I raved about A.J. Abrams’ hot shooting in the exhibition games, and I mentioned it as something to watch for on Thursday night in the opener. It turns out I was just a day premature with my little tip. Abrams shot absolutely lights out in Friday night’s quarterfinal matchup with Chicago State, dropping 28 points in a 92-66 win over the Cougars.

The game started out quickly, with Chicago State refusing to back down. The Longhorns first five or six baskets were all three-pointers, and I believe that Abrams’ first 15 points came on his first five three-point attempts. He even nailed a three while being fouled, but suffered a rare miss at the line to lose the four-point play. This game really showcased his quick release, as defenders who were sagging on him only slightly were unable to react in what seemed like a milisecond between his reception of a pass and the shot.

I’m sure that opponents next week in New York will be ready for A.J., but one of the most exciting things about this team is our number of weapons. Shut down Abrams, you get Durant and James. Shut down K-Smoove, and Abrams and James will light you up.

It wasn’t all candy and gum-drops at the Frank Erwin Center, though. Coach Barnes was visibly frustrated on the bench with the defense of some of our post players. He also got irritated with a lot of fouls our defenders were giving up fifteen and eighteen feet from the hoop on dribble penetration attempts.

One problem that stood out which I didn’t see Barnes rip into the team for — although I’m fairly sure he must have at some point — was our lack of rebounding. I mentioned here yesterday that the small Chicago State team should have been abused on the boards, and in the end we finished with a 43-37 edge on the glass. But many of those rebounds came in the late minutes when the Cougars had seemingly given up.

But if you take a peek at the box score, you’ll see that Chicago State beat us in second chance points, 19-13. And that’s where our inability to rebound really stood out. We’d make a defensive stop, but allow them second and third opportunities to score. Against the Alcorn and Chicago and Tacoola States this won’t really matter. But when we play Michigan State, LSU, Gonzaga, Kansas, and down the line of our tough schedule? It’s something that has to get drastically better. And that’s why I’m glad we have Rick Barnes running the show.

It took only two games for Kevin Durant to log his first double-double, ripping down 13 boards to go with his 21 points. Most impressive were his five blocks. He is going to be a real problem down low for other teams, especially if he manages to stay in position most of the time. Although, with that freakish wingspan he managed a few blocks from behind the play, too.

And speaking of blocks, it seems like it’s going to be a strong point for this Texas team. Chew on this: in the first two games, the Longhorns blocked a total of 22 shots. And since it’s always fun to project these things early in the year when they spit out ridiculous, record setting numbers, I have to do that here. If the team continues on its insane rate of blocking shots, they would swat away 330 in the regular season. By comparison, last year’s team — with LaMarcus Aldridge’s long arms inside — blocked 186 shots. Crazy extrapolations aside, I think we will do considerably better than that this year.

Our defense did a very solid job shutting down Chicago State’s star from the night before. David Holston scored 43 against St. Bonaventure in the opener, but was held to only seven points by the Longhorns. In fact, Holston didn’t even tally a point in the second half despite leading his team with 38 minutes played.

Damion James had another good game, scoring 14 and shooting 6-for-7 from the line. At the few times when it seemed that the team wasn’t focused on defense or rebounding inside, Damion typically took charge, holding the blocks and fighting for the ball. Everybody knew about Kevin Durant coming in, but I think James is going to be quite a popular player on the Forty Acres.

Jay Mason continues to impress me coming off the bench. He knows what is going on out there, and because of that is a very efficient interchangeable part in Barnes’ system. Jay had eight points last night, but also dished out three assists and recorded a steal. A very clean, positive stat sheet for the young man.

The team held on to the ball much better last night, save for the first two possessions of the second half. The Longhorns finished with 19 assists to 9 turnovers, but a few of those turnovers were on mishandled passes from Augustin. I prefer these types of turnovers to the out-and-out steals, because with time, teams start to sense when their teammates will give them the ball and where. And when that happens, the turnovers should definitely decrease.

Dexter Pittman and J.D. Lewis hardly saw the floor on Friday night, and Matt Hill’s time on the court was largely quiet. He played only 13 minutes off the bench, but didn’t manage to get to the line like we had seen in the opener and the two exhibitions. It’s definitely not a cause for concern, just an observation. When you have A.J. Abrams hitting 8-of-11 three-pointers, it’s only natural that some other guys seem to get lost in the shuffle.

All told, it was an enjoyable opening two weeks in Austin. The crowds were disgustingly thin, particularly in the student sections, but I give huge thanks to all who came out. Y’all are the ones who will truly enjoy how far this team has come by March, while the Johnny-Come-Latelys are still asking us who this D.J. Augustin kid is.

Four days until I head to New York for the team’s next two games. In the meantime, I’ll have some content so be sure to keep checking in. And good luck to our football and soccer teams this weekend in their games.

The much-hyped Kevin Durant showed up in Austin on Thursday night. Not the nervous Kevin Durant with the weight of the world and sky-high expectations resting on his wiry shoulders. No, the number two nationally-ranked freshman Kevin Durant finally came to town. And what a show it was.

In only 22 minutes, Durant dropped twenty points and barely broke a sweat. He drew extra defenders, made incredible passes, and threw down a reverse dunk that had to be seen to be believed. One thing I had not factored in to Durant’s already-high value to this team: when he makes a move to the glass, he draws extra defenders, but can still use his 379-inch wingspan to whip passes around the defenders to open men for the easy bucket. He uses those extra-long arms quite well on defense, too; he logged three steals on Thursday night, following up on his five from the final exhibition game.

When the buzzer sounded, the Horns had won by 103-44 margin. But that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story. The Horns came out sloppy, turning the ball over three times and spotting the Alcorn State Braves a 9-1 lead. But Texas closed out the final 17:32 of the first half with a 47-9 run. In the second half, things got so bad that Texas led by 69 with just under five minutes left. And right around that same time, Alcorn State was shooting an odious 9-for-55 from the field.

Connor Atchley started the game, but unfortunately looked very tenative and overwhelmed during the short-lived Alcorn State lead. Barnes benched him in favor of Hill, the team settled down, and Connor was fine for the rest of the game. If he can get a steely resolve instead of a deer-in-the-headlights look, it can only help his playing time.

Craig Winder looked much better off the bench last night, dropping in ten points in his nineteen minutes, including a nifty layup on one of the Horns’ many fast-break opportunities. It will be interesting to see how big of a role he has this year off the pine, but it looked like he maybe has himself a little more under control this year.

For the first time this season, Texas had some trouble hanging on to the basketball, turning it over fourteen times. But when they forced their opponent to lose the ball 24 times, it didn’t seem to matter much. Only time will tell if this is going to be a problem for Texas. They really protected the ball well against their overmatched exhibition opponents, but against a team that was arguably just as bad as Xavier University or Lenoir-Rhyne, they suddenly had the yips. Next week’s games in New York City should be a good indicator for this statistic. Uh, I mean, if we win tonight. Then New York could be a good indicator. Maintain focusness.

A.J. Abrams continued to shoot the ball well, going 5-for-9 from the field and scoring eleven. Damion James was again an absolute beast, and the only true physical presence on the team. He scored thirteen and blocked two shots, and showed the hard-nosed, aggressive play that we all loved from P.J. Tucker and James Thomas. I thank God for Kelvin Sampson’s telephone addiction every damned day.

Dexter Pittman fouled out of the game in only nine minutes of play, but scored seven and fought his way to the line. He can score inside, but he needs to get used to his leaner body. There are some rebounds that he let get away which I’m sure he was used to gathering with his bigger frame that pushed defenders even further out of position. And it was typically after losing these rebounds that he picked up his fouls, when he made ill-advised moves to try to win the ball back. I have faith that Big Dex is going to be a great player here. And I think his four years are going to be great fun to watch.

Back for the Chicago State preview within the hour.

Monday night showcased the run-n-gun style that the Longhorns had talked up during preseason media interviews. The Horns dropped 103 points on an overmatched Xavier University squad and forced the tempo throughout the game. Considering I was on Vicodin at the time, and was most concerned with trying not to drool on myself, here are my scatter-brained observations from the game.

A.J. Abrams continued to shoot lights out. If we can fully convert him to a 2-guard and run a lineup with both him and Augustin, it is going to be amazing. Of course, Abrams showed last year that he has the talent to spell Augustin if need be, but it’s key for the Horns to allow Abrams the freedom to shoot. On the night, he was 7-for-10, including 6-of-7 behind the arc.

D.J. not only looked incredibly comfortable at the point, but he worked his tail off on the glass as well. I remember one defensive board he snatched from between much taller opponents, and another offensive series where it seemed like he grabbed three or four of his own offensive rebounds. The contrarian may wonder why he missed that many shots, but it was really great to see him not give up on the play at any point.

Connor Atchley continued to impress me. He has taken huge strides since last year, and while he’s certainly no All-Big 12, I don’t feel nearly as nervous about him as I did prior to the exhibitions. He had a couple of great blocks, including one where he came up behind a guy going to the glass, swatted a ball into the stands, and then ate a live wolf. It may have been the drugs, but I swear it happened.

Matt Hill still looked scrappy underneath and knows how to get to the line. He was still perfect on the year, until I opened my big mouth to make that comment and he missed his first from the charity stripe. In the two exhibition games, he was 10-for-11 from the line.

Kevin Durant worried me a little bit with his performance in this game. He took quite a few lazy shots, and lost the ball on lazy crossover dribbles. I know that his talent level was so much higher than many at the high school level, and that he invariably felt like he was mailing it in at times. But in college, he’s going to have to man up and play with his nose to the grindstone. When he does that, I can’t even imagine how great he’s going to be.

Seeing the team push the tempo and put pressure on the ball was really exciting. This is a hot shooting team, and on those nights when we finally go cold, we are going to need things like turnovers and transition buckets to keep us in the games. I’m really glad to see that we can run the floor so well.

That’s about all I can remember from that hazy night, but hopefully my recollections will be better following tomorrow night’s doubleheader. Bring the family, and pack the Drum for our season opener. See y’all there!

The Horns cruised easily on Tuesday night, as was to be expected. But what was more important for many fans at the game was getting an idea of what the new kids could do and how the team would gel.

But before we get into the analysis, a quick aside about the requisite Halloween costumes. I had planned on wearing a Satan outfit with a blue t-shirt, and adding “KANSAS” and Darrell Arthur’s number to the front of it in white paint. I needed it to be cheap, so that unfortunately meant a trip to Wal-Mart on the morning of the game.

I have a problem with Wal-Mart. I understand that they have low prices. And the little old people who greet you are so friendly that you can’t help but smile back at them. But once you enter the store, it feels like you have to lower your IQ to 37 to fit in with many of the customers.

I experienced one example of the apparent retardation of Wal-Mart customers in the restroom. I walked past a giant framed reprint of Vince Young on the cover of SI after the Rose Bowl (a nice touch) and then was greeted by the worst stench of shit I’d ever experienced in my life. Not “somebody forgot to wipe.” Not “Grandma forgot her Depends today.” No, this was more along the lines of “somebody just wiped a shit-filled diaper across every single air vent.” I think I still have residual poop smell hanging on me two days later.

In the end, my foray into the College Station of stores turned out to be worthless, as they did not have a single plain blue t-shirt for sale. But thankfully, the costumes in the O-Zone easily made up for it. A rundown of the top five:

5: Goose from “Top Gun”
4: An odd combination of a cowsuit, a fedora, and a blue Wal-Mart vest.
3: A keg
2: The crying Sooner kid
1: Goo as a typical UT sorostitute at a football game, complete with boots, jean skirt, and cowboy hat. But more disturbing than Goo’s outfit was the fact that he actually shaved his legs for it.

As for the game, there was a lot to be excited about, and a few things to be concerned with. Fortunately, concerns can be addressed and fixed, and in this case the season hasn’t even started yet.

Kevin Durant started the game off really tight. His shots weren’t falling and you could tell he was just pushing too much from the nerves. He is certainly a freak of nature, and his long arms make it painfully easy for him to get his shot from anywhere on the floor. He finished with 16 points in barely over a half of play. When his shot is on from the start, it’s going to be bad news for our opponents.

Damion James also really impressed me. On a night where the team looked like it didn’t want to rebound a single ball, James led the way with 12 boards. He also was the only player with a double-double. I wouldn’t call him the next P.J. Tucker but compared to the rest of the team, he is clearly going to be our physical man.

Offensively, the Horns liked to dribble penetrate and kick the ball outside the arc. And as well as some of our players were shooting the three, it was a great gameplan. A.J. Abrams was 4-for-8 from 3-point range and looks to be a scoring threat again this year. The kid shoots the ball faster than anybody I’ve seen, yet he still has the form and the touch.

I was impressed by the strides Connor Atchley made on the offensive side of the ball. He no longer looks scared to take a shot, and in fact ended up shooting 3-of-6 from behind the arc. He still needs work defensively (and DJ Augustin had to tell him to move on offense a few times) but with Atchley getting more substantial minutes this year I have to think he will only get better in these areas.

Matt Hill looks like he’s going to be a real hard-nosed player. He fought for rebounds underneath, corralling five in only fourteen minutes. He also was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line, with many of his FT opportunities coming after he’d shown a ton of hustle in the lane. I’m looking forward to good things from this guy.

D.J. Augustin looks like he’s going to be a great floor general for this team. He ended the night with seven assists and only one turnover. In fact, the team as a whole only had five turnovers all night. After the problems we had protecting the ball at times last season — the nightmarish Tennessee game comes to mind immediately — I am incredibly happy to have Augustin running the show.

Dexter Pittman and Harrison Smith hardly saw the floor, and Big Dex picked up fouls quickly. He had three of them in only six minutes, and I think I remember two of them coming within forty-five seconds of each other. One really great note on Big Dex is that he’s lost a ton of weight. He’s still a big boy, but the difference is incredible. I believe reports have him dropping between 60 and 70 pounds since the team started him on a weight-loss plan.

Watching Craig Winder play defense reminded me of Royal Ivey at times, but I quickly discarded those thoughts. Other than a similar stance and wingspan, they are quite different, most notably in talent level. Winder still hustles all over the place, but sometimes it just reminds me of 4- and 5-year old soccer teams; he gets too into the moment and the ball rather than thinking about the team aspect of the game. I’m glad to have his athleticism on our bench, but I’m not sure what role he’s really going to fill on this squad.

The box score tells me that J.D. Lewis played nine minutes, but I’ll be damned if I can remember him doing anything. He’s listed with eight points, so I must’ve been napping. Or eating candy.

All told, I’m happy with what I saw on Tuesday night. We still need to work on establishing rebounding position, and Lenoir-Rhyne’s quick ball movement on the wings seemed to present a problem for our defenders flashing out. But the best thing about exhibitions is that they are two months before conference play. And I have this odd hunch that Coach Barnes might look at those issues well before January.