Texas prepares to take on Iowa State

The Iowa State Cyclones were able to do something that no other Big 12 team has done in ten games this season — hold Kevin Durant to less than 26 points. Unfortunately, they didn’t account for the other freshman phenom on the Longhorns. D.J. Augustin stepped up to the plate and delivered, dropping a career-high 31 points and six assists in a 77-68 Longhorn victory.

Texas (17-7 overall, 7-3 Big 12) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. The Longhorns found themselves up by a 21-5 count before the second media timeout, and stretched the lead out to 21 before halftime. They did it with defensive pressure that had been severely lacking in recent games.

For much of the first half, Texas showed a man defense that oftentimes extended out well past the three point line. The added pressure caused a ton of turnovers and prevented Iowa State (11-12, 3-7) from ever establishing any sort of offensive rhythm. The Cyclones shot only 36 percent in the first half and coughed up the ball thirteen times.

With a comfy 20-point cushion, Texas came out with a lot less intensity in the second frame. The defense sagged considerably, while Iowa State slowly chipped away at the lead. Meanwhile, the Cyclones were turning up their own defensive game, denying entry passes to Durant and meeting him with double and triple-teams when he did happen to get his hands on it. With just over six minutes left, the lead had been trimmed to eight.

The Longhorns regrouped and held off the late charge, counting on a series of three-pointers and some dazzling plays from KD to defend their home court. The Cyclones were able to get within seven points in the final 90 seconds, but Durant blocked a layup attempt and effectively sealed the game.

The double- and triple-teams that ISU showed really opened the game for our guard play. Unfortunately, that is both a blessing and a curse with our backcourt. Augustin understands how to get to the rack, finish layups, and oftentimes draw the foul. He was a perfect 10-for-10 on the day, and added a few of his trademark reverse layups.

A.J. Abrams, however, continues to pull up short and launch floaters that end up nowhere close to the rim. He’s a great free-throw shooter, and would really help out the team if he’d get to the line. But for some reason, he has it encoded into his DNA to loft floaters over guys 16 inches taller than him and hope they go in. To give Abrams a little bit of credit, he did log a career high with six rebounds. But when put next to his 1-for-10 shooting night — 0-for-6 on two-point attempts — it quickly pales.

Damion James had an outstanding day on the offensive end, and his game is really coming around. He’s no longer afraid to pop those 15-foot jumpers, and he really showcased that range today. He looks a lot more comfortable taking those shots than the little jumpers in the lane that he’d been missing for most of the year. It seems that for James, he needs to either dunk it or take midrange shots. Fortunately, he seems to be aware of it as well. James finished with ten points and five rebounds, although he found himself in a bit of foul trouble in the second half. If he can just limit those fouls on the defensive end, he’ll be able to give us even more minutes.

Coach Barnes backed up his pre-game comments about increasing playing time for Dexter Pittman, giving the big man nine minutes in the ballgame. Dexter came in for shorter spurts in this game, but was able to come in more times. He didn’t really make much of a difference on either end, so it does raise the question of whether or not the short spurts make it tough for him to get into the flow of the game. I’ll be interested to see how Pittman plays into the OSU game on Monday night, as he was not a real part of the gameplan when we played them in the triple-overtime thriller last month.

J.D. Lewis missed the game due to illness, while Matt Hill is still recovering from his foot injury. That left Barnes with just eight players and only Craig Winder to spell the guards. As a result, Abrams, Augustin, and Justin Mason each played over 35 minutes. While that may make fatigue a factor for those guys with the short turnaround on Monday, the fact that the Cowboys played a double-overtime game today may negate the problem.

Look here for a brief commentary on the defense in the morning or early afternoon, and a peek at the homestretch of the Big 12 conference race in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. And don’t forget the Duke/Maryland tilt at 4 PM (central) on Fox Sports Net.

They added a scoreboard to Reed Arena…and a really good basketball team to go with it

Texas A&M has let a lot of teams hang with them for 30 to 35 minutes a game. But not many have managed to last all 40 minutes with the Aggies. Just ask Colorado, Kansas State, OU, and Oklahoma State. Or watch the game from Saturday night, where Texas A&M trailed almost the entire game against the vaunted Kansas Jayhawks, but took the lead on an Acie Law three to pull off the upset.

The same held true on Monday night in College Station, where the Aggies pulled away in the final minutes with a 100-82 victory over the Texas Longhorns. Rick Barnes’ young team fought back from an early fourteen-point deficit and found themselves tied with just over thirteen minutes left. But the experience and stifling defense of the Aggies showed in the end, as A&M put on a 24-9 run over the final 7:30 of the game.

For much of the game, Barnes and the Longhorns looked to draw fouls on the Aggies and get to the line. In the first half, the resulting free throws got Texas back into the ballgame. The Longhorns hit 20 of 21 attempts at the charity stripe, while the Aggies only converted five of eleven. The fouls caused Billy Gillispie to play mix-and-match with his bench, getting significant minutes (and fouls) from reserves Donald Sloan, Marlon Pompey, and Bryan Davis.

Gillispie adjusted defensively in the second half, sagging his troops back into a soft zone that dared the Horns to shoot over it. And they did, abandoning the gameplan of attacking the rim and drawing fouls. Texas did manage to grab a brief 58-57 lead at the 14-minute mark, but the change protected the Ags’ key players from more foul trouble and bought them valuable minutes on the floor.

In the end, the Texas defense was exposed on a night where they gave up 100 points for the first time in a regulation game during the nine-year Rick Barnes era. (The previous high was the 95 points put up by ‘Melo and Syracuse in the 2003 Final Four.) When the Horns were trying to make a comeback, they were allowing easy transition buckets and wide open shots in the paint. Granted, their shots weren’t falling on the offensive end either, but the complete lack of late-game defense made any hopes for a miracle foolish.

The lack of depth on the team really showed, and is likely a reason that the late-game defense is such a problem. Our guys are constantly gassed in the most important minutes of the game, and it was obvious that they were tired and overwhelmed as the game wore on. Dexter Pittman gave some key minutes inside, and Connor Atchley continued to exceed expectations. But three of our starters played 39 or 40 minutes, and have done so in most of the games. It’s killing the team late in games, and could really be a huge problem when tournament play rolls around and the team is expected to play multiple games in the span of only a few days.

The return of Matt Hill from a foot injury will definitely help things, but does not really alleviate the pressure and strain on the guards. It will be possible to go with a bigger lineup if Barnes is so inclined, allowing him to rotate in a pair of guards from the Abrams-Augustin-Mason troika. But honestly, without Augustin on the floor, the offense grinds to a halt. J.D. Lewis is not a point guard, and Abrams is made to play the 2-guard. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to the problem, or that there is necessarily an answer at all. It’s really more like a game of Jenga where the pieces will always eventually tumble; it’s just a matter of choosing the right moves to make it hold together as long as possible.

All of this is not to say that there weren’t positive things in Monday night’s game. Kevin Durant was again spectacular, logging a 28-and-15 game for his fourteenth double-double on the year, a new school record. He did force some shots when the team got behind late in the game, but that was the least of the team’s concerns at that point. Augustin also played extraordinarily well, as the attack-the-rim gameplan fit his style perfectly. D.J. got to the line thirteen times and hit twelve of his attempts, finishing the game with 23 points and nine assists.

The scary thought is that the season as a whole could mirror the game on Monday night. Texas started out rough, dropping a game to Michigan State, barely beating St. John’s, and getting destroyed by Gonzaga in the most lopsided ten-point game ever seen. The middle of the year showed promise, just like the valiant comeback by the Horns in College Station. But Texas has lost four of their last seven and has a brutal three-game stretch to finish the year. They will need to refocus, take at least three of the next four games, and find a way to address the depth problems that have plagued them all season long. The thought of a tired, sapped squad playing road games in Norman and Lawrence is not a welcome one.

A horrible Iowa State team comes to Austin on Saturday, and it provides a good opportunity for Texas to bounce back and get on track for the homestretch of the season. Later this week, I’ll take a closer look at our defensive woes by examining the last two games in depth, and will break down the remainder of the conference race. If time allows, I’ll try to explore the NCAA situation as it pertains to the Horns.

In the meantime, buy some tickets for the game with the Cyclones on Saturday and I’ll see you at the Drum.

Kevin Durant scored 32 against the Wildcats

On Saturday afternoon, the Texas Longhorns lost at the Frank Erwin Center for the first time since December of 2005, falling to the Kansas State Wildcats, 73-72. The loss snapped a 22-game home winning streak and dropped the Longhorns into a three-way tie for second in the conference with the Wildcats and Kansas.

A home loss to a team playing without its biggest star is a tough pill to swallow. And Texas certainly should have won this game. Unfortunately, that means that the good things the Horns did are going to be overshadowed by the final score. I’ll get to what they did well, but first let’s get the depressing stuff out of the way.

Kansas State came into the game shooting 31% from behind the arc. The three-point shot was such a small part of their overall success, I didn’t even touch on it in the game preview. But the Wildcats got absolutely scorching hot from three-point range in this game, and it made all the difference in the world. K-State hit 51.9% of the threes they took, and those treys made up a whopping 42 of their 73 points. Unreal.

While you don’t want to take anything away from a team that is shooting that well, some attention has to be paid to the atrocious defense Texas displayed against the outside shooters. For much of the game, the Horns were married to a zone defense. Typically, when a team shoots well from outside, it will cause the opponent to switch to a man scheme in order to cut down on the open looks. But thanks to the foul trouble plaguing point guard D.J. Augustin, Coach Barnes had to stick with the zone for longer than was probably prudent.

Of course, the threes that K-State was knocking down in the final minutes of the game were coming against a man defense, so it may have been “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” for the Texas D on Saturday. But there were still a ton of wide open looks that allowed really hot shooters to take all day when launching the threes. That’s a recipe for disaster, and the Horns will need to flash out on shooters much faster in the future if they want to avoid the same kind of problem.

A.J. Abrams had another rough game, going 2-for-16 from the field. One of those buckets was a three-pointer, and the other was a floater over the K-State bigs. But among those fourteen misses were a ton of other floaters, including one airball on the next-to-last possession that Kevin Durant was fortunate enough to see fall into his lap.

The guys over at Burnt Orange Nation addressed the “A.J. problem” last week in a painfully accurate entry. Abrams is great when he comes off of curls and takes a quick shot. When he’s hitting those threes, he’s content to stay in that role. But when he’s not getting those looks, or the shots aren’t falling — look out. He’ll dribble back from high screens or trying to take ridiculous floaters against guys a foot and a half taller than him, and that’s hurting the offense.

Abrams is a 90% free throw shooter on the year, so I have no problem with him driving to the basket — if he’s going to draw the foul and get to the line. But tossing up a running floater over a big guy is not exactly a high-percentage look. And as long as he’s taking shots like that, there is absolutely no reason that he should be playing more minutes than Kevin Durant. You read that correctly — Mr. 2-for-16 Abrams played more than 13-for-21, Player-of-the-Year candidate, future lottery pick Kevin Durant. I just threw up in my mouth a little.

As always, KD was a bright spot for the Horns. Sure, he was the reason that K-State had an open look for the go-ahead three. But without his 32 points, Texas isn’t even in the game with the lights-out Wildcat shooters. Durant just missed his fourteenth double-double on the year, falling one rebound short with nine. And in one insane series midway through the second half, he blocked three shots on the same possession.

The best story of the conference season has to be Connor Atchley. On Saturday, he turned in his third-straight solid game for Barnes, securing eight rebounds and blocking five shots. Yes, this is the same Connor Atchley we’ve had on our bench this season, but now he is a key role player for this team. His defense is miles beyond where it was last season and even in the earliest games of this year. He is getting better position on rebounds, and he’s still setting great screens to get the offense going. Combining Atchley’s surge with the problems A.J. has been facing, I would not mind seeing a bigger lineup on the floor for Texas a little more often in order to get Connor some more minutes.

Honestly, I’d rather not dig any further into this loss than that. The Horns took on a team that was playing absolutely out of their minds and still only lost by a point. If Kansas State shoots only 40% from three-point range — still a full 9% above their season average — Texas wins by ten. And honestly, by season’s end Kansas State could easily be one of the teams earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. They enjoy the same “north” scheduling as Kansas, which means two games each against Colorado, Iowa State, and Nebraska. While it’s a frustrating loss to be sure, it might not look quite as bad by Selection Sunday.

Now the Longhorns must quickly put this one in the rearview mirror, as they certainly have their work cut out for them less than 24 hours from now in College Station. Maintaining focus is key; a 20-win season and a ninth consecutive NCAA berth are still well within reach.

Coach Barnes talks with Craig Way on the post-game show

In the Big 12 Conference, protecting your home court is key for any team hoping to stake a claim for a top spot in the league. Coming into Wednesday night’s game, Texas Tech had done just that, knocking off both Kansas and Texas A&M from their Top-10 national rankings in the span of only a week. So when the Longhorns visited just seven days after barely surviving an average Nebraska team on the road, the chips seemed to be stacked in the Red Raiders’ favor. Apparently someone forgot to tell Kevin Durant that.

Durant, a leading candidate for not only National Freshman of the Year, but for the prestigious Naismith Award as well, dropped 37 points and secured a mind-blowing 23 rebounds en route to a 76-64 win in Lubbock.

Just minutes before tip-off, Tech coach Bobby Knight called Rick Barnes to midcourt for a presentation. Knight referenced a congratulatory call that Barnes had made following the General’s record-breaking 880th career win. The Texas Tech coach gave his friend a framed set of notecards from the New Mexico game where he set the record. Each card outlined the keys to the game on offense or defense, written by Knight prior to the contest.

Once the game was underway, it quickly became a back-and-forth contest. The first half saw seven lead changes despite the Longhorns outshooting the Red Raiders by nearly ten percent. Texas Tech was able to control the ball very well for the first twenty minutes, turning it over only one time while the Longhorns coughed it up six times. The Raiders turned those TOs into thirteen points and headed into the locker room leading by four.

The second half was all about Durant. The freshman phenom scored 24 of his 37 in the second frame as Texas overtook the home team and built an insurmountable lead. With 8:44 left in the game, the Longhorns led by only one. The rest of the way, they would outscore the Red Raiders by a ridiculous 29-8 margin to coast to the victory.

Durant earned his points in just about every way possible. He hit five three pointers, and made a handful of sick bank shots from just outside the lane. And of course he had dunks, such as the rim-shaking alley oop from D.J. Augustin to punctuate the victory.

KD also was able to help the team while being double-teamed in the first half. The Red Raiders would send an extra man from the opposite block to double on Durant, leaving the other Longhorn big man wide open on the back door. KD was able to find both Connor Atchley and Dexter Pittman for easy dunks when they did this, and it caused Knight to have to find another defensive scheme for the star. They clearly did not end up working.

Atchley again had a very good game, and once again did it in a very quiet way. There was a quote from Coach Barnes earlier in the year where he said that Atchley does the little things right. And I think that’s a big reason why he’s been coming up big in key sitautions these past few weeks. Against Tech, he didn’t score on any other plays besides the aforementioned dunk, but did come down with seven rebounds.

But Atchley’s best play on the night was one that likely went unnoticed by many. Coming down the court in transition during the second half, Connor was wide open at the three-point line. But he saw a single man on Durant and decided to step in toward the lane to set a perfect screen. Durant came free, grabbed the pass at the wing, and knocked down the triple without a second thought. Just like Coach Barnes said, Atchley does those little things. And that’s why he’s the most underrated player on this team in my generally meaningless opinion.

D.J. Augustin had eleven assists for the second straight game, although he had a few more turnovers in this contest. There were a few cases where he tried to force a pass that wasn’t there, but most came in the early part of the game and he seemed to adjust. He’s now the fourth-best floor general in the country, giving out 7.1 assists each game, and is even more impressive in Big 12 play with 8.8 assists per conference game.

Augustin also seems to know how to quiet a loud, hostile crowd. It seems that when opponents are threatening to go on a run and the momentum is getting away from the Horns, Augustin will take the ball to the rack for a layup and possibly even draw a foul. The buckets and free throws take the fans out of it, and he’s a consistent 80% from the line. In this one, Augustin had fourteen points, including a few highlight-reel reverse layups.

For Knight’s team, Jarrius Jackson was the man. The senior had 27 points and played every minute of the game, despite picking up his fourth foul with over eight minutes left on the clock. As the Longhorns pulled away, both Jackson and the Red Raiders went cold. Tech shot only 8-of-32 in the second half.

Injured players Charlie Burgess and Jon Plefka both ended up playing, and in fact started for Texas Tech. It seemed that their recent injuries affected their conditioning, though, as both tailed off in that cold second half. Plefka saw his minutes decrease in the second frame, and ended up playing 32 total in the game. He scored fourteen, including 6-of-7 from the line and two three pointers. Big man Burgess pulled down ten boards on the night.

As for my keys to the game? Let’s quickly revisit them:

Rebounding – The Horns had a 43-38 advantage on the boards in the game, but most importantly grabbed 67% of the rebounding chances after Red Raider misses. There were a few frustrating ones that got away from the Horns, but generally Texas — and Durant’s long arms — kept the Red Raiders in a one-and-done situation.

Tempo – With Burgess and Plefka both playing, the idea of keeping a depleted Texas Tech team tired was not as important as predicted. The Horns had only 65 possessions, which was closer to the typical Tech pace of play than Texas’ slightly-faster average tempo.

Keep the crowd out of it – Texas wasn’t able to get out to an early lead, but was able to keep Tech within arm’s reach throughout the first half. The Red Raiders grabbed a couple of six-point leads, but Texas kept their opponents from running away and letting the crowd energy fuel that momentum. In the end, Texas’ massive second-half run was able to keep the crowd quiet during the important late minutes and sent many to the exits early.

The Texas Longhorns faced a huge threat from the upset-minded Baylor Bears on Saturday afternoon, but mounted a second-half comeback to log an 84-79 victory.

Texas (15-5 overall, 5-1 Big 12) had to overcome a six-point halftime deficit and 75% shooting from Baylor star Aaron Bruce. The Horns trailed for much of the game, but fought back in the second stanza for a 54-54 tie. The crowd was on their feet, the Erwin Center was rocking….and then the shot clock broke. Again.

You may remember shot clock issues in the Mizzou game. These were much worse. The refs stopped play for what was officially only about five minutes, but certainly felt like an hour. The crowd was neutralized, the energy was gone, and the momentum had been stifled. When play resumed, a student intern from Belmont was holding flash cards at the scorer’s table while Stan Kelly announced the time remaining every five seconds. “Clusterfuck” would not be an inaccurate description.

Baylor pushed their lead back out to six points after the stoppage, but Texas clawed back. The Longhorns took the lead for good with just under seven minutes to go on a Connor Atchley bucket, and the home fans were back in it. The arena absolutely erupted when the skinny redshirt sophomore converted the go-ahead. Last year against Baylor, the place was like a morgue. It’s certainly great to see the change.

Baylor (11-9, 1-6) shot an amazing 55% in the first half, including 43% from behind the arc. While I would never want to take anything away from such a great performance, the Longhorn defense left a lot to be desired. Aaron Bruce was easily coming open on screens along the baseline and getting easy looks from behind the arc. Texas was also having problems giving up easy baskets underneath on a basic pick-and-roll play. Apologists may point out that a few of the screens on D.J. Augustin were pretty iffy and may have even been illegal. But you can’t deny that a lot of the time, the team just didn’t seem to know how to adjust.

In the second half, the defensive pressure was turned up a notch and it showed. Baylor’s shooting percentage in the second frame dropped to 39%, but most importantly they were only able to hit four of thirteen three-point attempts — and if you take Bruce out of that equation, Baylor shot only 1-of-10 from behind the arc in the second half.

Kevin Durant had a rough first half, but absolutely exploded in the second, dropping 34 points on the night. It was the fourth time this year he had crossed the 30-point plateu, and all of those games have come in conference play. KD is averaging 31 points in the six Big 12 games to go along with thirteen rebounds. Yes, you read that correctly. He’s averaging a double-double per conference game. How do you like them apples?

In this one, Durant got to the line 15 times. It’s pretty clear that when he’s taking the ball to the basket and drawing fouls, he’s much more useful to the team. Yes, he can hit the three. But when he’s taking threes and missing, there’s oftentimes no one else around to grab the offensive boards. And when he’s shooting 85% at the line, I’d prefer he get there as many times a game as he can.

A.J. Abrams was dead-on in this game, and he did it with his lighting-quick release. There were times he’d shoot the ball that looked more like a one-timer from a hockey player. I don’t know how he can catch, set, and shoot so quickly while still maintaining good form. But he does it, and on this night it was good for 22 points.

Atchley quietly had a strong game for the Horns, scoring nine points — including that go-ahead basket — and securing six rebounds in 22 minutes of play. Big Dexter Pittman played a little in the first half of the game, but did not see the floor in the second. Dex earned two points and a board in his six minutes of play.

Augustin was nails at the point for Coach Barnes. He dished out 11 assists while only turning over the ball once, which really set the tone for what was a great ball-control game for Texas. The Longhorns only had six turnovers as a team, which was very important on a night where Baylor seemed to convert every one of them into points. The Bears had eleven points off of the six TOs, and absolutely killed the Horns on the fast break, earning a 22-3 advantage in transition points.

I was surprised by the good ball movement from Baylor, but they were working on it during their pregame warmups and seem to have made it a point of emphasis. For a team that oftentimes shot too quickly in possessions earlier this season, the Bears certainly looked good with crisp passes out to the open man. Texas will have to do a better job against this scheme when they face a great motion offense on Wednesday night in Lubbock. If the Horns struggle like they did in the first half, it could be a long night.

There were certainly some bad things in this one, but fortunately most of them were contained to the first 25 minutes of the game. Conference games are hard-fought in the Big 12, and Texas definitely got a hell of an effort from the Baylor Bears this time around. This puts the team halfway to the ten-win mark in conference play, which would give them the magical 20-win number on the season.

Next up is Bobby Knight and the bi-polar Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday night in Lubbock. I’ll try to get some more photos up sometime tomorrow.