Thursday morning, ESPN’s College Basketball Nation gave college hoops fans a brief drink in the vast offseason desert, revealing the brackets of the November and December tournaments that will air on the Worldwide Leader. Now in its 29th season, the EA Sports Maui Invitational is the most well-known of these early-season events, and once again Rick Barnes and his Longhorn squad will take part in the famous tournament this November.

The opportunity to discuss and analyze brackets — even those that aren’t played out in March — is a great distraction from the fact that there are still 102 days until the 2012-13 regular season tips off. With that in mind, we’re stretching our breakdown of this year’s Maui field over two days. It’s up to our dear readers to find ways to occupy the other 100.

Chaminade Silverswords

The Longhorns will open play on the island of Maui with on November 19th against host Chaminade. The Silverswords are just 6-76 all-time in the tournament, with their most recent win coming in 2010 against another Big 12 school, Oklahoma. Chaminade escaped with a narrow 68-64 win over the Sooners, locking up 7th-place in that 2010 tourney. While they are best known for the monumental upset of top-ranked Virginia in 1982, the Silverswords also boast a pair of Maui wins over Louisville and victories against Villanova and Princeton.

This year’s Chaminade squad has nowhere to go but up, as they wrapped up their 2011-12 campaign by losing eight of their last ten and sputtering to a disappointing 11-14 finish. It was destined to be a rough year for the Silverswords, as they were blasted in their three EA Sports Maui Invitational games last November, losing to UCLA, Georgetown, and Tennessee by an average of 28.3 points.

Although Chaminade lost leading scorer and rebounder Matt Cousins to graduation, the squad will be very experienced and eager to return to the NCAA Division II tournament after a one-year absence. Four of last year’s starters are back on campus, including three seniors. All told, the returning nucleus of Bennie Murray, Lee Bailey, Dominique Cooks, and Waly Coulibaly accounted for 65% of last season’s minutes and nearly 63% of the team’s points.

As is to be expected with a D-II squad, the Silverswords will be very undersized when compared to their mainland opponents. Sophomore Casey Oldemoppen and juco transfer Tyree Harrison are the team’s biggest bodies, with both checking in at just 6’8″. Although the experienced backcourt should improve on the ugly 0.91 assist-to-turnover ratio they posted last year, that height disparity will still lead to a lot of second-chance points for the Longhorns and the other D-I teams.

After taking on Chaminade in opening round action of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, the Longhorns will face either Illinois or Southern Cal on November 20th.

Illinois

The 2011-12 campaign was a brutal one for the Illini faithful. Longtime coach Bruce Webber watched his team lose 12 of their last 14 games, ultimately finishing 6-12 in the Big 10. The slow meltdown of a once-proud program spelled the end for Coach Webber in Champaign, but he found a new home at Kansas State before Kentucky had even cut down the nets in New Orleans.

The biggest challenge for the Illini was simply trying to put the ball in the basket. Illinois had a putrid offense that was more efficient than only Nebraska’s in league play. They were one of the 50 worst teams in all of Division I basketball in both three-point percentage and free-throw rate, meaning not only that they couldn’t hit from outside, but that they also weren’t being aggressive inside. If not for a stifling defense that allowed just 0.933 adjusted points per possession, Illinois wouldn’t have even been competitive in the six league games it did manage to win.

So with the entire Illinois roster back, except for lottery pick Meyers Leonard, why is there optimism surrounding the 2012-13 season? There isn’t an influx of new talent headed towards Assembly Hall. In fact, there’s only one new player who will see the court this year, Coastal Carolina transfer Sam McLaurin. A graudate student who is eligible to play right away, McLaurin was so flippant about his move that he announced his transfer destination with the tweet, “Fuck it im going to Illinois. #illinination”

With that hope not being a result of new faces on the court, perhaps the optimism comes courtesy of the new man at the reins, former Ohio coach John Groce. Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance and a near-upset of North Carolina in the NCAA regional semis, Groce inherits a team full of talent that has yet to live up to expectations. Fans can only hope that he is able to reach a group of players that seemed completely checked out at the end of Webber’s reign.

D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul are returning, and will make the Illini backcourt one of the most experienced in the nation. Joining them on the perimeter is junior wingman Joseph Bertrand, who showed flashes of brilliance throughout the season, especially in a January upset of Ohio State. He earned starts in 14 of the team’s 18 league games, and fans are hopeful he’ll truly break out in 2012-13.

The biggest hole was left by Leonard, who went pro after just two years at Illinois. That means there are a lot of expectations weighing on sophomore Nnanna Egwu, a raw 6’10” Nigerian center who appeared in every game last year. With Leonard chewing up the bulk of the post minutes in Webber’s four-guard look, Egwu averaged just under 10 minutes per game. He will have to make a big leap to be competitive in a physical Big 10, but will still likely be going through some growing pains when the team is in Hawaii.

Southern Cal

USC had an even more disappointing season than Illinois, but Coach Kevin O’Neill and the Trojans should bounce back quickly. Unlike the Illini, the abysmal season in L.A. wasn’t a result of inexplicable chemistry issues. Rather, the Trojans were a walking MASH unit, playing in some late-season Pac-12 games with only six scholarship players. Pro prospect Dewayne Dedmon and forward Aaron Fuller both missed significant chunks of the year, while point guard Jio Fontan sat out the entire season following knee surgery.

This year, the Trojans are back at full force, and welcome some much-heralded new faces to the locker room. Ari Stewart and Eric Wise are eligible to join the team in 2012-13, having sat out last season after transferring from Wake Forest and UC-Irvine, while former Tennessee Volunteer and hip-hop artist Renaldo Woolridge can immediately play thanks to the graduate transfer rule.

The Trojans also welcome 6’3″ guard J.T. Terrell, who averaged more than 11 points per game for Wake Forest in 2010-11. Following an arrest just two months before the 2011-12 season, Terrell left Wake and played at Peninsula College, where he led the team to an NWAACC playoff berth while averaging over 24 points per game.

Even with a depleted roster, Coach O’Neill was able to make his Trojan squad one of the toughest defensive units in the country. USC allowed just 0.944 adjusted points per possession, 47th-best in D-I hoops. They forced turnovers on nearly a quarter of their opponents’ possessions, one of the ten best marks in the country last year.

Where USC struggled was on the offensive end, and that struggle was a mighty one. The team’s adjusted offensive efficiency was 326th out of 345 Division I teams, thanks in large part to the third-worst three-point percentage in the country. USC also was one of the ten worst teams in offensive rebounding percentage, free-throw rate, and effective field goal percentage. It would be practically impossible for the healthy, reloaded Trojans cannot to do worse on the offensive end this year.

The EA Sports Maui Invitational will be an early indication of just how well this team can perform in 2012-13. O’Neill has been an outstanding defensive coach in his four years as head coach at USC and Arizona, so there’s no question they will remain competitive. The pieces are there for the Trojans to make a remarkable turnaround, but the offense has to at least reach serviceable levels to take advantage of that stingy D.

For a look at the other half of the EA Sports Maui Invitational bracket, check out Part Two of our preview.

As the minutes ticked down in last night’s semifinal in the 2KSports Classic, the storyline felt all too familiar for Texas fans. The Longhorns went over seven minutes without a field goal, letting their nine-point lead completely evaporate. For many burnt-orange faithful, another narrow, last-minute defeat seemed imminent. But this time, the Longhorns flipped the script.

Cory Joseph hit a jumper with 24 seconds to play to put Texas up by two, but Illinois quickly responded with a game-tying drive from freshman Jereme Richmond. The Longhorns regrouped heading into overtime and burst out of the gates in the extra five minutes. Texas surged ahead by scoring the first eight points of overtime and withstood a late barrage of threes from Bill Cole to hang on to a 90-84 win.

What looked good

The first half was an offensive showcase for both teams. Illinois and Texas combined to shoot 53% from the field while lighting up the scoreboard with 90 points. Despite the up-and-down tempo, Texas controlled the basketball. In the first half, the Longhorns coughed it up just four times, and finished with just 10 turnovers in 45 minutes of basketball.

More importantly, Texas dominated the fast break scoring in a game with very few offensive miscues. While Illinois only had 12 turnovers of their own, Texas scored 17 points off of then. The Illini, meanwhile, managed just seven points off of the Texas miscues.

The breakout star of the game was freshman Tristan Thompson. In each of his first two games, the Canadian product played 25 minutes. Against the Illini, he led all Longhorns with 40 minutes on the court. He contributed in every way possible, and didn’t show any signs of fatigue down the stretch. He was lights out from the floor, shooting 8-of-11 on the night. He showed off a beautiful turnaround jumpshot for the national TV audience, and emerged as a shot-blocking machine. Thompson had five swats in the game, many coming as he provided help D on a teammate’s blown assignment.

A huge concern for this Longhorn team is the lack of frontcourt depth, but Alexis Wangmene played well in his brief relief of Thompson. Typically, the bench forward position has been split between Wangmene and Matt Hill, but with Thompson playing 15 more minutes than usual, Matt’s role was rather limited.

Wangmene finished the night with six points, essentially doubling his career average. He knocked down both his free throws — quite a noteworthy accomplishment for any Longhorn — and added a putback and a silky J from the elbow. Wangmene still had some defensive lapses, including one play where he closed out on an already-guarded three-point attempt, leaving his man all alone for an easy rebound and putback. But if Thompson is playing as well as he did last night and can stay out of foul trouble, this kind of simple, quality performance is all Texas will need from the Wangmene/Hill combo.

What needed work

As always, the most glaring deficiency for the Longhorn team could be found at the charity stripe. Texas finished with a 56.8% free-throw percentage in the game, but that number dipped as low as 45% midway through the second half. The one glimmer of hope in the midst of the perpetual free-throw nightmare was how Texas performed at the line in crunch time. As they struggled through that seven-minute field-goal drought, the Horns knocked down 8-of-10 free throws to stay in the game.

A huge cause of those lengthy field-goal blues was the terrible trend of the Texas offensive possessions turning into simply isolate-dribble-shoot. Jordan Hamilton was a repeat offender, often driving the lane before forcing up bad shots against two and three defenders. The Texas guards were also guilty of this on numerous ocassions, so the team will have to work on kicking it out for midrange Js, three-pointers, or simply to reset the offense.

Another cause of the second-half futility came from the lack of Texas depth. With Coach Rick Barnes trying to steal some rest for his starting five — who combined to play more than 78% of the team’s total minutes — the lineup combinations in the second half made it tough to score.

There was actually a brief stretch where Dogus Balbay, Jai Lucas, and Wangmene were all on the court at the same time. With Lucas’ short stature and Balbay’s allergy to any shot besides a layup, that group was essentially buying rest for the starters while trying their hardest to maintain the Longhorn lead.

Without a doubt, the lack of depth is going to lead to a few losses this season. Whether it’s a result of foul trouble or just a tired starting five, the Texas bench will have to play extended minutes at some point this year, and there’s simply not enough offensive skill waiting on the pine for that to work.

Defensively, both teams had issues last night. Illinois was working hard all night freeing up Demetri McCamey and D.J. Richardson, running the Texas guards through screen after screen off of the ball. Unfortunately, the Horns had problems with switching on those screens, and they gave up a lot of open looks as the Illini guards zipped past Texas bigs on the perimeter. Fortunately, Texas made adjustments down the stretch and guys stuck with their man.

Looking ahead

With the win, the Longhorns now advance to the championship game of the 2KSports Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. For the second time in as many years, the Horns will tangle with the Pitt Panthers in their November tournament championship.

Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 local time here on the east coast, but that is of course subject to the length of the preceding consolation game between Maryland and Illinois. A pregame look at the Panthers is headed your way in the next few hours.

After last season’s monumental meltdown, Texas fans were treated to a new-look Longhorn squad last week as they opened the year with a pair of easy victories in the 2KSports Classic. The Texas offense moved more freely, Jordan Hamilton seemed to be a completely different player, and the defense suffocated its first two opponents to the tune of a 34.3% effective field goal percentage.

Skepticism could still be found in all corners of the Burnt Orange Nation, and with good reason. After all, last year’s team looked unstoppable as it marched to a 17-0 start. But this week’s hot internet topic is the fabulous breakdown of the Texas coaching clinic by Scipio Tex of Barking Carnival, and it has some fans drinking the Kool-Aid once more.

In Scipio’s breakdown, we learned of Rick Barnes’ off-season dedication to overcoming his coaching shortcomings, namely by developing a coherent offensive attack. When pieced together with what we saw on the court last week, it all makes sense. What Barnes and Co. claim to have worked on has already translated to game-time action. But, fans are also well-aware of the glaring deficiencies this team has, and are also well aware of the fact that neither Navy nor Louisiana Tech could exploit those weaknesses.

Tonight, Texas will finally be pushed by a quality opponent in the Illinois Fighting Illini. Not only is Bruce Weber’s team much more talented than the aforementioned 2KSports whipping boys, but they are also the first challenge for a thin, undersized Texas frontcourt. The Longhorns certainly have the athletes to hang with the Illini — Vegas currently has the Horns as 3.5-point underdogs — but will they have the grit to pull off a tough upset?

By the numbers

While Illinois’ average tempo of 69.4 possessions per game is just 82nd in the country, there’s no doubt that they have the most success when pressuring opponents into mistakes. The Fighting Illini are forcing just over 18 turnovers per game, which equates to more than 21% of their opponents’ possessions.

Offensively, the Illini have been tough to stop. Their 59.7% effective field-goal percentage (a statistic giving added weight to 3-point buckets) ranks 25th nationally, while their eye-popping 63.2% success rate inside the arc puts them 13th in the country.

Statistically, the two offensive weaknesses for Illinois are found inside. They fail to attack the rim enough to earn many free throw attempts, getting to the line just 26.7% of the time they shoot the ball. When Illinois misses shots, they also are failing to grab a significant number of offensive boards. With just 29.8% of their offensive rebounding opportunities being capitalized upon, the Fighting Illini rank 214th nationally. Against a much-smaller Texas team, look for those numbers to improve tonight.

Meet the Illini

The Illinois team lives and dies with senior point guard Demetri McCamey. At 6’3″, 200 lbs., he’s a strong, stocky guard with prescient court vision. In a game against Purdue last season, McCamey dished out 16 assists, and this year is averaging eight per game through the first three contests. He’s quick enough to get to the rim, strong enough to finish there, and even has enough self-control to log a few assists each night after he’s already left his feet with the basketball. While Demetri is certainly one of the best point guards in the country this season, he’s also a quality scorer that leads his team with 14.7 points per contest.

Joining McCamey in the backcourt is sharpshooter D.J. Richardson. The 6’3″ guard was a teammate of Avery Bradley and Cory Joseph at Findlay Prep, and as both Longhorns are well-aware, he needs only inches of space to get off a quick three-pointer. After a season in which he was named the Big 10’s Freshman of the Year, Richardson has started off on the right foot, knocking down 46% of his long-range attempts in the first three games this year. When D.J. isn’t dropping long-range bombs, he can also be counted on to lock down the perimeter, where he is arguably the team’s best defender.

At forward, senior Mike Davis is making a big impact this season. He’s been a rebounding machine, snagging nearly a fifth of the team’s boards so far. Davis bulked up in the offseason in the hopes of being more physical in the tough Big 10 Conference, which could make him a difficult matchup for the Longhorns. Freshman Tristan Thompson and the platoon of Matt Hill and Alexis Wangmene will have to contend with this bruising style of play and keep Davis off the glass.

A constant double-double threat, Davis is averaging more than 12 points per game. But while he’s a great rebounder and a quality post defender, his favorite way to score is with the midrange jumper. Thompson and Gary Johnson are serviceable defenders away from the rim, but Hill and Wangmene often have difficulty when their defensive assignments pull them away from the paint. It will be interesting to see how the Texas frontcourt handles Davis on the defensive end.

The other Illini starting forward is Bill Cole, a scrappy player who earns praise from the coaches for his hustle. He’s not going to fill up the stat sheet — Cole is averaging just 3.7 points and 3.3 boards per game — but he’ll often be found diving to the floor for loose balls or setting screens to open up the Illinois scorers.

In the middle, Coach Weber relies on 7-foot, 1-inch Mike Tisdale. He can score at will, but was often criticized last season for incredibly weak defense. This year, he’s still not going to win any All-Conference honors for his work on D, but his length has an undeniable effect down low. Tisdale’s averaging 9.3 points and a team-leading 7.7 boards per game, while blocking more than two shots per game. Like Davis, Tisdale can knock it down in the midrange, and will again cause matchup issues for the Horns.

If having the 7’1″ Tisdale wasn’t enough for Weber and the Illini, freshman Meyers Leonard also checks in at 7-feet. He’s still a raw talent, but all high school scouts have been drooling over just how much raw talent he posseses. Leonard is only playing about 17 minutes a game off the bench, yet still averages four rebounds and more than five points per contest. For a Texas team that will likely struggle in the paint tonight, having a second giant on the bench is just one more edge for Illinois.

The Illini essentially run nine deep, with Brandon Paul being the busiest reserve. He’s playing more than 19 minutes a game, and is still the team’s third-leading scorer despite coming off the bench. He’s undoubtedly an explosive scorer that can change the fabric of any game, but his questionable decision-making is the thing holding him back. So far this season, the sophomore seems to be making better choices with the basketball. Texas has to hope, however, that they can pressure him into a few mistakes.

Also coming off the bench is freshman Jereme Richardson, who is making a quick impact. He’s the most-heralded recruit to arrive at Champaign-Urbana in years, and it’s likely just a matter of time until he usurps Cole for the starting role. He has incredible handles for a 6’7″ kid, leading to the inevitable “point-forward” label. His length enables him to grab a lot of rebounds when he’s not in the ideal position, and he should log his fair share of boards against Texas.

The final contributor for the Illini is forward Tyler Griffey, a sophomore in the mold of Cole. There’s only so many minutes on a team for the scrappy, “glue guy,” so for now Griffey’s impact is limited by Cole’s presence. In future seasons, he’ll likely slide right into that role. For now, though, he’s good for a few points a night.

Keys to the game

It’s a recurring theme throughout this game, and it will be a recurring theme throughout the season. This Texas Longhorn team is simply smaller in the frontcourt, and lack any real depth at those positions. Against Illinois, Texas must hold its own in the paint. They can’t let Illinois dominate the rebounding battle, and they cannot afford to give up a ton of easy points inside. If the Longhorns can somehow turn this into a battle of the backcourts, their odds for upset are much better.

Although the Illini are more experienced, they can often be careless with the basketball. They are averaging nearly 15 turnovers per game, coughing it up on roughly 20% of their possessions. If Texas can force Illinois mistakes, it will fuel the transition game and lead to easy buckets. The Longhorns scored 41 points off of turnovers in their first two games; if they can continue that trend, it will certainly make this game interesting.

Finally, Texas must stay out of foul trouble. Illinois is already deeper than Texas, and the Longhorns are thinnest in the frontcourt. Thompson, Gary Johnson, and Hamilton cannot be sitting on the bench for extended periods of time with foul trouble if the Longhorns are to have any hopes of winning this game.

A final DVR note

Since tonight’s game is the second of the semifinals, there is almost no chance that tipoff is actually happening at 8 P.M. central. We’ve put our best guess in the header bar at the top of this preview, but make sure to leave a lot of extra recording time as you set your DVR, VHS, or Betamax.

The University of Texas released the non-conference schedule for the men’s basketball team yesterday, and the Longhorns once again have a top-flight list of opponents before Big 12 play. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to check out the full season schedule, or simply click this handy-dandy hyperlink.

Texas opens the season with the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, which culminates in a pair of games at Madison Square Garden against two of the tournament’s other three regional hosts — Illinois, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. The Terrapins and Panthers were both NCAA tournament teams in 2010, and both advanced out of the first round. While the Illini did not make it into the Big Dance, hopes are high for their 2010-11 campaign, and ESPN’s Andy Katz even ranked them 15th in his first preseason poll.

The Longhorns also face a trio of perennial powers in this season’s non-conference slate. Texas first travels to Greensboro, North Carolina to tangle with the Tar Heels on December 18th. As we reported on Twitter last week, the two schools were in talks to move this year’s game to the Bahamas. With this year’s contest staying Stateside, it fulfills North Carolina’s “semi-home” game in the current contract and now leaves the two schools free to revisit the Nassau option in future seasons.

While the Tar Heels were sent reeling following their loss to the Longhorns last December, they seemed to put the pieces together in the post-season and surged to the NIT finals, where they lost to Dayton. With another year under the belts of the young and talented Carolina team — plus the addition of freshman stud Harrison Barnes — the Tar Heels are set for a solid 2010-11 campaign.

Just four days later, Texas heads to East Lansing for an on-campus match-up with Michigan State. The Spartans are coming off their second-straight Final Four, and return all of their key players outside of Raymar Morgan. Although the Longhorns escaped with a victory against MSU in Austin last December, they have historically had trouble with Tom Izzo‘s teams. A true road game against a preseason-Top 5 squad will certainly be a challenge for the Horns.

In early January, Texas hosts Connecticut at the Frank Erwin Center. Like the Tar Heels, the Huskies had an abnormally mediocre season last year. Unlike North Carolina, however, Connecticut managed to knock off the Horns in the midst of their struggles. The Huskies are bringing in a pair of 4-star guards and return Kemba Walker, so expect coach Jim Calhoun to have his team ready for another exciting match-up.

The Longhorns will also face two more major conference opponents in Southern Cal and Arkansas. Texas knocked off both of those teams in 2009-10, and are looking for another clean sweep this year. The Trojans are still embroiled in NCAA drama, as their school’s lawyers are fighting sanctions that were handed down earlier this month. Coach Kevin O’Neill certainly has his hands full rebuilding the program, but his squad matured nicely at the end of last season.

The Razorbacks, meanwhile, will be without star guard Courtney Fortson, who declared for the NBA draft and signed with an agent in April. Arkansas fans are lamenting the decision, as Fortson went unselected in Thursday night’s draft. They can take solace in the fact that sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke will still be on the court for Coach John Pelphrey, though.

In addition to the major names, the Longhorns filled the remainder of their non-conference slate with a slew of mid-major opponents. Navy and Louisiana Tech are Texas’ opening round opponents in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, while in-state foes Lamar, Rice, and Sam Houston State are all making trips to the Frank Erwin Center. North Florida and Coppin State round out the non-conference sked for the Horns with match-ups in December.

Mark Rosner of the Austin-American Statesman reports that Texas will play next season in the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Twelve different schools will participate in the event, with the four headlining teams meeting on November 18th and 19th in Madison Square Garden.

Texas’ opening round opponents will be announced later, along with the dates for those two match-ups. Fans can likely plan on the opening round games being played at the Erwin Center on November 8th, 9th, or 10th. Maryland, Illinois, and Pittsburgh are the other three regional hosts that will join Texas for the final two rounds in New York City.

The Longhorns took part in the 2006 edition of the tournament, defeating Alcorn State and Chicago State in opening round match-ups. In the semifinals, Texas lost on a last-second bucket against Michigan State, but defeated St. John’s in the consolation game a night later.