The old adage holds that the best thing about freshmen is that they eventually become sophomores. Fans of the Longhorns can surely identify with that statement after Texas dropped their conference opener to Iowa State last night in Ames. Texas was without the services of J’Covan Brown down the stretch, leaving the six-man freshman class and Clint Chapman in charge of a comeback bid that fell just short.

Things looked promising for Texas when Iowa State big man Royce White went to the bench with two fouls just minutes into the game. But instead of cratering, the Cyclones built a ten-point halftime lead on the strength of 75% shooting from behind the arc. The Longhorns came out aggressive in the second half, erasing that lead in just minutes, fueled by Brown’s 19 points. Unfortunately, the junior guard injured his ankle as he finished a nice spin move in the lane, and the Cyclones were able to quickly rebuild a lead that they would cling to until the final buzzer.

What looked good

Even with Brown exploding for 19 points in just 25 minutes, the real story of the night was the surprising emergence of fifth-year senior Clint Chapman. The Canby, Oregon native had earned his first start of the season in the team’s previous game against Rice, but immediately found himself in foul trouble and was completely ineffective. Last night’s game provided Chapman a second-straight start, and the Longhorns made an immediate effort to get him the ball.

The big man responded with the best game of his career, putting in 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while also locking down the glass on both ends of the floor. His 14 rebounds were a career high, and he led all players in both offensive and defensive boards. Most importantly, Chapman was making the point-blank shots that he — and many of the Longhorns — have struggled with all season. The Longhorns don’t necessarily need Chapman playing this ridiculously well in every game, but his consistent conversion of the easy looks is imperative to the team’s success in Big 12 play.

While Chapman raised the eyebrows in Hilton Coliseum, Brown tied him as leading scorer for the game. This was J’Covan’s most complete, efficient game in quite some time, and it’s not a stretch to say that the team could have pulled out a win if he played the last 12 minutes of the game. He was dicing up the Iowa State defense in the second half, penetrating at will for points inside. When he came out of the game for the last time, Texas trailed just 49-47 and was moving the ball well, notching assists on all three buckets that he didn’t score himself.

On the night, Brown shot 70% from the floor, knocked down all four free throws, and coughed it up just once. After posting 16 turnovers against just nine assists in his last three games, Brown’s lack of miscues against the Cyclones is a huge development.

Longhorn fans can also be reassured by the performance by freshman Sheldon McClellan. His shot was off all night, as evidenced by his 2-of-11 line. He missed all four of his shots from behind the arc, including some where he was completely wide open. Instead of going into a shell and being totally ineffective, he continued to put the ball on the floor and attacked the paint, drawing a ton of fouls on the baseline defenders. McClellan made it to the line 13 times in this game, grinding out a 14-point performance.

Once again, McClellan also avoided any turnovers despite all of his moves to the basket. With another clean sheet, his incredible turnover rate creeps even lower, to just 5.2% on the year. A number that low is typically reserved for your three-point specialists, who rarely attack or try to feed the ball inside.

Texas also did a good job on the defensive glass, ensuring that Iowa State couldn’t extend possessions. The Longhorns held the Cyclones to an offensive rebounding mark of just 22.6%, their worst percentage of the season.

What needed work

Of course, that impressive defensive rebounding performance didn’t mean quite as much when the Horns let the Cyclones knock down 51% of their shots. On top of the poor defense, the few offensive rebounds that Iowa State did manage to grab happened to come at the worst possible moments. Of the seven missed shots that Iowa State reclaimed, two of them were free throws missed as Texas tried to come back down the stretch. With the Longhorn offense already struggling to climb back into it, letting Iowa State have extra chances just made the task even tougher.

While Iowa State made more than 51% of their shots, the real killer was the team’s success from long range. In the first half, the Cyclones made 9-of-12 from outside, and most of the shots were completely unchallenged by the Horns. A simple look at the stat sheet shows how much Iowa State relies on the outside shot, and just how successful they are when they take them. For the Longhorns to continually allow those open looks just speaks to the youth of the team and their inability to remember the scouting report once the bright lights come on.

Texas also struggled to stop Iowa State in transition, giving up numerous dunks and layups on the secondary break. The only thing that gets a crowd more juiced up than a clutch three is a nasty dunk, and the Longhorns let the Hilton Coliseum crowd explode on more than one occasion. The Horns also had two or three possessions in a row where they let White take it coast-to-coast, with no one stopping the ball before White had reached the paint. That kind of lackadaisical defense is going to be absolutely deadly against the kind of athletes Texas will face in the Big 12.

In the half-court, Alexis Wangmene and Jaylen Bond had a particularly tough time defending White. To be fair, we’ve known all season that Wangmene would struggle against bigs who have a good face-up game, so this was a terrible match-up from the start. Bond’s issues, on the other hand, came as a surprise. He further compounded his defensive struggles by wasting his fouls on the offensive end, limiting him to just 11 minutes on the court.

While we mentioned the success Brown and McClellan both had controlling the ball, the same could not be said for the rest of the Horns. Texas coughed it up on 22.6% of its possessions, the fifth time this season that the team has exceeded the 22% mark. Three of those poor showings have come in the team’s last four games, which is a scary trend to start as conference play gets cranked up. The Longhorns have to make their possessions count during these next two months, so they will have to quickly cut down on the errors.

Four of those turnovers came from Myck Kabongo, who once again struggled when Brown was out of the game. When J’Covan fouled out on a technical in New Jersey, Kabongo looked lost and overwhelmed by the moment and extra pressure. Against the Cyclones, he at least tried to break the defense down off the dribble a few times, but that really just meant that he ran full-tilt into ill-conceived drives. On multiple occasions, he simply made a beeline towards the baseline and threw up a wild prayer of a shot against two or three defenders. One of those shots even went off the side of the backboard.

When Myck is on his game, his dribble penetration is just as effective as Brown’s. While he’s not the finisher inside that J’Covan is, Myck has even better floor vision to find passing lanes that his counterpart might not. Unfortunately, finding a way to consistently perform that well has been a challenge for the freshman. Expectations were set very high for Kabongo based on his impressive play at the high school level, but it’s clear that it’s going to take some time for him to adjust to the pressures at this one. Texas’ growth this season will likely follow Kabongo’s own trajectory.

The Longhorns lacking any real penetration threat allowed Iowa State to focus on shutting down Chapman. As a result, in the waning minutes of the game the Texas offense often turned into a stagnant two-man game. The Cyclones could force Chapman well off the block, while Kabongo waited on the perimeter for an entry feed that could only be made much too far from the hoop.

Texas didn’t solely focus on forcing the ball in to Chapman, as there were a few sets where Julien Lewis was able to find some space on cuts without the ball, and Kabongo also worked to get it to McClellan when Chapman was guarded. None of that turned into points, however, and the Horns were only able to manage an and-one putback from Chapman during an especially futile span of more than six minutes down the stretch.

The offense was at least moving somewhat without Brown in this game, which is a vast improvement from how it looked when they were without his services in New Jersey. Unfortunately, “moving somewhat” didn’t equal any points, and it isn’t going to cut it in the Big 12. At this point, it seems that for Texas to succeed without Brown on the floor, there will have to be much more motion off the ball to give Kabongo and the Horns more options.

Up next: vs. Oklahoma State (8-6 overall, 1-0 Big 12); Saturday, 6 P.M. CT

The Texas Longhorns wrapped up 2011 and their non-conference slate on a high note Saturday afternoon, outlasting a pesky Rice Owl team for a 14-point victory in front of the largest home crowd of the season. The win pushed Texas to a 10-3 mark as they head into Big 12 play, which begins with the Longhorns heading to Iowa State on Wednesday night.

Coach Rick Barnes employed a new lineup against Rice, the first time he had adjusted the starting five all season. Julien Lewis was inactive after slamming his hand in a car door on Thursday, while Jaylen Bond and Clint Chapman earned their first starts of the season thanks to quality play over the last few games. For Chapman, it was his first start since November of 2008.

What looked good

Sheldon McClellan took over Lewis’ slot in the starting lineup, and he responded with a 19-point performance, the fifth time in the last six games he’s cracked the double-digit barrier. Over that stretch, McClellan has averaged 14.8 points per game while shooting an impressive 53.6% from the field.

McClellan’s emergence as the team’s second scoring option is a much-needed development for Texas. The Longhorns will not find success this season if they can only rely on J’Covan Brown, a fact that was underscored by the team’s meltdown when he fouled out against N.C. State in New Jersey.

Sheldon has shown the ability to drain the quick catch-and-shoot coming out of the numerous baseline screens the team runs for him, but also can put the ball on the floor and create pull-up jumpers or easy layups for himself. Combine that with an incredible turnover rate of just 5.9%, and the Longhorns can now feel much more comfortable if Brown isn’t available in crunch time.

While McClellan was stepping up as a new starter, Jonathan Holmes was performing well in his new role of sixth man. The forward played 27 minutes off the bench, but still posted seven rebounds. The most impressive came off of a missed free throw by Bond, where Holmes literally wrestled the ball out of the hands of a Rice player and put in the follow while being fouled.

In addition to the boards he earned credit for, Holmes had quite a few hustle plays that don’t show up in the box score. His active hands on defense disrupted quite a few plays and deflected a few passes, and he kept rebounding opportunities alive by tipping out the loose balls that were just beyond his reach.

Sterling Gibbs also earned some praise for his continued success from long range. The tiny guard nailed all three of the three-pointers that he took, proving that he is going to be a valuable role player for the Horns in conference play. There’s a strong chance that his incredibly flat shot arc will result in some blocked shots when taller players close out on him, but Gibbs has a very quick release that helps to avoid that problem.

What needed work

While Gibbs did a great job shooting the trey, he and the rest of the Longhorns had major issues trying to penetrate the Rice zone. Gibbs picked up two charges in the first half when he attempted to create with the dribble, and he wisely elected to stick to the perimeter after that.

Myck Kabongo and Brown also had difficulties getting inside when Rice lined up in the 2-3. The pair of guards combined for 10 turnovers against the Owls, mostly as a result of forcing things that weren’t there. Brown repeatedly drove the ball into two or three defenders and got himself airborne before realizing there wasn’t a play available. Unfortunately, there weren’t passing outlets available either, and he threw the ball right to waiting Rice defenders.

The positive thing about these problems is that the Longhorns were at least attempting to penetrate the zone. Often, Texas teams faced with a zone defense do little more than pass the ball back and forth around the perimeter rather than take an active approach to breaking down the defense. Gibbs, Brown, and Kabongo had the right idea, but will have to be more aware of how the defense is reacting to avoid getting themselves into bad situations.

It should also be noted that for a few possessions in the second half, the Longhorns were able to do exactly that. Although the final 20 minutes lacked flow thanks to a deluge of whistles, Kabongo and Brown had a few nice plays where they attacked the paint off the bounce and made the right pass before the defense completely collapsed on them.

Up next: at Iowa State (10-3); Wednesday, 8 P.M.

Coming into Wednesday night’s showdown with North Carolina, it was clear that the Longhorns had a very tough match-up on their hands. The Tar Heels had the size advantage at every position, much more experience, a roster full of future NBA players, and a rowdy home crowd of nearly 22,000 thirsty for revenge.

Even with that deck of cards stacked against the Longhorns, it was tough to see this kind of destruction coming. A seven-minute field goal drought in the first half put Texas in a big hole, and North Carolina just kept shoveling more dirt on top of them. The Tar Heels built a lead as big as 24 points in the second half, toying with the Longhorns all night as they repeatedly added footage to the team highlight reel, cruising to an 82-63 win.

What looked good

In a game as one-sided as this, it can be tough to find the bright spots. Coach Rick Barnes was frustrated from the opening tip, as the Longhorns failed to even run their scripted first play correctly. Regardless, there were still some brief moments of success, giving fans something to take away from the beating.

Although the Longhorns gave up 42 points in the paint, they actually did remarkably good defensive work on Carolina big man Tyler Zeller in post-up situations. Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman held him to 2-of-7 shooting in the first half and 3-of-11 overall. When the Longhorns didn’t completely lose Zeller in the half-court, his offense was mostly limited to turnaround jumpers and his trademark hook shot, which simply wasn’t falling last night.

Texas also turned in a good effort on the offensive glass, but had very little to show for it. The Longhorns reclaimed 38.6% of their missed shots, a very good mark against a sizable Carolina squad that has only allowed opponents a 30.5% offensive rebounding percentage this season. Unfortunately, Texas shot just 13-of-31 from the paint, missing far too many easy ones.

Freshman Jaylen Bond was a big reason why the Longhorns were able to succeed on the offensive glass, as he put in his third-straight solid effort off the bench. Bond grabbed 22.7% of his offensive rebounding opportunities, pushing his season mark up to 13.7%, sixth-best in the Big 12, and just outside of the Top 100 nationally. In his last three games, Jaylen has grabbed 29 total boards while averaging just over 20 minutes per game. One can only hope that his relentless work on the glass will translate into even more playing time as conference play begins.

What needed work

While there were a few bright spots, there were far too many problem areas that could be addressed. Rather than try to beat Tolstoy in a word-count battle, we’ll focus on some of the most egregious ones.

As previously mentioned, the Longhorns were incredibly ineffective in the paint, only turning their extended possessions into more missed shots. For all of the good things Chapman had done defensively, his ineptitude from within two feet was infuriating. His final line was 1-of-6 shooting, with all of those misses coming from within spitting distance of the rim.

The Longhorns also did a terrible job protecting the basketball, a stat that is even more troubling considering how infrequently Carolina had turned its opponents over prior to this game. Texas gave it up 13 times, resulting in 17 Tar Heel points, but also had numerous bad bounces go against them. Time after time, Longhorn players bobbled loose balls or batted rebounds out of bounds or to the other team. If the Dean Dome weren’t so loud and bathed in powder blue, it would have felt like being in a Buster Keaton film.

The worst results, however, came on the defensive glass. While the Longhorns did a great job defending Zeller in the post, it seemed like every one of his missed shots resulted in a weak-side rebound and putback. The Tar Heels grabbed 56.4% of their missed shots, a number that is practically unheard of. In fact, the 43.6% of the defensive rebounds that Texas did manage to grab added up to the worst performance for a Longhorn team in at least 12 years. Unfortunately, that’s as far back as the tempo-free stats at KenPom and Stat Sheet go, so there’s no telling just how historically awful that number actually is.

Finally, Longhorn fans might also start worrying about the point guard situation. Myck Kabongo once again had a terrible start to the game, leading Coach Barnes to openly voice his frustrations with the freshman guard in the post-game presser. “We’re going to get guys in here that want to play,” the coach told the media. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve never seen a guy who wouldn’t want to be in this atmosphere.”

Kabongo was dealing with a bad back in this game, and his playing time was limited to an ineffective 15 minutes. There’s no telling how much of that was due to injury and how much was due to Barnes’ frustration. Fans have to hope it was the former, and that the injury can heal quickly. While Myck has started slowly in nearly every game, there’s no question that the Longhorn offense is infinitely better when he’s on the floor and clicking.

With Kabongo on the bench for a majority of the game, Texas handed the reins to freshman guard Sterling Gibbs. While he has proven himself to be mostly serviceable as the backup point, Gibbs still has major issues with any hard traps. Carolina took advantage of this on a few second half possessions, bull-rushing the guard with two lengthy bigs well beyond the perimeter. By the time conference play starts on January 4th, opponents will have picked up on this fact and are sure to put added pressure on Gibbs when he’s running the point.

The big picture

In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t change much. While the game was tough to watch and the result was more lopsided than some may have expected, only the certifiably insane believed that such a young Texas team had a strong chance to knock off this Carolina team on the road.

The Longhorns will likely enter conference play at 10-3, as only Rice remains on the non-con docket. Twenty wins is often pointed to as a magic number for making the NCAA field, but Texas lacks quality victories in their non-league slate. Last weekend’s win over Temple will hold weight, but outside of that, the Horns can only hang their hat on a road win against a UCLA team that was unraveling at the time.

Texas is going to have to defend its home court once Big 12 play begins, stealing a few wins against the likes of Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, or A&M. The Big 12 is definitely down this year, so anything short of 10-8 in conference play could mean the end of the school’s 13-year NCAA tournament appearance streak.

Up next: vs. Rice (7-4); 1 P.M., Saturday, Dec. 31st

Jaylen Bond came to Austin by way of Philadelphia, PA. Once committed to play for Jamie Dixon and the Pittsburgh Panthers, Bond was a victim of the numbers game, forced out by the reclassification of Khem Birch to the class of 2011. With his scholarship taken by Birch, Bond had to leave his home state and ended up a late addition to the recruiting class for Rick Barnes.

On Friday, Pitt announced that Birch was leaving the program for personal reasons. Couple that news with Bond’s eight-point, 12-rebound performance against the Temple Owls, a salty team from his own hometown, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to call it Redemption Weekend for the quiet freshman forward. Add in the 12-point Longhorn victory, one that will be incredibly important come Selection Sunday, and you might be hard-pressed to find a happier person on the 40 Acres than Bond.

Things didn’t look so bright for the Longhorns in the early going on Saturday afternoon. The Owls were consistently finding easy buckets in the lane and capitalizing on their open looks from outside. Texas, meanwhile, was playing right into the hands of the Temple defense and settling for questionable shots. The Longhorns shot just 28.6% from the field during the first ten minutes of the game, allowing the Owls to build a lead as large as eight points.

The biggest edge Texas had in this game was a massive size advantage, as the Owls had only one big man available — 6’9″ Anthony Lee — and he sat most of the first half thanks to foul trouble. The Longhorns took advantage, outrebounding Temple 12-7 over the final nine minutes of the half as they clawed back to tie the game. Only an incredible three from Khalif Wyatt drilled in the face of a Texas defender gave Temple a three-point edge at the break.

In the second half, Texas finally attacked the Owls inside. The Longhorns piled up 26 points in the paint and outrebounded Temple by a whopping 30-8 margin during the final twenty minutes. Texas smothered the boards so well that the Owls were only able to reclaim 12.7% of their offensive rebounding opportunities, their worst mark since a loss to Kent State on November 21st, 2006.

A big part of the second half revival was the play of Myck Kabongo, who took charge and attacked the Owls with dribble penetration. All three of his assists came in the second half, including an excellent pass to Bond for a dunk that gave Texas a six-point lead 7:16 into the second half — their largest of the game at that point — and forced Temple to call timeout. Kabongo added three layups in the second half, finishing 50% from the field as he posted 18 points.

For the second-straight game, junior guard J’Covan Brown led the Longhorns with 23 points. Despite the team lead in points, Brown was one of Texas’ worst offenders when it came to bad decisions on Saturday. He was consistently pressing and forcing the issue against Temple, trying to score when the defense wasn’t going to allow it. That resulted in six turnovers and an ugly 10-for-21 shooting line, including a 2-of-9 mark from behind the arc. Even a few of Brown’s baskets came on terrible shots, as he dribbled himself into trouble and forced up off-balance looks that somehow went in.

Alexis Wangmene had an even tougher time, struggling to stop the Temple guards from the opening tip. He picked up three fouls and played just 12 minutes, with the bulk of his usual minutes going to fellow senior Clint Chapman. The Oregon native took full advantage, playing excellent interior defense in the second half while also leading the Longhorns with 13 rebounds. Chapman added a pair of blocks, and could have had even more than his seven points if he would not have had his standard handful of point-blank misses.

The other star in the frontcourt was Bond. His near double-double came as a result of tenacious work on the offensive glass, where he grabbed four boards and put each of them back in for a bucket. After going three straight games without an offensive rebound, Bond has grabbed 12 in his last two. At this point, his 12.7% mark on the offensive glass would rank in the Top 150 nationally, but he is currently eight total minutes shy of the cutoff to qualify.

The Longhorns also continued to do an excellent job planting their feet and drawing charges. They forced at least five Temple turnovers by earning the whistle on a charging foul, the second straight game in which they have done so. With many of the early-season games airing on the Longhorn Network, accurate charting of this trend is hard to come by. As the calendar rolls into conference play, this will be something worth keeping an eye on, and something we may chart for a future piece.

Up next: at North Carolina (9-2); Wednesday, 6 P.M. CT

The Longhorns wrapped up the easy part of their schedule in impressive fashion, running away with a 53-point victory over Nicholls State in front of 4,435 at the Erwin Center last night. Texas started slowly, as has become the norm this season, leading the Colonels by just 10 with 5:23 left in the first half. That was as close as Nicholls State would get, as the Longhorns finished the game on a torrid run, limiting their opponents to just 13 points the rest of the way.

It’s easy to look at the numbers and get far too excited about the results. While there were certainly quite a few things to make Texas fans giddy, they can’t forget just how bad Nicholls State is this season. As we pointed out in yesterday’s game preview, the Colonels came into the matchup as the 21st-worst team in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.

What looked good

Even against an opponent as overmatched as Nicholls State, the defensive performance by Texas was noteworthy. The Longhorns held their opponents without a field goal for a stretch of 15:37 that started late in the first half, allowing just five free throws during that time frame.

While Texas was able to find success by making the Nicholls State shooters take long jumpers, they also eliminated possessions by forcing turnovers and dominated the defensive glass, keeping the Colonels from extending possessions after missed shots. Nicholls State was 0-for-18 from the field during the drought, were forced into nine turnovers, and grabbed just five offensive boards.

The turnovers weren’t limited to that lengthy period of stifling defense, either. Texas was consistently jumping the passing lane and starting fast breaks. On the night, the team caused 20 Nicholls State miscues, earning a turnover rate of 28.8%. The only other team to force more mistakes by the Colonels was Louisiana State, who did it in the season opener. Texas also took advantage of all of the errors, scoring 25 points off of the turnovers.

One way the Longhorns got the ball back was by drawing charges. By my count, there were at least five times that Texas players drew the offensive foul, and there certainly could have been more. This has been a noticeable trend this season, with J’Covan Brown and Alexis Wangmene being particularly fond of planting their feet and earning the whistle. It’s a dangerous game to be playing with such a short bench and the constant risk that the referees will call a blocking foul, but so far the Longhorns seem to have mastered the skill.

When not taking charges, J’Covan simply took charge, scoring 11 of team’s first 17 points. He added three assists and four rebounds on the night, and kept a few other rebounding opportunities alive for his teammates by racing in from the perimeter and tipping the ball away from a Colonel. Brown finished with 23 points, his fifth game of at least 20 points this year. Only two of those 20-plus scoring nights have come in the last seven games, though. The Longhorns have proven to be well-balanced, but they will need Brown to perform like this more consistently as the schedule gets tougher.

Freshman Myck Kabongo is also trending upward as the team heads into the end of the non-conference slate. He only took two shots all night — both three-pointers — but was constantly able to set up his teammates with excellent court vision and an array of passes. He posted an excellent eight assists against just one turnover, with half of those assists setting up three-pointers for his teammates. He even added one for the highlight reel, tossing an alley-oop to Clint Chapman on a fast break in the second half.

The Longhorns also had their first double-double of the year, and it came from the bench. Jaylen Bond had a career night, scoring 18 points while grabbing 12 boards. He was practically unstoppable inside, as he scored 12 of his points right after ripped down offensive rebounds.

Tempo-free stats allow us to look at Bond’s numbers on a level playing field against those who play more minutes, and the stats are staggering. His offensive rebounding mark was 31%, which surprisingly was only his second-best performance of the year. Against Sam Houston State, Bond snagged almost 39% of his opportunities. Unfortunately, there have also been six different games where the freshman failed to secure even a single offensive board. With Wangmene and Chapman still rebounding inconsistently, it would be huge for the Longhorns if Bond could find some consistency of his own and become a reliable presence on the glass as conference play begins.

Finally, the play of Sterling Gibbs must be noted, as the freshman guard was perfect from the field, drilling all five of his shots en route to 14 points. In East Rutherford, Gibbs looked frightened and lacked confidence against even the slightest pressure. Last night, his quick catch-and-shoot rhythm was flawless, and he showed confidence in attacking the defense. Gibbs has shown this level of poise in the last two games, and he’s seen a spike in his minutes as a result. If he can keep this up against real competition, his role this season is going to be much larger than most people imagined.

What needed work

While the Texas defense was absolutely dominant for the last half of the game, the team still had its struggles coming out of the gate. Nicholls State was able to get to the paint far too easily, oftentimes without the aid of a ballscreen for the driving player. Alexis Wangmene had a particularly rough night, finding himself out of position far too often, and that difficulty kept him on the bench for much of the night. Fortunately, the Longhorns made adjustments and kept the Colonels in front of them, forcing long jump shots for much of the second half.

Clint Chapman also had his own struggles in this game, missing a ton of short, point-blank shots. He was 2-for-7 from the field, with one of those makes coming on the alley-oop from Kabongo. While Chapman missed a lot of easy looks, he at least made up for it on the defensive end, setting a career high with five blocked shots in just 22 minutes.

Up next: vs. Temple (6-2); Saturday, 1:30 P.M. CT