It’s been a few days since the Longhorns secured their second-straight win over a top-ten opponent, and unfortunately the post-game review slipped through the cracks as we frantically finished up holiday shopping at the eleventh hour and then enjoyed a few days with the family. But before college basketball gets back in full swing tomorrow, we’d like to take a quick look back at the highlights and lowlights from Tuesday night’s victory.

What looked good

The most impressive part of the Longhorns’ 79-68 win was that it came mostly without Dexter Pittman. Plagued by fouls and referee Rick Hartzell‘s obsession with blowing the whistle, the Texas inside game was quickly hampered. Add in the fact that Damion James seemed a bit too anchored to the perimeter early in the first half, and there was reason for Longhorn fans to be concerned.

It was James’ gutty play that ended up being the difference, though. With his jersey bloodstained and his lip swollen, Damion looked every bit the warrior as he clawed his way to a 23-point, 13-rebound night. It was truly a star performance for the senior, who became the all-time leading rebounder for the University of Texas. And not only did the win underscore James’ ability to carry the team, but it also highlighted how the depth of this Longhorn squad will make it incredibly difficult for opponents to completely shut them down.

Gary Johnson touched on that very fact in the post-game presser. “We can give it to you any way you want it,” the forward said, pointing out that the versatile Longhorns were able to play very different styles of basketball in defeating North Carolina and Michigan State. In addition to making astute observations and providing quality quotes for writers, Johnson also quietly put in a solid effort on the court. The typically shot-happy junior had nearly as many assists (two) as field goals (three), and was a steady 50% from the field.

Johnson’s defense was also a big part of the reason the Longhorns were able to pull away in the waning moments. He stripped the ball from a Spartan guard in the open court not once, but twice in the final minutes, leading to fast break buckets as Texas iced the game. That oft-mentioned depth of the Longhorn bench seemed to play a huge role in the final result, as Texas was able to continue hustling in crunch time, while Michigan State made just one field goal in the final 9:57 of the game.

In addition to that finishing kick, Longhorn fans can also be impressed with the poise their team showed under fire. With Pittman riding the bench in foul trouble, Texas fell as far behind as eight points late in the first half. The Horns closed the gap to three by the time they hit the locker room, where they made adjustments to shore up their perimeter defense. After allowing Michigan State enough time and space to hit 71% of their threes in the first half, the Longhorns locked down the three-point line and allowed just a 12.5% success rate in the second half.

The Texas defense also pressured the Spartans and forced mistakes, earning 22 turnovers in the process. That gave the Spartans a 29.5% turnover rate in the game, their worst performance with the basketball since they coughed it up 33.4% of the time against Florida in a 77-74 loss.

What needed work

For the rest of the season, the first paragraph in this portion of every single game report will likely read the exact same way. The Longhorns simply have no answers from the free throw line. In fact, the Texas free-throw nightmare is so bad that Spartan Coach Tom Izzo instructed his team to foul Dogus Balbay with nearly three minutes left on the clock. Texas quickly responded by giving ballhandling duties to J’Covan Brown, while Izzo changed course and had his team concede the defeat.

While the Longhorns have yet to win a game by less eleven points and they have an average margin of victory of more than 28 points, they will undoubtedly face tougher tests in the future. Games will be closer, and it’s highly likely that whatever losses the team incurs the rest of the way, they will be a result of missed free throws. For a team that is averaging 17 made free throws and 11 missed ones per game, those points left at the line will eventually loom large.

What also needed work was Michigan State’s attempts at distracting the Texas free throw shooters. In the first half, a woman seated in the Michigan State guest pass section decided to blow an air horn before two of James’ free throw attempts. As Murphy would have predicted, the Longhorn big man then made both. (It should be noted that James was just 1-of-5 from the line without air-horn accompaniment.) While it’s embarrassing enough that someone who was allowed into the Erwin Center for free as a guest of the visiting team would break NCAA rules by using an illegal noisemaker, it’s even more embarrassing that she couldn’t even successfully impact the game.

Everything else that Texas needed to improve upon was actually remedied within the game itself. James opened up his game after his early addiction to the perimeter, scoring more inside and getting better position for rebounds. The Longhorns improved their transition defense after letting Michigan State run right past them for easy buckets during most of the first half. And as previously mentioned, the perimeter defense was night-and-day different from one half to the next.

What lies ahead

Fresh off the heels of these two big wins, Longhorn fans are becoming understandably giddy with excitement. The last time Texas started a season 11-0 was in the fall of 2007, when that unblemished start was finally spoiled by Izzo and the Spartans in Auburn Hills. With Michigan State finally vanquished, fans have high hopes that the next two weeks will be smooth sailing for the Longhorns. After home games against Gardner-Webb and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a road test against the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks provides the only likely hurdle for Texas as it attempts to enter conference play with a perfect 14-0 mark.

The Longhorns return to the Erwin Center tonight, fresh off an impressive thirteen-point win over a top ten opponent in the North Carolina Tar Heels. But rather than getting a few days to unwind and enjoy the big victory, Texas will be immediately tested once again. This evening, their latest top-ten battle is with the Michigan State Spartans, a program that has been a thorn in the side of Coach Rick Barnes over the last three years. Each of those seasons, the Spartans narrowly won on a neutral court, with the three victories coming by just a combined twelve points.

Michigan State lost a lot of senior leadership and presence in the paint following last season’s Final Four run. Guard Travis Walton was the team’s steady leader in 2009, while big men Goran Sutan and Marquise Gray played important roles down low. Their departures leave the Spartans without a reliable center, and according to Coach Tom Izzo, also leave his team without a vocal leader.

By the numbers

Fans of college basketball know that Izzo is a disciple of defense. Every year, the Spartans are a frustrating match-up for opponents, as they pressure out past the perimeter and force countless turnovers. This season, however, Michigan State has added an impressive offense to match. In fact, the Spartan offense is actually ranked higher nationally (27th) than their defense (43rd) in adjusted efficiency, according to Ken Pomeroy.

With the newfound offensive firepower, Michigan State is pushing the tempo a little bit more this season. As members of the Big 10 Conference, the Spartans have often played grind-it-out basketball games with their league opponents. This year, the Big 10 is going to have to hustle to keep up. Michigan State’s 70.9 possessions per game is 84th-quickest in the nation, and is a massive shift from Izzo’s previous style. During the last six seasons, MSU has averaged just 65.5 possessions per game and never finished higher than 126th nationally in tempo, while placing 240th or lower in three of those years.

The thing the Spartans do best, though, is rebound. They are ranked eighth in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage, as they grab over 43% of their own misses. That dominance extends to the defensive glass, allowing Michigan State to enjoy a rebounding margin of +11.2, which is 6th-best in the country. Just behind the Spartans in the national rankings are the Longhorns, who have a margin of +11.1 boards per game. Tonight’s contest could very well be decided by which team imposes their will on the glass.

Meet the Spartans

Coach Izzo has been tinkering with his lineup all season long, looking for the right combination as he reloads his team and searches for that aforementioned missing leadership. Nine different Spartans have started during the team’s first eleven games, although only the core rotation of seven players are averaging more than 20 minutes per contest.

Junior guard Kalin Lucas is the one player that has started each game for Michigan State. Named the Big 10’s Player of the Year as just a sophomore, the speedy little guard has a deadly shot and seemingly omniscient court vision. Saturday’s victory over IPFW marked the 21st-consecutive game where Lucas scored in double digits, and he is leading the team with an average of 16.1 points per game. He added muscle over the offseason, so the 6-foot guard is also able to fight through contact when he attacks the rim this year.

Joining Lucas in the backcourt is Chris Allen, a 6’3″ junior who isn’t afraid to battle inside with bigger opponents. But what Allen is best known for is his jump shot, a skill that has unfortunately eluded him over the last season and a half. He broke his foot in the NCAA title game against North Carolina, and perhaps that is the reason why he has struggled from the floor this season. He’s shown flashes of his former brilliance at times, but has played inconsistently enough to log a 46% success rate from the field, including just 34% from behind the arc. Allen is certainly a dangerous man who is due to break out, so the Longhorns must keep an eye on him this evening.

Adding to the depth in the Spartan backcourt is Korie Lucious, a sophomore guard who, like Lucas, is not just a great facilitator, but also a dangerous shooter. While Korie has hit just 35% of his three-pointers this year and only 36% of all his shots, his jumper is far better than those numbers indicate. Like Allen, Lucious is liable to get hot at any moment, and Texas can’t afford to let him do so. Also just like Allen, Lucious is recovering from a broken foot, and that could be affecting his accuracy.

Down low, big man Raymar Morgan is the only senior on Michigan State who plays any significant minutes. He’s a big, strong forward who is a handful down low, but his accurate midrange jumper makes him even more dangerous. This season, he’s averaging nearly eleven points and six rebounds per game. His ability (or inability) to turn in that kind of performance against the Texas frontcourt will be key to Michigan State’s chances tonight.

The other big force in the paint is forward Draymond Green. Although he has started just three games, he’s second on the team in scoring and leads the team in rebounding. At 6’6″, he’s a bit undersized for the power forward role, but can do that when the Spartans want to run with a smaller lineup. When Michigan State wants to go bigger, Green’s surprising abilities with the basketball even allow Coach Izzo to use him as a point forward. If ballhandling, rebounding, scoring, and assists aren’t enough of a contribution from Green, he even chips in with his quick hands on defense, to the tune of a team-leading 16 steals. With tonight’s big game on national television, this could be a breakout game for the well-rounded sophomore.

Durrell Summers is another ‘tweener for Coach Izzo, who has the player listed as a 6’4″ guard. He’s quick and can take defenders off the dribble, and has bulked up prior to his junior season so that he’s able to body up more inside. He has a lot of length that will frustrate the Texas offense, and incredible hops that could lead to some impressive dunks and blocks in tonight’s game. Like Allen and Lucious, Summers is a solid shooter who has struggled so far this season. But as Texas fans can surely remember, Durrell can hit the clutch shots, like the three that knocked off the Longhorns in Houston last December.

The final member of the core rotation is power forward Delvon Roe, who has started nine games and is averaging 22 minutes per contest. The sophomore has high expectations this year, following a freshman season in which he was adjusting to a surgically-repaired knee. Once a top-ten recruit, Roe is quicker and more agile than most power forwards, allowing him to defend further from the paint and also draw out opponents when he has the ball.

While he’s averaging just eight points and eight boards per game, those numbers have been limited by an unfortunate problem with fouls. Roe picked up his fifth personal against both North Carolina and Gonzaga with seven minutes still left on the clock, and also fouled out against Florida Gulf Coast. Against the deep Texas frontcourt, Delvon will have to be careful not to pile up the personals once again.

Averaging only nine minutes per game, freshman center Garrick Sherman is a work-in-progress that Izzo hopes will anchor his frontcourt in years to come. As a high school senior in Ohio last year, Sherman was the Co-Player of the Year, and his fundamentals and footwork certainly seem to be sound. It appears, however, that Garrick gets overly nervous at times and rushes with the basketball. When he slows down, he’s actually been fairly impressive, and his eight point performance in just eight minutes on Saturday could be a sign that the light has finally come on for this youngster.

The other newcomer at center is freshman Derrick Nix, a 6’8″, 280-pound player that will remind fans of Dexter Pittman as a freshman. Nix was as heavy as 340 pounds in high school and is still adjusting to his new body and the speed of Michigan State basketball, but he is highly effective in short bursts. Nix swats a ton of shots down low, and has even had a few nice steals early in the season.

On offense, he still seems awkward at times, likely as a result of having to post up against college defenders instead of just barreling through them like he did in high school. If Nix and Pittman are on the floor at the same time tonight, it ought to be entertaining to watch.

Keys to the game

As we mentioned earlier, these two teams are both dominant on the glass. While it’s highly likely this will lead to a very close battle on the boards, if either team is able to hold a significant rebounding edge, it could be the difference. Texas can easily frustrate their opponents if they can manage to shut down the highly-effective Michigan State offensive rebounders and eliminate a ton of extra Spartan chances.

With so many skilled shooters who have struggled over the first month of the year, the Longhorns also have to be worried about a sudden flurry of offense from the outside. Texas needs to shut down the three-point shooters, especially after allowing North Carolina to hit 54% of their long-range attempts on Saturday afternoon.

While the Longhorns should be worried about the Michigan State backcourt, they are likely giddy over the advantage their frontcourt has in this match-up. Texas should attack the Spartans inside, drawing fouls on Roe and Green so that Sherman and Nix are forced to play a bigger role. The Longhorns should enjoy a nice edge on points scored in the paint, and getting the thin Michigan State frontcourt in foul trouble should only make that easier.