When we wrote about the problems plaguing the Texas offense on Tuesday night, we addressed the fact that Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay were offensive liabilities that were crippling Dexter Pittman‘s productivity. Opponents were well-aware that the duo was averaging a combined 7.2 points per game, which allowed two extra defenders to sag into the paint and stifle Texas’ inside game. Our proposed solution was to limit the amount of time both players were on the floor simultaneously, hopefully clearing up the spacing issues for the offense.

Of course, having Mason and Balbay combine for 31 points might also solve the problem.

That’s exactly what happened in Wednesday night’s 95-83 Texas win, as the pair of offensively-challenged guards made mincemeat of the Tech defense, leading the Horns to a win on a night where Pittman didn’t even score in the first half. It was clear from the start that the two guards had the green light on offense, as Mason attacked the rim for layups almost immediately, and Balbay shot the first open mid-range jumper he was given. That particular shot clanged off the iron, but the junior kept firing, and knocked down a pair of Js later in the contest.

With all five Texas players actually a threat to score, the offense immediately opened up. Avery Bradley found himself with open looks behind the arc and he took advantage, knocking down 3-of-6 from long range. Damion James was able to secure his Big 12-record 48th double-double with a monstrous 28-point, 13-rebound night. To say the Texas offense was clicking on all cylinders would be a gross understatement. According to number crunching by stat guru Ken Pomeroy, last night’s performance was actually the 4th-most efficient one for the offense all season, and the best since the Big 12 opener against Colorado.

Unfortunately, even with all of that scoring, the game wasn’t safely in hand until the final minutes. Texas had yet another poor defensive performance, giving up dribble penetration far too easily in the first half. In response, the Longhorns peeled back the defensive pressure inside the arc to cut off the driving lanes, which left the perimeter wide open. That let Tech — a team which was averaging just thirteen three-point attempts per game — fire up thirteen attempts in just the first half and actually make eight of them!

In the second half, things improved marginally, but there is the question of how much of that defensive improvement was thanks to fatigue slowing down the Tech ballhandlers. The Longhorns were much more successful staying in front of their man for the final twenty minutes and certainly made John Roberson work much harder in the second half to score his points. But with the Red Raiders only playing seven men when they typically run nine or ten deep, it’s quite possible that tired legs just made it harder for them to blow by the Texas defense.

While Tech had lost most of its depth, Texas was choosing to work with less. The Longhorns played with a core group of seven men, and even sat Dexter Pittman for more than half the game as Coach Barnes chose to go with a smaller lineup against the speedy, undersized Red Raiders. J’Covan Brown earned most of the reserve minutes in the backcourt, playing 20 minutes in relief. Down low, Gary Johnson made the most of his 21 minutes, scrapping for six points and five boards. After the UConn loss, there was much talk in the media about downsizing the Texas rotation, and for now that approach seems to be working.

With the losing streak at an end, the Longhorns can now think about getting the season back on track. Fortunately, the UConn loss has no bearing at all on the goal of a conference championship, so Texas still sits just one game back of Kansas in the league standings. The tiebreaker will belong to the winner of the February 8th showdown at the Frank Erwin Center, so as long as the Longhorns stay within one game of the Jayhawks, they still maintain the ability to wrest control of the league with a head-to-head win.

Texas has a tough week on the road between now and then, but also cannot afford to look past a very dangerous march-up with the Baylor Bears on Saturday. Scott Drew has his team playing defense for the first time in ages, and Michigan transfer Ekpe Udoh gives the Bears an inside presence they simply haven’t had with Josh Lomers in the paint.

Check back tomorrow evening for some statistical analysis of the Texas defense, and perhaps even a few more photo galleries from this season’s road trips.

Well, that escalated quickly.

The Longhorns fell victim to a second-straight loss on Saturday afternoon, turning a ten-point lead in the opening minute of the second half into an epic meltdown that resulted in a fourteen-point road loss. Texas seemed completely lost and overwhelmed as the game careened out of control, the rowdy crowd of 10,000 fueling the Connecticut surge.

So what exactly happened? How did a team that was enjoying a double-digit lead suddenly look like a frightened high school JV team? Fortunately for both this author and my readers, the answers to that question will be short and sweet.

What looked good

There were very few things that looked good on this afternoon. So few things, in fact, that it’s incredibly easy to chalk up this loss and the final nineteen minutes of it to aberrational play that will hopefully never be seen again from a Longhorn team.

Early on, Texas seemed to grasp the simple idea of drive-and-dish that we touched on in the game preview. The Longhorn guards were aware of the defensive presence the Huskies boast inside, and were perfectly content with drawing attention off the dribble and dishing for easy layups or open jumpers. Eight out of the 16 first-half buckets for Texas came off of an assist, with two of the unassisted scores coming on fast breaks.

In addition to occasional uses of dribble penetration, there were a handful of times where the Texas ball movement didn’t seem reminiscent of a high-speed Pong battle around the perimeter. On one particular possession in the second half, Jai Lucas lobbed in an entry pass to Dexter Pittman, who was immediately double-teamed by Lucas’ defender and Pittman’s man. Almost immediately, Big Dex rifled the ball back to a wide-open Lucas. The tiny guard missed his three-pointer, so this won’t go down as even a moral victory in the eyes of the biggest Texas homer. But for one brief moment, Pittman did exactly what he was supposed to with the basketball, and the Longhorns were actually set up to capitalize, although they failed to do so.

Far too often, Dexter brings the ball down low, typically leading to a turnover against the double- or triple-teams. In addition, Texas normally has only the offensively-challenged Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay waiting on Dexter’s side of the court as a kick-out option, which means there is absolutely no three-point threat for the defense to worry about. In this instance, Pittman kept the ball high and recognized the presence of a three-point threat waiting. If Texas could actually have multiple possessions like this in one game, that outside threat might actually open things up inside for the much-maligned big man.

The Longhorn defense looked good in brief stretches, although there was a horrible trend of playing solid defense for 30 seconds before letting a big man make a clean cut for a wide-open backdoor layup. Time and again, Texas would shut down Connecticut with great denial on the perimeter, only to give up the easy, demoralizing bucket. There were far more awful things about the defense on Saturday afternoon, but we’ll get to that in the following segment…

What needed work

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, this game wasn’t in the 8-and-under Little Dribblers league, so things weren’t finished after just 24 minutes. Texas absolutely collapsed in the second half, and that means there will be a lot for Coach Barnes to work on before Wednesday night’s game with Texas Tech.

The most glaring problem for the Longhorns was a complete lack of transition defense. This was one of our keys to the game in yesterday’s preview, and it is the one thing that the UConn offense does exceptionally well. But even with that information being very public knowledge, Texas seemed to have no interest in getting back on defense to turn the game into a half-court battle. The Huskies scored 20 points on fast breaks, including twelve in a 7:30 stretch of the second half where they turned an eight-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

As briefly mentioned earlier, the other big problem for the Texas defense was breakdowns late in the shot clock. Great defensive stands don’t mean a damned thing when you only hold a team for 30 of 35 seconds, and that sort of glaring defensive miscommunication is even worse when it results in the wide-open, point-blank looks that UConn was getting.

In one of our tweets from the game, it was mentioned that you won’t beat many teams who are shooting 55% from the field. While that’s certainly true, the defensive issues mentioned above certainly didn’t help matters. It would take quite an awful team to have a bad shooting night when they are racing down the court for uncontested fast break points and cutting back-door for open layups that Jim Abbott could sink.

The final problem contributing to the Connecticut surge was the Longhorns’ lackadaisical ball control in the second half. Thanks to three Balbay fouls in just fifty seconds, the point guard role was filled down the stretch mostly by Mason and Jai Lucas. While both are serviceable points, they aren’t exactly staunch lockboxes with the basketball, and neither is the man you’d want to lead your team out of a double-digit hole in a hostile road environment. They combined for three turnovers down the stretch, with Jordan Hamilton and Damion James adding four more. Without Balbay on the floor to slow things down, the Longhorns looked absolutely clueless with the basketball.

While Texas was busy coughing it up and helping Connecticut to stretch their lead out to thirteen points, the perpetual free-throw nightmare resurfaced to exacerbate the problem. The Horns missed five consecutive free throws as the Huskies were pulling away, and made just 4-of-10 in the second half. While this Texas team is never going to be a good free throw shooting squad, going 1-of-6 in the most critical stretch of the game is just as bad as three dumb turnovers.

The road ahead

Texas has the good fortune of following up this brutal road trip with a home game against Texas Tech. And while the Red Raiders are vastly improved this season, they are still a much different team away from the confines of United Spirit Arena. A solid, convincing win should help the Longhorns get back on track before a tough home game with the Baylor Bears on Saturday, a squad that has finally added quality defense to its usual array of offensive talents.

Tickets still remain for both games, and judging from the typically flaky nature of Texas fans, neither will likely be a sellout thanks to the current losing streak. But this team deserves fan support, regardless of the results of these two tough road games.

If you want to save a few bucks on tickets and support your hometown team, check out Bevo’s Bargains through the Texas Box Office. Fans can save $2 per ticket for the Tech game by donating three books to the less fortunate, while military, fire, EMS, and police can enjoy the same discount if they order their tickets in advance. Girl Scouts are eligible for the $2 for the Baylor game, and must also order tickets in advance.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more content, as we have more photos to share from this year’s trips and perhaps some notes from the road. On Tuesday, we’ll take a statistical look at the struggles Texas has encountered in its last three games, and discuss how those flaws could be addressed down the stretch.

The Longhorns survived a scare and an atrocious shooting night on Saturday, as they escaped the Frank Erwin Center with their perfect mark intact after an overtime victory against Texas A&M. Tonight, however, they face a much bigger test from the Kansas State Wildcats, a team that could even crack the top ten of the polls later this afternoon. If the Longhorns have an offensive performance like they did on Saturday night, there’s a very good chance that Fred Bramlage Coliseum will be the site of their first loss.

By the numbers

The Wildcats are a very scary match-up for the Longhorns, and it’s not just because K-State seems to win against Texas in every sport. Kansas State has the 12th-most efficient offense in the nation, and their defense is nearly as good, checking in at 31st in the country. Combining those efficiency numbers gives the ‘Cats a +0.265 differential per possession, and as a result, they push the tempo to exploit that advantage as often as they can.

Last year’s K-State team finished tops in the nation when it came to offensive rebounding, and this year’s squad is leading the way again. The Wildcats grab an insane 43.5% of their chances on the offensive glass, so even when their highly-efficient offense manages to miss a shot, they typically get another chance to score.

If you look at KSU Coach Frank Martin, you could probably guess that his teams play a physical brand of basketball, most likely because he looks like he could have a bit role on The Sopranos as one of Tony’s enforcers. If you made that guess, you’d be quite the smart cookie, as K-State games typically turn into foul-fests where both teams take approximately 3,912 free throws and the game lasts four hours. The Wildcats are the best team in the country when it comes to getting to the line, and one of the absolute worst when it comes to sending their opponents there.

“Oh no!” Longhorn Fan exclaimed to himself after reading the last paragraph. “My team couldn’t make free throws on a Little Tykes basket!” Calm those fears, though, Longhorn Fan. While Texas shoots just 63.4% from the line, the Wildcats aren’t much better, making 66.2% of their attempts. Missed free throws could certainly play a factor in the final outcome, but it might not be quite the disadvantage Texas fans would expect.

One other thing Kansas State excels at is blocking shots. When the ‘Cats aren’t fouling opponents in the paint, they are typically swatting shots into the twelfth row. K-State opponents are stuffed on 13.5% of their possessions, a rate that makes the Wildcats the 30th-best shot blocking crew in the nation. The Longhorns, meanwhile, have a 14.2% mark and are ranked 21st. There is a good possibility that some poor, unsuspecting KSU student could have his fake beard knocked right off tonight by a high-speed rejection.

Meet the ‘Cats

While this section is called “Meet the ‘Cats,” Texas fans need no introduction to Denis Clemente. The lightning-quick guard from Puerto Rico tied the Big 12’s scoring mark with 44 points in Austin last year, shooting his way onto the national scene while simultaneously ruining my 100th-consecutive game. Thanks, buddy.

Clemente can score from anywhere on the floor, although it’s his soft touch on the running floater that often gives opponents their biggest headaches. He can blow past just about any defender off the dribble, and has a tremendous ability to finish in traffic. Fortunately for Texas fans, Clemente has struggled a little bit this season in comparison to last year, as his shooting percentage has dropped to just 38% and his three-point percentage has fallen under the 30% mark.

The superstar this season for Kansas State, though, is junior guard Jacob Pullen, the man being honored by the aforementioned “Beard Out.” Pullen is leading the team with almost 20 points a game and is knocking down over 44% of his long-range bombs. While last season he was an absolute turnover machine, he’s improved his ballhandling a bit and this year actually has a turnover-to-assist ratio that isn’t approaching negative infinity. Like Clemente, Pullen is very quick with the basketball, and the Texas guards will have to work very hard at keeping him in front of them.

After sitting out a season following his transfer from UConn, big man Curtis Kelly has been a huge addition to the roster. Last year’s Wildcat team lacked any sort of identity inside, and this 6’8″ forward has certainly brought that to the table. He’s leading the team with more than six rebounds a game, and is a great defender down low, having already logged 29 blocks.

At small forward, Dominique Sutton is having a solid junior season. He’s chipping in eight points and six boards in 23 minutes per game, and has started in every contest. He spent the summer playing overseas with Pullen on an all-star team, and the extra months of game action are clearly paying off. Sutton looks faster and more sound on defense, while his ballhandling has also improved. His assist-to-TO ratio has nearly doubled in just one season.

The center position for Coach Martin is played mostly by committee, but that depth allows him to employ the physical style that makes the Wildcats so intimidating down low. Their biggest presence is freshman Jordan Henriquez-Roberts, a 7-footer who needs to add some muscle, but still provides twelve minutes a game. He’s the team’s second-best shot blocker with 16 swats, but Ken Pomeroy’s stats point out that when playing time is considered, Henriquez is best on the team in that category. The big man still needs a ton of seasoning when he’s got the ball, but he is definitely going to make an impact on the defensive end tonight.

Just 6’7″, Jamar Samuels is a sixth man that is versatile enough to fill in at the five when K-State wants to go smaller, but is most at home giving valuable bench minutes as a forward. He’s third on the team in scoring despite only starting in one game, and his 4.6 rebounds are best among non-starters. While Samuels often tries to attack off the dribble from the wings, he handles the ball about as well as Damion James circa 2006, and as a result, he is one of the team’s biggest offenders when it comes to turnovers.

Inside, 6’10” senior Luis Colon is another option at the five who is a defensive specialist. At 265 pounds, he’s a physical player that loves to block shots and make life miserable for opposing big men. He also likes punching people, although Ty at Bring On the Cats accurately points out that Colon seems to have funneled that aggression into productive basketball play in recent years. When Big Lu and Big Pitt tangle down low tonight, seismologists may note a spike of activity near the Little Apple.

Freshman Wally Judge was a much heralded recruit coming into the season, and with McDonald’s All-American honors, why wouldn’t he be? But so far his play has left a lot to be desired, as the freshman is picking up fouls more often than points. He’s averaging just 12.5 minutes per game, but still manages to lead the team in personals by a wide margin. His 52 fouls are six more than Samuels has, and he’s done it in eleven less minutes per game.

Freshman guard Rodney McGruder plays about as often as Judge, and provides a scoring spark from outside when he comes off the bench. McGruder loves to light it up from the corner, and his 54.5% success rate from long range would be absolutely terrifying if he had taken more than 22 attempts on the year. In future seasons, McGruder is going to be a pest for opponents, but for now he is a quality role player that compliments Martin’s roster nicely.

Chris Merriewether is the tenth Wildcat who plays more than ten minutes per game, and he’s mostly a glue guy off the bench. He can’t shoot that well, and as a result has only thirteen attempts on the year. Martin puts Merriewether in the game simply for his hustle, defense, and hard work, not for his massive 1.2 points per game.

Keys to the game

The biggest flaw for the Wildcats is still their inability to control the basketball. They are turning it over on 22.1% of their possessions, which is even worse than last year’s team. And when you consider that last year Kansas State turned it over 25 times in a 22-point road loss to Nebraska, that’s really saying something. If Texas hopes to slow down the highly-efficient K-State offense, they are going to have to force a ton of Wildcat mistakes.

As previously mentioned, KSU is practically unstoppable on the offensive glass. In addition to forcing turnovers, the other way Texas can limit the damage is to limit K-State’s second-chance points. The Longhorns must keep the ‘Cats off the offensive boards, and when they do give up second and third looks, they cannot result in easy putback buckets.

Finally, Texas must not settle. When the Longhorns have struggled to score inside this season, their possessions often ended simply with outside and mid-range jumpers. Some nights, those shots were falling, and the Longhorns were able to cruise. On other nights, Texas couldn’t hit the broad side of Darryl K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and they struggled to put away teams like Rice and A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Wildcats are a solid defensive team, and scoring inside will not be easy tonight. Texas must make a commitment to penetrate, flash men to the free throw line, use good ball movement, and most importantly cannot rely simply on contested jumpers where Dexter Pittman is the only player in rebounding position.

The big finish

The Big 12 is a very deep conference this season, and road wins are going to be hard to come by. None will be harder for the Longhorns this year than the one they hope to steal tonight. With the exception of the Kansas game in Austin three weeks from now, this game is the toughest one left on the docket, and there is a very good chance the Longhorns will suffer their first loss of the season in about eleven hours. No matter the outcome, however, this ought to be one hell of a basketball game.

Vegas thinks the game is roughly a toss up, giving the Wildcats a 1.5-point edge thanks to the home-court advantage. They have yet to post the odds of my making it out of Bramlage Coliseum alive, however. Just to be safe, a stop at a costume shop somewhere on I-35 might be in order. Do you think they sell fake beards in child sizes?

Another non-conference opponent, another double-digit win for the Longhorns. But while the scoreboard boldly trumpeted a 32-point Texas win on Tuesday night, the play on the court was anything but dominating. The Longhorns had arguably their ugliest game of the season, yet still cruised past a horribly overmatched Gardner-Webb team. It was as if Texas knew they simply had to show up to win, and their effort certainly reflected that sentiment.

What looked good

The high point of the night was freshman Jai Lucas breaking out with a 5-of-7 performance behind the arc. Although his shot is a funky little line drive, the Florida transfer was nearly unstoppable from long range. Gardner-Webb was focused on the post man all night when Texas used the pick-and-roll, and as the Bulldogs doubled down on the rolling big man, Lucas quickly fired up the threes.

If Jai can be that accurate all season, teams are going to have to pick their poison when Texas sets high ball screens. Of course, for the rest of the season Texas will be facing many teams with taller guards than those of Gardner-Webb. On those nights, it might feel a bit like A.J. Abrams is on the court, as the Longhorns work to free up their long-range gunner.

The other big storyline of the game was the improved free throw shooting for the Longhorns. Texas shot 76.2% from the line, a full twelve percentage points better than their season average. Gary Johnson was 7-of-8 from the line after starting the season 15-for-20, but most surprising was Damion James‘ perfect 8-for-8 night. Coming into the game, DaMo was just 47-of-72 at the charity stripe, giving him just a 65% success rate. Hopefully this steady shooting night is a sign of things to come.

The Texas defense forced a season-high 27 turnovers, 19 of those coming on steals. They did it with a variety of traps that completely befuddled the Bulldogs and led to lazy passes that hung over midcourt for the waiting Longhorn defenders. Texas has shown a ton of trapping looks early this season, and as a result are turning their opponents over on nearly a quarter of their possessions. When you consider that the Horns weren’t really forcing a ton of turnovers early in the year, it makes the season-long numbers even more impressive.

What needed work

While the trapping was excellent, the perimeter defense was absolutely atrocious for Texas. The Longhorns allowed Gardner-Webb to hit 8-of-14 from beyond the arc in the second half, and allowed a disgusting 50% success rate for the game. Defenders simply did not close out quickly enough and often failed to get a hand up to even challenge the shooter. Whether it was a result of the week-long layoff after the Michigan State game or just a lack of effort due to a pitiful opponent, it was an embarrassing display, and something that surely had Rick Barnes fired up at practice yesterday.

On the offensive end, Texas looked completely careless with the basketball. The Horns turned it over 19 times, much worse than their previous season average of fourteen per game. Most of the turnovers came on lazy passes or overly-fancy, streetball-style dime attempts. Even the typically steady Dogus Balbay was bit by the turnover bug, recording four miscues to just two assists. Before the game, he was boasting a 3.67 assist-to-turnover ratio.

A mixed bag

Against the Bulldogs, J’Covan Brown was absolutely cold from outside. But Gardner-Webb kept giving him looks, and he kept firing away. For as good of a shooter as J’Covan is, that seems like the correct course of action. On most nights, he would eventually hit a shot, get some confidence, and help out the team. Fortunately for the Longhorns, his 1-of-8 night from long range happened to come against one of the worst opponents on their schedule. To Brown’s credit, however, it should be noted that even though the three-balls weren’t falling, he did still occasionally slash to the basket and earned nine points on the night.

Jordan Hamilton was limited to just eleven minutes thanks to an ankle injury, but played within the flow of the offense. In perhaps the most shocking statistic of the night, Hamilton did not attempt a single shot, and actually had three assists. He made a conscious effort to work the ball into the paint in the hopes of exploiting Texas’ massive size advantage. While Longhorn fans won’t want a healthy Jordan Hamilton taking zero shots in a game, his commitment to fitting into the offensive gameplan was a welcome sight.

Looking forward

The Longhorns have another home game before they travel to Fayetteville next week, where they should likely reach the 14-0 mark for just the first time in 28 years. That Saturday home game will be against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders, and the Texas Box Office has a slew of promotions available to get fans into the arena. All upper level tickets are just $3, and fans can show their tickets at the box office to also score a free general admission seat to the women’s game that tips at 11 A.M.

It’s been a few days since the Longhorns secured their second-straight win over a top-ten opponent, and unfortunately the post-game review slipped through the cracks as we frantically finished up holiday shopping at the eleventh hour and then enjoyed a few days with the family. But before college basketball gets back in full swing tomorrow, we’d like to take a quick look back at the highlights and lowlights from Tuesday night’s victory.

What looked good

The most impressive part of the Longhorns’ 79-68 win was that it came mostly without Dexter Pittman. Plagued by fouls and referee Rick Hartzell‘s obsession with blowing the whistle, the Texas inside game was quickly hampered. Add in the fact that Damion James seemed a bit too anchored to the perimeter early in the first half, and there was reason for Longhorn fans to be concerned.

It was James’ gutty play that ended up being the difference, though. With his jersey bloodstained and his lip swollen, Damion looked every bit the warrior as he clawed his way to a 23-point, 13-rebound night. It was truly a star performance for the senior, who became the all-time leading rebounder for the University of Texas. And not only did the win underscore James’ ability to carry the team, but it also highlighted how the depth of this Longhorn squad will make it incredibly difficult for opponents to completely shut them down.

Gary Johnson touched on that very fact in the post-game presser. “We can give it to you any way you want it,” the forward said, pointing out that the versatile Longhorns were able to play very different styles of basketball in defeating North Carolina and Michigan State. In addition to making astute observations and providing quality quotes for writers, Johnson also quietly put in a solid effort on the court. The typically shot-happy junior had nearly as many assists (two) as field goals (three), and was a steady 50% from the field.

Johnson’s defense was also a big part of the reason the Longhorns were able to pull away in the waning moments. He stripped the ball from a Spartan guard in the open court not once, but twice in the final minutes, leading to fast break buckets as Texas iced the game. That oft-mentioned depth of the Longhorn bench seemed to play a huge role in the final result, as Texas was able to continue hustling in crunch time, while Michigan State made just one field goal in the final 9:57 of the game.

In addition to that finishing kick, Longhorn fans can also be impressed with the poise their team showed under fire. With Pittman riding the bench in foul trouble, Texas fell as far behind as eight points late in the first half. The Horns closed the gap to three by the time they hit the locker room, where they made adjustments to shore up their perimeter defense. After allowing Michigan State enough time and space to hit 71% of their threes in the first half, the Longhorns locked down the three-point line and allowed just a 12.5% success rate in the second half.

The Texas defense also pressured the Spartans and forced mistakes, earning 22 turnovers in the process. That gave the Spartans a 29.5% turnover rate in the game, their worst performance with the basketball since they coughed it up 33.4% of the time against Florida in a 77-74 loss.

What needed work

For the rest of the season, the first paragraph in this portion of every single game report will likely read the exact same way. The Longhorns simply have no answers from the free throw line. In fact, the Texas free-throw nightmare is so bad that Spartan Coach Tom Izzo instructed his team to foul Dogus Balbay with nearly three minutes left on the clock. Texas quickly responded by giving ballhandling duties to J’Covan Brown, while Izzo changed course and had his team concede the defeat.

While the Longhorns have yet to win a game by less eleven points and they have an average margin of victory of more than 28 points, they will undoubtedly face tougher tests in the future. Games will be closer, and it’s highly likely that whatever losses the team incurs the rest of the way, they will be a result of missed free throws. For a team that is averaging 17 made free throws and 11 missed ones per game, those points left at the line will eventually loom large.

What also needed work was Michigan State’s attempts at distracting the Texas free throw shooters. In the first half, a woman seated in the Michigan State guest pass section decided to blow an air horn before two of James’ free throw attempts. As Murphy would have predicted, the Longhorn big man then made both. (It should be noted that James was just 1-of-5 from the line without air-horn accompaniment.) While it’s embarrassing enough that someone who was allowed into the Erwin Center for free as a guest of the visiting team would break NCAA rules by using an illegal noisemaker, it’s even more embarrassing that she couldn’t even successfully impact the game.

Everything else that Texas needed to improve upon was actually remedied within the game itself. James opened up his game after his early addiction to the perimeter, scoring more inside and getting better position for rebounds. The Longhorns improved their transition defense after letting Michigan State run right past them for easy buckets during most of the first half. And as previously mentioned, the perimeter defense was night-and-day different from one half to the next.

What lies ahead

Fresh off the heels of these two big wins, Longhorn fans are becoming understandably giddy with excitement. The last time Texas started a season 11-0 was in the fall of 2007, when that unblemished start was finally spoiled by Izzo and the Spartans in Auburn Hills. With Michigan State finally vanquished, fans have high hopes that the next two weeks will be smooth sailing for the Longhorns. After home games against Gardner-Webb and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a road test against the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks provides the only likely hurdle for Texas as it attempts to enter conference play with a perfect 14-0 mark.