Just checking in for a few minutes between the drive home from College Station and another day at the McJob. The loss last night was pretty lopsided and generally very ugly, but there were a few positive nuggets hidden amidst all the crap. Promise.

We’ll take a relatively brief look at the game later this evening — because there’s only so many ways to say that performance sucked — before glancing at this week’s blogpoll and checking out what’s on TV tonight. In the meantime, congrats to the Ags on an impressive win and also to those kids in Bramlage, who finally got to rush the court against their hated rivals.

Just a quick hit early this morning to let you know that the Colorado post-game and a look at this crazy, upset-filled weekend will be coming later tonight. Until then, enjoy the football, and be sure to check out the Pac-10 match-up between Oregon and Washington State at 7 PM CST on FSN.

Last night

Maurice Evans packed his bags and headed east after being traded to the Magic along with Brian Cook for forward Trevor Ariza.

In this space yesterday morning, I hoped that Royal Ivey would get to see the court at the same time as Daniel Gibson. Turns out, it was an absolute clinic by the two former Horns. D-Gib scored 26 points on the night, adding four assists and two rebounds in his 36 minutes of play. Royal with Cheese had the best game of his young career, scoring 15 points in just under 15 minutes while logging three boards, two assists, and two steals. And as far as bragging rights are concerned, Ivey and the Bucks snagged a 111-107 victory.

No Kwame Brown means more Chris Mihm. Andrew Bynum got the starting nod over Mihm, but the Westlake and UT grad pitched in with nine points and four boards as the Lakers killed the Pacers, 134-114.

T.J. Ford and the Raptors jumped out to a huge early lead against the Mavs, but cooled in the 3rd quarter and allowed homestanding Dallas to escape with a 105-99 victory. Ford scored 13 and dished out five assists in 22 minutes on the court.

Tonight

Can Royal Ivey claim scoreboard over a fellow Longhorn for a second-straight night? Chris Mihm and the L.A. Lakers hope that isn’t the case as they travel to Milwaukee. (7 PM CST, NBA League Pass)

T.J. Ford and the Raptors hope to bounce back in Memphis against the Grizzlies. Tip #1 from Longhorn Road Trip: Keep Jose Calderon on the bench the entire night and let T.J. play 48 minutes. Problems solved. (7 PM, NBALP)

Daniel Gibson travels to Minnesota when the Cavs and Timberwolves tangle in the Target. That’s called alliteration. (7 PM, NBALP)

We hope to see the debut of Maurice Evans in a Magic uniform as Orlando travels to San Antonio and tries to avoid Tony/Eva overhype. (7:30 PM, NBALP)

LaMarcus Aldridge and the Trailblazers host the Nets in a matchup of 4-7 teams. (9 PM, NBALP)

If you see any weird stuff on the site over the next few days, don’t adjust your monitor — it’s just the result of the complete overhaul we are giving Longhorn Road Trip. The skeleton of the new design should be up tonight, and we’ll go about tweaking and adjusting things throughout the week.

We will be trying our best to keep all of the usual news and features coming out on time, but do apologize if we get at all off-schedule. And if you happen to find anything buggy that you think we’re unaware of, please shoot us an email using contact at longhornroadtrip dot com. Thanks for reading, and for your continued patience during this process.

It’s opening day, as the Longhorns kick off the 2007-08 season with an exhibition tonight against Xavier University from Louisiana. That means it’s also time for the final installment of “Meet the Freshmen” here at LRT, which takes a look at versatile big man Clint Chapman.

Coming out of Oregon, Chapman played for the Canby Cougars, who finished at 22-8 during his senior season. Clint soared up the recruiting rankings during his last two years of high school, finishing in the top 70 of the Rivals rankings. Pac-10 schools were incredibly high on the kid, as Washington, Oregon, ASU, and Cal were all in the mix.

Chapman checks in at 6’10” and is a hard-working defender in the paint. On offense, he can step out and hit midrange jumpers to about 18 feet, but still needs work on his post moves. He has great fundamentals and is another quality big man on a team that sorely needed depth in the frontcourt last season.

Clint has been wearing a protective brace on his right wrist, but is still able to practice and play. Tonight’s exhibition game should give a sense of how safely the coaches and trainers want to play it with Chapman in the early part of the season.

Chapman is expected to split minutes with Wangmene coming off of the bench, so this minor injury means that we may just see a bit more of Alexis in November and December. But no matter how the minutes break down, Chapman is going to be an key reserve for Rick Barnes and the Longhorns.