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

The Longhorns wrap up the cupcake portion of their non-conference schedule tonight, hosting the Nicholls State Colonels in what amounts to a glorified exhibition at the Frank Erwin Center. Tempo-free stat maven Ken Pomeroy has the Colonels ranked as the 21st-worst team in the country, even after they picked up their second Division I victory last night against Louisiana-Monroe.

The Longhorns have made vast improvements on the defensive side of the ball since their two losses in East Rutherford, holding their last five opponents to an effective field goal mark of just 37.4%. Of course, it should be noted that those five opponents currently have a combined record of just 20-23, with 10 of their wins coming against teams not in Division I. No matter how good Texas looks tonight against Nicholls State, fans must temper expectations, as the first true test of the team’s progress will come against Temple on Saturday.

By the numbers

Having lost leading scorer Anatoly Bose to graduation and the National Basketball League of his native Australia, the Colonels are working with four freshman, two transfers, and just one senior. Understandably, the Colonels were picked to finish dead last in the East Division of the Southland Conference by the league’s coaches.

As predicted, the on-court product has been quite sub-par so far this year. Nicholls State is averaging a per-possession point differential of -0.187, a discouraging number that is fueled by a terrible defense. The Colonels are the sixth-worst defense in the country according to Pomeroy, giving up 1.125 points per possession, thanks in large part to the 55% effective field goal percentage they are allowing opponents.

As it was on Saturday night against Texas State, tonight’s match-up on the glass is perfect for the Longhorns. Nicholls State is one of the ten worst offensive rebounding teams in the country, while Texas has struggled to stop opponents in that department for much of the season. Recently, the Longhorns have shown improvement, but again it is important to remember our earlier point regarding the level of competition over the last few games. Against this small, poor-rebounding team, the Longhorns should put up some video-game type numbers.

It is also worth noting that the Colonels have had some issues with ball control during their first nine games. The team’s turnover mark is a troubling 22.9%, a number that puts them in the bottom third of D-I teams. While Rick Barnes has never built the Texas offense on turnovers and transition, it’s still likely that the Horns will enjoy some fast break points courtesy of Nicholls State errors.

Meet the Colonels

As we mentioned, Nicholls State is truly in the midst of a rebuilding year. With Bose gone, 6’5″ senior Fred Hunter was supposed to carry the scoring load. Unfortunately, a knee injury from last year took longer than anticipated to heal, and Hunter elected to redshirt this season in the hopes of having a stronger senior campaign in 2012-13 with a more experienced squad.

The Colonels have a core rotation of nine players, but could go deeper down the bench against Texas, as they just played last night against Louisiana-Monroe. Injuries have forced Coach J.P. Piper to be very flexible with his lineups, meaning that eight different players have seen the starting five so far this season.

The lone senior is Ben Martin (No. 4), a guard who averaged less than five points per game last season. Like Hunter, Martin has been dealing with his own injuries, having been limited to just four games so far this season thanks to back problems. The guard hasn’t improved his scoring mark this season, averaging just four points per game, but has upped the shooting percentage. After knocking down less than 32% of his shots last year, Martin has made 45.5% of them in his four games.

The other key player to be hobbled by injuries this season is 6’2″ guard Dantrell Thomas (No. 1), who has been sidelined by a deep calf bruise. After missing two games due to the injury, Thomas made a surprise appearance off the bench last night, scoring nine points in the final minutes to carry the team to victory. During the preseason, Coach Piper hoped that Thomas would be the one to make up for Bose’s departing points, but so far he is averaging just over eight per game.

The player who has carried the team so far is 6’5″ freshman Trevon Lewis (No. 23). Averaging more than 14 points per game, Lewis made a splash in his collegiate debut, leading the team with 19 points against LSU in the season opener. The freshman is also grabbing more than five boards per game, making him the leading rebounder on a team that has no players over 6’7″. Lewis is an athletic guy who has the ability to defend all positions, but will find that a difficult task against a much bigger Texas lineup tonight.

Joining Lewis on the wing is 6’6″ sophomore Chris Talkington (No. 11), who is second on the team in scoring with a 12.7 average. He’s been the team’s best three-point shooter so far, knocking down 43.8% of his 48 attempts. Lest fans think Talkington is simply a long-range specialist, he’s also been attacking the rim to the tune of a 46.4% mark inside the arc, while earning 30 trips to the line.

The other three-point threat for Nicholls State is 6’7″ freshman Lachland Prest (No. 2), one of three Australians on the team roster. Prest is one of the two tallest players on the Colonel roster, but his 41.9% success rate behind the arc is key to stretching out defenses. For Coach Piper’s five-out, motion-based offense, having bigs with a good jumper is critical.

That type of offense doesn’t really call for a true point guard, but 6’2″ freshman Shane Rillieux (No. 21) is one of two guards who essentially fill that role. His 20 assists are second on the team, but the freshman has also coughed it up 21 times so far this season. He’s a good perimeter defender that is also rebounding very well in his freshman campaign, as he’s currently second on the team with 4.4 boards per game.

The other guard facilitating the offense is sophomore Bryan Hammond (No. 3), who has a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. His 8.6 points per game are third on the team, despite being relegated to the sixth-man role after Martin’s return.

Another player giving quality minutes off the bench is Sam McBeath (No. 15), the other “big man” for the Colonels at 6-feet, 7-inches. The Australian product is much more experienced than his fellow freshmen, as he’s currently 21 years old and has spent the last two years trying to gain NCAA eligibility. McBeath is averaging 7.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in his seven appearances.

The final player in the rotation is Jeremy Smith (No. 34), a 6’3″ sophomore guard who actually took a redshirt season after his freshman year. He plays considerably less minutes than the eight men ahead of him in the rotation, as he sees the court for just over 14 minutes per game. Smith has made an appearance in every contest, though, and averages nearly five points in his limited role.

Keys to the blowout

There’s absolutely no reason why the Longhorns should lose tonight, so for this game we have made a slight name change to this section of the preview.

1) Control the defensive glass – With nobody over 6’7″ on the opposing bench, the Longhorns should have no problems rebounding the basketball tonight. The Nicholls State offense is already rather pedestrian, so limiting the Colonels to one-shot possessions by grabbing the defensive boards will absolutely cripple their scoring chances.

2) Play sound team defense – The motion-based offense that Nicholls State uses will make it necessary for the Longhorns to communicate very well on D. If the Longhorns don’t, there will be quite a few plays where they simply lose a man on defense and give up an easy layup or wide-open jumper. While Nicholls State is not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, playing against this type of scheme will be a good experience for the young Longhorn defense.

3) Attack the paint – Recently Texas has found great success by setting up their big men in position to score, whether it’s from good entries in the high-low game or from good drive-and-dish work by Myck Kabongo and J’Covan Brown. The Longhorns have a huge size advantage in this game, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t consistently feed Alexis Wangmene, Clint Chapman, and Jonathan Holmes and pad their stats.