Leaving Madison Square Garden on Friday night, it was difficult to feel anything but optimism. Sure, losing a close game to a top-five team can be frustrating for any fan. But what we saw from the Longhorns in New York City bodes very, very well for the future.

While many have focused on the bizarre finish and Cory Joseph‘s ugly heave with seconds left, there were so many positive things to take from the pair of games played in the 2KSports Classic at Madison Square Garden. We’ve already talked about the overtime win over the Illini, but there was even more to love in the loss to Pitt.

1) Jordan Hamilton is taking charge – Hamilton still has issues forcing shots and sometimes fails to look for the open man as often as his teammates do. But when you’re the most prolific scorer on a young team coming off a season played completely without leadership…can you blame him?

Jordan scored 28 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including a 5-for-8 mark from behind the arc. Two of those three-point misses actually came in the final few minutes, when Hamilton took quick threes in possessions where the Longhorns might have been better served by working it inside and earning points the hard way. But when a kid is 5-of-6 and has the hot hand, you can’t fault the decision-making too much.

In the future, Jordan will need to make wiser decisions with the basketball and not try to take the entire team on his shoulders every single trip down the floor. But maturing into a leader is a journey that’s rife with speedbumps and detours, so these criticisms are minor in the grand scheme of things. It will be exciting to watch Hamilton mature over the course of this season.

2) Tristan Thompson doesn’t play like a freshman – Ho hum. Just another 40-minute, 11-point, six-rebound performance for a kid who is only in his fourth collegiate game. Thompson even added three more blocks to his total in the loss to Pitt, giving him eight in his two games at MSG. If you can fault him for anything at this point, it might be that he doesn’t know how to take a break.

With such a thin frontcourt, having the freshman be able to play entire games while avoiding foul trouble is an incredible gift. When Thompson is able to limit fouls and perform so well, it decreases the minutes that Matt Hill and Alexis Wangmene have to play, and it makes it easier for the two reserves to produce without pressure.

3) The Texas frontcourt didn’t back down – It’s all we’ve been talking about all season. Heck, we even led off our previous paragraph with it. The Longhorns have a thin frontcourt, and unless Thompson is sharing the court with Wangmene or Hill, they are undersized against most opponents.

Still, Texas took it inside against a big, physical Pitt team and actually beat them on the glass. In fact, the Longhorns held Pitt to just 36% of their offensive rebounding chances, a far cry from the 50-plus percentage they had enjoyed in the first four games.

In addition, the Longhorns were at their most successful when they attacked the paint on offense. They consistently drew fouls against the Panther big men, forcing coach Jamie Dixon to give more minutes to guys typically buried down the bench. Unfortunately, the Longhorns went against this gameplan when it came down to crunch time, and that failure to stick to a successful formula led to a narrow defeat.

4) Frontcourt reserves did their part – As mentioned above, when Thompson plays so well, it means that Rick Barnes doesn’t need as much from his bench players. Against the Illini, Wangmene stepped up and played well. Versus the Panthers, it was Hill who had the good game. Matt only played 12 minutes against Pitt, but he worked hard for three boards, played admirably on defense, and added a free throw. The two bench forwards are not going to be lighting up the stat sheets anytime soon, but these small contributions are much more than Texas fans were expecting coming into the year.

5) There’s room to grow – The Pitt team that won the 2KSports Classic is an experienced one with excellent depth. The Longhorns, on the other hand, are young and are still meshing as a group. If you take another look at these teams in March, you’ll likely see a very similar Panther squad to the one that took home the title. The Longhorns will likely be playing much better basketball.

With the exception of last year’s disaster, Coach Barnes always improves his team throughout the year, especially on defense. The Texas defensive numbers so far this season aren’t up to his standards, so you can be sure the Horns will be tougher to score on once Big 12 play rolls around. In addition, there are a lot of youthful mistakes that probably won’t be cropping up in the second half of the season. Texas may not have won the tournament, but they made quite an impact with their performance in New York City.

The Horns continue the new season with a home game against Sam Houston State tonight at 7 P.M. We’ll be back with a preview later this afternoon.

For the second time in as many years, the Texas Longhorns and Pitt Panthers meet in an early-season tournament championship. But for fans of both programs, tonight’s matchup will look very different from the 78-62 Texas win in last year’s CBE Classic at Kansas City.

In that one, the Panthers were crippled by injuries and academic issues, while the Longhorns used four players who have since graduated or left for the NBA. Meanwhile, the Panthers have healed and added another year of experience. In short, the tables have definitely turned.

Pittsburgh now boasts an incredibly deep and talented roster, even if most of their players aren’t household names outside of the Big East. The Panthers have always dealt with the underdog label, despite being one of the most successful teams of the decade. Tonight, however, they come in with a top-five ranking and high expectations for success in March and April.

By the numbers

As with every Jamie Dixon-coached team, this year’s Panther squad is well-disciplined, defensively-suffocating, and highly efficient. On paper, there’s very few games that they should ever lose.

The Pitt brand of basketball has long been slow-down basketball, and through the first four games of the 2010-11 season, that trend has continued. The team’s 66.8 possessions per game is ranked 239th-fastest in the nation — or 107th-slowest, if you’re a glass-half-empty kind of fan. It will certainly be a contrast in styles tonight, as the Longhorns are clipping along at the 19th-fastest pace in NCAA hoops, with 71.7 possessions per game.

As usual, the strength of the Panther offense is on the glass. They are cleaning up more than half of their offensive rebounding opportunities, which makes them nearly unstoppable when combined with a 53.4% effective field-goal percentage. They are fairly steady with the ball, turning it over just 13 times per game, which equates to only 18% of their possessions.

Despite shooting just 3-of-10 from behind the arc in last night’s win over Maryland, the Panthers are loaded with long-range threats. Junior guard Ashton Gibbs led the Big East in three-point percentage two seasons ago, and has made more than 48% of his long-range attempts so far this year.

Meet the Panthers

Pitt’s team is loaded with overachieving role players that any coach would kill to have on his roster. They run eight or nine deep on any given night, and their team mentality shows in every aspect of the game. On offense, quick, crisp ball movement leads to open looks and tons of assists. On defense, most players can adequately guard any position, allowing the Panthers to constantly switch on screens.

The aforementioned Gibbs is a very difficult matchup for any opponent, as he is the true definition of a combo guard. When he’s not knocking down threes, he can sink it from anywhere on the court or dish out a quick assist to the rest of his talented team. In the summer of 2009, Gibbs worked his way up to a starting role on the U-19 national team coached by Dixon, and won a gold medal in the process.

Tiny Travon Woodall joins Gibbs in the backcourt, and as his 9.5 points per game attest, his height doesn’t hold him back. Just 5’11”, Woodall is lightning-quick and constantly causes defenses to have to rotate and help when he zips past his man. While he’s yet to start a game this season, this sixth man is averaging more than 24 minutes per game and has logged 15 assists.

Brad Wanamaker is one of three starting seniors, and he contributes in every way. He’s yet another lockdown defender for Coach Dixon, and his 17 points per game come from a variety of positions. Wanamaker can comfortably play as the off-guard or the small forward, and his versatility allows the team to throw out many different lineup combinations.

In the middle, Gary McGhee is another senior leader for the Panthers, although he isn’t going to wow you on offense. He cleans up misses and puts in the easy ones, chipping in just four points per game. McGhee is a big body that makes it difficult for opponents to score inside, and he constantly cleans up the defensive glass to limit the other team to one-and-done possessions. In last year’s meeting in Kansas City, the big man logged a double-double against the Horns with 11 points and 10 boards.

The third senior in Dixon’s starting five is Gilbert Brown, a fifth-year man who was academically ineligible when these teams met last year. This summer, he led the team in scoring during their overseas trip to Ireland, and is averaging nearly 10 points a game so far this season. Brown is yet another offensive threat for the Panthers that can explode at any moment, as evidenced by the three times he posted 20-plus points last year.

At power forward, Nigerian-born redshirt freshman Talib Zanna is making a quick impact. He was the star of last night’s game, leading Pitt with both 14 points and 11 boards. He only has four blocks in four games, but he has the length and reputation of a serious post defender. Like Texas big man Alexis Wangmene, he was discovered as a part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. He also speaks five languages, which means he’ll likely be Dick Vitale’s most-loved linguistic topic since Sydmill Harris.

The deep Panther bench is loaded with talent, and these athletic reserves will likely make a big difference in tonight’s game. While Texas often uses Wangmene, Jai Lucas, and Matt Hill to give the starters a blow, the Panthers can continue attacking when they go to the bench.

In addition to Woodall, the Panthers can also count on quality performances from Dante Taylor, Lamar Patterson, and Nasir Robinson. Taylor is Pitt’s first McDonald’s All-American in the Jamie Dixon era, and he’s primed for a breakout season. He spent much of his freshman year as a role player, but is leading the team in blocks despite playing just 15 minutes a game. He’s also one of Pitt’s top rebounders, grabbing 6.5 per contest.

Patterson is an athletic small forward who hopes to make a splash after playing just 10 games last year before suffering a season-ending injury. He sees just over 17 minutes per game off the bench, and contributes a quiet 4.8 points and three rebounds a night.

Robinson, meanwhile, missed the first three games of the year before making his debut against Maryland. Despite being just 6’5″, he knows how to work inside and will grind out a few points every game. He’s yet another solid defensive player for Dixon and the Panthers, as the Longhorns will discover in just a few hours.

Keys to the game

As always, the number one key when facing the Panthers is to attack the defensive glass. Pitt doesn’t miss that many shots, so the Longhorns simply cannot allow the Panthers to continue their trend of reclaiming more than half of their misses. If Texas can hold Pitt to one-and-done possessions, they have a chance to escape with the tournament title.

Against a physical team, there’s always the danger of picking up a ton of fouls. For a very thin Texas team, they absolutely must avoid foul trouble. Wangmene and Hill have given nice chunks of minutes against the likes of Louisiana Tech and Navy, but Texas will struggle if that pair has to play 20-plus minutes each against a very talented Pittsburgh frontcourt.

Additionally, the Longhorns have found lots of easy points this year by forcing mistakes. Texas must pressure the Panther ballhandlers and look for fast break buckets. Gibbs is a talented scorer, but he’s had problems in the past with coughing it up. He seems to have settled down this year, with just under three turnovers per game, but perhaps a high-pressure approach from the Horns can give him the yips.

If Texas can force some Panther mistakes, they can also likely dictate the tempo. While it’s certainly easier to impose your will as a slower team, in past years the Longhorns have been able to make some perennially-slow opponents pick up the pace. Yes, it’s a gamble to push the pace with a short bench, and Texas is probably tired after playing an overtime game that ended just 19 hours before this one tips. But it’s much easier to win when you are playing to your own strengths, so the Longhorns should throw caution to the wind and turn this into a track meet.

As with last night’s game, the start time for tonight’s championship is going to be impacted by the consolation game that precedes it. There is typically a 20-minute window between games, so look for this one to start no earlier than 6:20 back in Texas.

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.

Texas and Pittsburgh are two of the most productive teams of the current decade. The two programs have combined to make ten appearances in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen over the last eight seasons. Over that same stretch, they have five seasons of at least 27 wins. For two programs with so much recent success, it’s a shame they have only played once, 18 years ago.

Unfortunately, tonight’s Pitt team won’t be as polished as the previous squads Coach Jamie Dixon has led during his six-plus years at the helm. The Panthers are but a shell of their former selves, as six members of last year’s Elite Eight team won’t be on the court tonight. They lost 52 points per game from last year’s lineup thanks to the departures of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, Levance Fields, and Tyrell Biggs. Jermaine Dixon, the team’s only returning starter and senior, will be unavailable after breaking his foot in September. Add in the fact that junior forward Gilbert Brown is academically ineligible this semester, and many fans won’t even be able to recognize the remaining Pitt roster.

Don’t let the new look fool you, however. Coach Dixon has always done less with more, having achieved his impressive results without the benefit of a single McDonald’s All-American recruit in his first six seasons. Just two years ago, he led the Panthers to 27 wins and an NCAA second-round appearance without Fields or Mike Cook, who both were injured. You can be sure that Pittsburgh will be well-disciplined and well-coached on the fundamentals, and should give Texas a run for their money tonight.

By the numbers

As a disciple of UCLA’s Ben Howland, Dixon is a defense-first coach whose team will get in your face and force mistakes. They love to quickly double down on the wings and the blocks, causing bad passes, charges, and travels.

This season, however, the Panthers have flipped the script. Through their first four games, it’s the offense that is leading the charge. Ranked by efficiency, the Panther attack is 14th in the country, while the defense is just 141st-best in the land. As usual, the Panther tempo stats are near the bottom of the barrel, with their 64.9 possessions per game checking in at 286th nationally.

Pitt’s biggest problem is — just like the Longhorns — at the free throw line. The Panthers have made just 62.4% of their attempts so far this year, slightly behind Texas’ 63.2% mark. If this game turns into a physical hackfest, the ensuing free throw display could very well be a crime against humanity.

Meet the Panthers

The new-look Pittsburgh team is led by sophomore combo guard Ashton Gibbs. Although he’s just in his second year, he gained valuable experience this summer on the gold-medal winning U.S. U-19 team coached by Dixon. Gibbs played so well on that squad, he worked his way up to a starting role by the end of the summer. While Gibbs is a heady floor general, he’s also a very dangerous shooter. Last year, he led the Big East in three-point percentage, and is off to another quick start this year, knocking down 42.9% of his looks.

Travon Woodall is just 5’11”, but has lightning-quick speed that more than makes up for his short stature. Starting alongside Gibbs, Woodall is the primary distributor, dishing out 28 assists through the first four games. The tiny guard has incredible court vision and is often lasering passes through tiny windows that no one else can see. He’s also fantastic on the fast break, able to dart in and out of traffic like a waterbug.

Perhaps the biggest impact player to return from last year’s team is junior Brad Wanamaker, a stocky 6’4″ guard who embodies Dixon’s intense defensive mindset. He’s not solely a one-trick pony, though, as he knows how to get to the rack and finish, to the tune of ten points per game this season. With so much talent missing from last year’s team, Wanamaker is being looked at to lead this young bunch through the tough Big East slate.

Nasir Robinson is a 6’5″ sophomore forward who can also fill the center role when Dixon wants to go with a smaller lineup. He wasn’t much of a contributor in his freshman season, but has started all four games this year. He’s responded well, posting ten points and five boards per game so far.

The key to this year’s team, though, will likely be the development of center Gary McGhee. He spent last season backing up Blair, playing less than seven minutes per game. This year, he’s being thrust into the spotlight as the team’s sole post option, and the team’s success could very well ride on how well he responds.

So far, McGhee is averaging 6.3 rebounds per game and 7.5 points. He’s not an incredibly quick guy, and his footwork still needs some improvement. Tonight should be a good test for him against the slimmed-down, more explosive Dexter Pittman.

Off the bench, the Panthers really only run three deep. Chase Adams is the first guard off the pine, and he has a history with the Longhorns. Adams is a new arrival in Pittsburgh, having transferred from Centenary, where he once faced Kevin Durant and the Horns in the Erwin Center. Back on December 28th, 2006, then-freshman Adams provided fourteen points and six assists in a losing effort against Texas. Since then, he’s improved his assist-to-TO numbers and even was named defensive player of the year in the Summit League last season thanks to 83 steals.

Freshman Dante Taylor is Dixon’s first McDonald’s All-American recruit, and his undeniable talent has earned him a bunch of early playing time. Coming out of Houston, Taylor is still working his way back from a foot injury, and will likely be even more of a force by conference play. He’s already quite impressive, though, grabbing six boards per contest in just 18 minutes per game.

Lamar Patterson rounds out the core rotation for Coach Dixon. Just a freshman, he already has an excellent basketball body at 6’5″, 220 pounds. While he’s playing just over twelve minutes a game, this swingman is already showing brief flashes of his potential. While he likely won’t make a huge impact on tonight’s game, he has a bright future ahead of him.

Keys to the game

Just like Iowa, the Panthers move the ball around very, very well. They play unselfish basketball and wear out opponents with crisp passing and great floor spacing. In a dominating 71-46 win over Binghamton, the Panthers had a ridiculous 24 assists on 27 field goals. Texas will once again have to play great team defense, communicating, rotating, and helping each other out against the precision Panther offense.

Texas will also need to earn extra possessions against a Pitt team that is ninth-best in the country when it comes to keeping opponents off the offensive glass. The Panthers can score in bunches, so the Longhorns need to get second and third chances when they fail to score.

Playing in front of a crowd that is decidedly anti-Texas also means that the Longhorns need to get ahead early. While this is technically a neutral-site game, last night’s crowd made it clear that the Sprint Center is going to be a road arena for Texas. If the Horns can take them out of it early — and not give the lead away like last night — the freshmen won’t have to deal with a hostile crowd in the waning moments of a close game.

Tonight’s tip is set for 9:15 P.M. Central, but once again it will be affected by the earlier game. Iowa and Wichita State tip off in the consolation game at 6:45, and there will be a 30 minute window between the two contests. If you’re out and about tonight, be sure to add time to the end of those DVR settings.

We’ll be hitting the road back to Austin immediately following tonight’s game, so look for a delayed post-game sometime Wednesday evening.