661 points per possession. Texas denied the perimeter, shoring up what had been a glaring weakness against Rice just days before. As a result, Lamar was only 1-of-9 from behind the arc.

Often, the baskets that the Cardinals did get were a result of the Longhorns actually overplaying on defense. But in a game where Texas forced 21 turnovers and blocked nine shots, those few easy looks were a fair trade-off for the active, suffocating D.

Matt Hill had three of those blocks, as he performed admirably off the bench for 19 minutes. The second half was initially a whistle-fest, with the referees calling 15 fouls in less than eight minutes of action. As a result, Gary Johnson was saddled with foul trouble and Hill was needed to plug the gap. In addition to his three blocks, Matt added six boards and five points. While many teams remaining on the Texas schedule will have bigger frontcourts than the Cardinals, the performance from Hill was promising.

Alexis Wangmene was also bothered by fouls, including one offensive one that looked very much like a Zinedine Zidane-style flop by Lamar’s Devon Lamb from our vantage point. But in the seven minutes that Wangmene did manage to stay on the floor, his defense was much better than in weeks past. He established position, stayed tall, and managed to recover quickly when he was out of the play. Alexis was still outworked for rebounds by a smaller Lamar team, but it was encouraging to see the strides he had made defensively.

On offense, Cory Joseph continued his hot streak, posting a new career high for the second-straight game. He knocked down three of his six long-range attempts as he chalked up 16 points, and just missed a double-double by grabbing nine defensive boards. In the Rice and Lamar games, Joseph shot 58.3% from behind the arc and logged 30 total points.

Tying Joseph’s 16-point output was sophomore star Jordan Hamilton. Against Rice, Hamilton was one of the few Longhorns probing the Owl zone, but he often ran into resistance near the lane and missed the challenged shots he took.

On Wednesday night, Hamilton looked to pass when the shots weren’t there. Unfortunately, his teammates usually weren’t ready for the ball, and the Longhorns fumbled away a few passes that would’ve resulted in easy layups. In the post-game presser, Barnes also praised Hamilton’s defensive play, saying that it was all the sophomore wanted to work on in the previous two days of practice.

Tristan Thompson also quietly posted some good numbers, earning his second career double-double with an 11-point, 13-rebound performance. Perhaps more importantly, Thompson only had to play 31 minutes in the win. The freshman logged 80 minutes in back-to-back games in New York, and will likely be called on for a ton of minutes in tough games once conference play rolls around. These glorified exhibitions are a perfect opportunity to get Thompson some game-speed reps without overworking him.

What needs work

The most glaring issue for the Longhorns was once again an inability to hang on to the basketball. Texas turned it over 23 times, giving the team a turnover rate of 27.6%, or more than one miscue in every four possessions. Most frustrating was the fact that many of the Longhorn turnovers came from bobbling passes or throwing it directly past an oblivious teammate and into the stands. Joseph, Jai Lucas, and J’Covan Brown accounted for 14 of the Texas turnovers, while posting just eight assists between them.

In addition, the free throw rollercoaster continued against Lamer. The Longhorns started out wonderfully, knocking down 11 of 15 attempts in the first half. But yet again the charity-stripe demons resurfaced, as Texas posted a 12-for-22 mark in the final twenty. The main culprit was Thompson, who finished a disappointing 5-of-11 at the line. If the freshman continues to struggle with his free throws, opponents will simply not allow him any easy baskets inside. He’s going to have to find his stroke once again, because opposing frontcourts are going to make him earn those points.

Next up: vs. Southern Cal (4-4); Sunday, 9:30 P.M. CT

The Texas program has long been known for its defense. Under head coach Rick Barnes, the philosophy shifted from the run-n-gun style of Tom Penders to a well-disciplined, defense-first approach. It seems only fitting the the Longhorns put up their best defensive performance of the year on a night where Coach Barnes earned his 500th career win.

Texas cruised to an 84-50 victory over the Sam Houston State Bearkats in a game where the outcome was never in doubt. Both teams played an extremely sloppy first half, with 23 combined turnovers between the two teams. The Longhorns held SHSU to just a 29.2% success rate from the field, while posting an impressive 55% field-goal percentage of their own.

What looked good

The game was so one-sided on Tuesday night that it’s tough to extract any meaningful bits of information from the game. Was Texas really that good, or did the new-look Bearkats simply lay an egg in their first true test of the year?

The truth is likely found somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, but the raw numbers certainly look pretty. The Longhorns had an offensive efficiency of 1.14 points per possession, but the stats were even better on defense. Texas allowed the Bearkats just 0.68 points each trip down the floor, making it the team’s second-most efficient defensive performance since giving up 0.66 points per possession to Navy in the season opener.

On offense, the Longhorns were led by Jordan Hamilton, who matched his season average with 25 points despite only having to play 27 minutes in the blowout. He hit both of his three-point attempts on the night, was 5-of-6 at the stripe, and finished just a rebound shy of a double-double.

There is now no question that Hamilton will be the team’s leader this year, and it’s clear that he has matured during the offseason. After forcing up some bad shots in the pair of New York City games, Hamilton played smart, team basketball against Sam Houston State.

Surprisingly, the team’s second-leading scorer was senior point guard Dogus Balbay. The Turkish guard’s lack of a jump shot is an oft-noted deficiency, and he did miss the only short jumper he took against the Bearkats. But Balbay looked comfortable pushing the break, probing the interior D in half-court sets, and getting to the rim for easy layups.

His 14 points marked a new career-high, besting the 13 he posted against Texas Tech in January. Critics might point to the quality of those two opponents before giving Balbay credit, but the fact that he is once again looking to get to the rim will only serve to open up the rest of the offense.

Freshman Cory Joseph also had the best game of his young career, chipping in nine points on the night. Joseph led the team with four assists and managed to finish with just two turnovers in a game where it seemed like the Longhorns threw it away on every other possession. Cory has taken flak for the way the Pitt game finished, but he and Balbay are going to provide a dose of quality backcourt leadership this year. And we all know the adage about March and a team’s backcourt play…

The biggest subplot of the night, however, came at the free-throw line. The Longhorns finished 15-of-19 from the stripe, an improvement of a full 11 percentage points over the season average. Texas actually started their impressive free-throw streak during crunch time of the Pitt game, where they made eight out of 10 attempts over the final eight minutes of the game. Combining the numbers from those two games gives the Horns a 79.3% mark at the line over the last 48 minutes of basketball.

What needed work

For once, Tristan Thompson looked human. After making a huge splash in his first four games, including an absolutely incredible performance on back-to-back nights in New York, the freshman came back to Earth. Sam Houston State’s Antuan Bootle frustrated Thompson all night, limiting the Canadian to just three points and four boards in 28 minutes of play. He never seemed to get in the flow of the game, and with the outcome clearly in hand, Coach Barnes elected to give Matt Hill and Alexis Wangmene more minutes and experience.

The biggest flaw for Texas, though, was clearly the turnovers. While Texas turned things around at half and only coughed it up twice in the final 20 minutes, the first half was a disaster. The Longhorns had 12 miscues before halftime, and most of them were unforced errors. The team threw the ball into the crowd on multiple occasions, while J’Covan Brown and Gary Johnson combined to pick up five offensive fouls in the game. Considering the sloppy play was limited to just the first half, and that the team also had just ten turnovers in the entire game against Illinois, we figure it’s safe to chalk this one up as an aberration.

The other concern worth noting is the team’s continued struggles from three-point range. The Longhorns shot 30% from behind the arc last night, a sad number that is even more depressing if you were to remove Hamilton’s 2-for-2 performance. On the season, the team is 29.4% from long range. Take Hamilton and walk-on Dean Melchionni out of the equation — since Melchionni won’t see meaningful minutes this season — and the Longhorns are just 6-of-38 from three-point range, which is only a 15.8% success rate. Jai Lucas, who was the team’s best three-point shooter last season (46.2%) in his limited minutes, has yet to make one this year in his eight attempts.

Next up: vs. Rice Owls (3-2); Saturday, 3 P.M. CT

Leaving Madison Square Garden on Friday night, it was difficult to feel anything but optimism. Sure, losing a close game to a top-five team can be frustrating for any fan. But what we saw from the Longhorns in New York City bodes very, very well for the future.

While many have focused on the bizarre finish and Cory Joseph‘s ugly heave with seconds left, there were so many positive things to take from the pair of games played in the 2KSports Classic at Madison Square Garden. We’ve already talked about the overtime win over the Illini, but there was even more to love in the loss to Pitt.

1) Jordan Hamilton is taking charge – Hamilton still has issues forcing shots and sometimes fails to look for the open man as often as his teammates do. But when you’re the most prolific scorer on a young team coming off a season played completely without leadership…can you blame him?

Jordan scored 28 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including a 5-for-8 mark from behind the arc. Two of those three-point misses actually came in the final few minutes, when Hamilton took quick threes in possessions where the Longhorns might have been better served by working it inside and earning points the hard way. But when a kid is 5-of-6 and has the hot hand, you can’t fault the decision-making too much.

In the future, Jordan will need to make wiser decisions with the basketball and not try to take the entire team on his shoulders every single trip down the floor. But maturing into a leader is a journey that’s rife with speedbumps and detours, so these criticisms are minor in the grand scheme of things. It will be exciting to watch Hamilton mature over the course of this season.

2) Tristan Thompson doesn’t play like a freshman – Ho hum. Just another 40-minute, 11-point, six-rebound performance for a kid who is only in his fourth collegiate game. Thompson even added three more blocks to his total in the loss to Pitt, giving him eight in his two games at MSG. If you can fault him for anything at this point, it might be that he doesn’t know how to take a break.

With such a thin frontcourt, having the freshman be able to play entire games while avoiding foul trouble is an incredible gift. When Thompson is able to limit fouls and perform so well, it decreases the minutes that Matt Hill and Alexis Wangmene have to play, and it makes it easier for the two reserves to produce without pressure.

3) The Texas frontcourt didn’t back down – It’s all we’ve been talking about all season. Heck, we even led off our previous paragraph with it. The Longhorns have a thin frontcourt, and unless Thompson is sharing the court with Wangmene or Hill, they are undersized against most opponents.

Still, Texas took it inside against a big, physical Pitt team and actually beat them on the glass. In fact, the Longhorns held Pitt to just 36% of their offensive rebounding chances, a far cry from the 50-plus percentage they had enjoyed in the first four games.

In addition, the Longhorns were at their most successful when they attacked the paint on offense. They consistently drew fouls against the Panther big men, forcing coach Jamie Dixon to give more minutes to guys typically buried down the bench. Unfortunately, the Longhorns went against this gameplan when it came down to crunch time, and that failure to stick to a successful formula led to a narrow defeat.

4) Frontcourt reserves did their part – As mentioned above, when Thompson plays so well, it means that Rick Barnes doesn’t need as much from his bench players. Against the Illini, Wangmene stepped up and played well. Versus the Panthers, it was Hill who had the good game. Matt only played 12 minutes against Pitt, but he worked hard for three boards, played admirably on defense, and added a free throw. The two bench forwards are not going to be lighting up the stat sheets anytime soon, but these small contributions are much more than Texas fans were expecting coming into the year.

5) There’s room to grow – The Pitt team that won the 2KSports Classic is an experienced one with excellent depth. The Longhorns, on the other hand, are young and are still meshing as a group. If you take another look at these teams in March, you’ll likely see a very similar Panther squad to the one that took home the title. The Longhorns will likely be playing much better basketball.

With the exception of last year’s disaster, Coach Barnes always improves his team throughout the year, especially on defense. The Texas defensive numbers so far this season aren’t up to his standards, so you can be sure the Horns will be tougher to score on once Big 12 play rolls around. In addition, there are a lot of youthful mistakes that probably won’t be cropping up in the second half of the season. Texas may not have won the tournament, but they made quite an impact with their performance in New York City.

The Horns continue the new season with a home game against Sam Houston State tonight at 7 P.M. We’ll be back with a preview later this afternoon.