Now that LRT is in its third year of existence, it’s a known fact that there will be a rough stretch of traveling hidden somewhere in each season’s schedule. The first year, it was an eight day span that included trips to Stillwater, Philadelphia, and Lincoln. Last year, it was two lengthy trips via car to Norman and Iowa State just days apart.

This season, that time is right now. Fresh off the heels of a there-and-back shot to Lincoln, this weekend has given us the pleasure of a Saturday contest in Boulder followed by a tilt in College Station just two days later. It’s sometimes tough to look forward to a game when you’ve just spent nearly as many hours in a car (33) as you did in the mountain town you visited (39). It’s often even tougher to look forward to that following game on just over an hour of sleep, especially when you consider the recent losing streak Texas has enjoyed on its road trips to College Station (4). We’re certainly not complaining, but when your brain is running on sleep debt, these are the kinds of numbers that run through your head.

For now, it’s off to work where we’ll pound the energy drinks and look forward to the possibility of exorcising the Reed Arena demons that have haunted Texas. We’ll be back this afternoon with a brief refresher on the Aggies, but in the meantime you can revisit the game preview from the first match-up in Austin.

It’s easy to get excited by the 99-74 Texas victory over Oklahoma State last night. The Longhorns shot an incredible 56.9% from the field and scored their highest point total since blowing out the New Mexico State Aggies in the semifinals of the Legends Classic in 2007. A few simple lineup changes seemed to be a panacea for the offense, leading to an absolutely insane 1.379 points per possession for the Longhorns. But just days after suffering its third straight loss, is Texas truly hitting its stride?

It will be tough to know for sure, at least not until the Longhorns travel to College Station on Monday night. This weekend’s game at Colorado is a deceptive one, as the Buffaloes play a similar style to Nebraska, and the altitude in Boulder seems to always give road teams fits. The Longhorns will likely struggle, but should be expected to come away with a win. The trip to College Station, however, is another matter.

In the last four seasons, the home team has won every meeting between Texas and Texas A&M. And while the Longhorns have typically had to squeak out the victories in Austin, the Aggies have thoroughly spanked their rivals in all but one of their home wins. Only the 2006 game at A&M was competitive, as Acie Law needed a buzzer-beating three pointer to propel the Aggies to the win and eventually the NCAA tournament.

If Texas could overcome recent history and steal a road win in Reed Arena, the Longhorns would be riding a three-game winning streak, have 18 victories on the year, and still have five other contests in which to add to the resumé. Drop that game, and Texas would likely be staring another losing streak in the face with the powerhouse Sooners coming to down just six days later.

So while Texas fans might be feeling a little giddy after the dominating win last night, it’s best to temper expectations. If the Longhorns have truly made strides forward, the next two weeks could be surprisingly exciting.

We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with more detailed thoughts on the Oklahoma State mudholing.

The Longhorns return to action tonight when they host the hated Aggies in an early conference game that has significant implications for both teams. Texas A&M is finishing a tough five game stretch against the league’s top teams, and a loss would drop them a full four games behind conference leader Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Texas has played inconsistently as of late, alternating wins and losses in its last four games. If they hope to contend for a Big 12 title and a favorable NCAA draw, the Longhorns will need to start stringing together wins.

By the numbers

Coach Billy Gillispie led Texas A&M out of basketball irrelevance and into the national consciousness with a brand of hard-nosed, physical basketball. The Aggies were constantly ranked in the upper echelons of the NCAAs in defensive metrics, and they often won ugly games in the 50-point range. This Aggie team, under second-year Coach Mark Turgeon, is still playing a slower style of basketball. But the defense that often carried the Gillispie teams is no longer present.

The Aggies are averaging under 65 possessions a game, which puts them in the bottom third of the country in tempo. Texas is not much faster at 67.4 per contest, so neither team will be trying to force the other into a different brand of basketball. However, the Longhorns are a more efficient team than the Aggies on both sides of the ball. Unless Texas A&M is able to increase their number of possessions through offensive rebounding or forcing turnovers, Texas wins this game on paper.

If you were to look at raw rebounding numbers, it would seem that the Aggies are a strong rebounding team that dominates on the glass. After all, they have outrebounded opponents by over four boards per game. But against quality competition, Texas A&M is struggling to win the battle. They are being slightly outrebounded in conference play, and were even dominated 20-5 in the first half against a marginal Arizona team back in December. For a Longhorns squad that is winning the battle on the boards by more than five per game, this could be an area to exploit in tonight’s contest.

The starting five

The leading scorer for Texas A&M is swingman Josh Carter, who is an absolutely deadly long-range threat. While he has never matched his ridiculous sophomore season, when he tied for the national lead by hitting 50% from behind the arc, Carter still makes 38% of his attempts. But despite his solid stroke, the senior has been frustrated in conference play, averaging less than 10 points per contest, including a goose egg against Oklahoma State. He has lit the Longhorns up in the past, so Texas certainly cannot afford to sleep on Carter in this one. But if he fails to revert to his early-season form, it could be a long night for the Aggies.

At the point is heady junior Donald Sloan. While he spent much of last year being saddled with the unrealistic expectations Acie Law had left behind in College Station, Sloan still provided enough steady leadership to get Texas A&M within a shot of the Sweet Sixteen. Unfortunately for the floor general, there’s no true go-to guy in this offense and the Aggies can go very long stretches of time without a basket. Early in games against both Kansas and Oklahoma State, Texas A&M struggled to put any points on the board, and it is difficult for Sloan to carry the team on his own. When he does try to press and do things by himself, it often results in dumb turnovers. If Sloan can keep his head on straight and control the basketball, the Aggies will have a good shot in tonight’s game.

While Texas A&M lacks that one stand-out player, they are enjoying quality contributions from their post players. Bryan Davis is having a great year, averaging over ten points and six rebounds per game. He’s also added to his arsenal of post moves and can now score just about every way possible within a few feet of the bucket. Chinemelu Elonu has also made great strides this year, becoming a much more important part of the offense. He logged a career-high 20 points against Oklahoma State in the conference opener, and leads the team in double-doubles.

Derrick Roland is another long-range threat for Coach Turgeon, but his true specialty is lock-down defense. While Texas A&M’s main weakness this year has been giving up the three-pointer, the Longhorns have failed to find any true gunners beyond A.J. Abrams. If Roland is able to neutralize Texas’ main three-point weapon, this one glaring weakness in the A&M defense will likely go unexposed.

Off the bench

Sophomore guard B.J. Holmes is making huge contributions off the bench, and is easily my pick for Sixth Man of the Year in the Big 12 Conference. He’s a very quick guard who can attack the rim, but his 38% accuracy from behind the arc makes it dangerous for teams to sag off of him. When the Aggies are having trouble scoring with their experienced starting five, Holmes is usually the man providing the spark and pushing the issue. The Longhorns will certainly have their hands full trying to contain this kid.

If freshmen Dash Harris and David Loubeau are any indication of the talent that Turgeon is going to be bringing to College Station over the next few years, Aggie fans have a lot to look forward to. Like Holmes, Harris is a very quick guard who can turn on that burst of speed at a moment’s notice. He’s still having trouble with decision making, but as he gains experience in conference play, he will be a very valuable weapon off the bench.

Loubeau is a very lanky, highly-touted forward from Miami who won two national championships with his AAU team. He still needs to bulk up if he’s going to withstand the rigors of Big 12 play, but his hook shot and short- to mid-range game mean that he is going to be a tough match-up for many forwards who aren’t used to defending players like him.

The final word

By all indications, this is a home game that the Longhorns should win. They are statistically better in virtually every category, and home court advantage in college basketball is huge. The only danger is that Texas has had a tendency to play down to the level of their opponent this season, so they could easily let Texas A&M hang around for far too long. And against an Aggie team that beat Arizona in the final seconds and tied Alabama in the last second before winning in overtime, that’s a risk that Texas cannot afford to take.

The Longhorns must come out early and put points on the board to keep A&M and their struggling offense at a manageable distance. They will need to continue their solid rebounding, and should look to force mistakes by point guard Sloan in order to collect easy transition buckets.

There are still a few tickets left for this one, which are only available for purchase in person at the Erwin Center box office. If you can’t manage to make it to the Drum, however, be sure to tune into ESPNU for all the action.

#4 Pittsburgh Panthers 78, #8 Syracuse Orange 60 – Pitt bounced back from their first loss of the season in convincing fashion, blasting the visiting Orange at the Pete on ESPN’s Big Monday. The Panthers were able to overcome Andy Rautin‘s five three-pointers by dominating on the glass, outrebounding their opponents by a 37-24 margin. DeJuan Blair was an unstoppable force, posting 20 and 12, while Sam Young came alive in the second half to lead the team with 22 points.

Kansas Jayhawks 73, Texas A&M Aggies 53 – The Aggies were the last visiting team to win in Allen Fieldhouse, all the way back in February of 2007. But Texas A&M stole that game behind the heroics of Acie Law, who they sorely missed in last night’s contest. The Jayhawks owned this rematch from start to finish, thoroughly dominating the contest much more than the 20-point margin would indicate. The Kansas D forced 20 turnovers on the night and held every single Aggie player to eight points or less.

If you happened to check the website yesterday (or have LRT’s feed set up on your RSS reader), you may have noticed our quiet and unassuming return to coverage. For the rest of you, chances are you won’t even notice the return for another few days…or more. But this is the time of year when everyone tries to make changes in their lives, and the ones we’re making are allowing more time for writing. We can’t promise things will be as consistent as last season, when there was content here on a daily basis. But we can promise that we are damned sure going to try.

The recruiting bonanza continues for Rick Barnes and the Longhorns, as they’ve now secured a verbal commitment from 2011 point guard prospect Myck Kabongo, beating out the likes of Villanova, Kansas, and Florida. The high school sophomore is a teammate of 2010 Texas commit Tristan Thompson, but he credits Barnes and assistant Rodney Terry with selling him on the program. This verbal is just the latest in a string of recruiting successes for the Longhorns, who have already inked one of 2009’s top classes in Avery Bradley, Jordan Hamilton, and Shawn Williams, in addition to landing Florida transfer Jai Lucas for next season. When you throw in Thompson and fellow ’10 commit Daniel Bejarano, it seems that Texas will be loaded for years to come.

While Gallagher-Iba Arena is certainly never an easy place to play, Texas A&M might have lost a huge opportunity when they stumbled there on Saturday. The defeat came in the conference opener for the Aggies, who now have a murderous four-game stretch approaching that could easily sink their aspirations for a league title. Mark Turgeon’s squad hosts a salty Baylor squad tomorrow night before the Sooners come to town this weekend, but then also must travel to Lawrence and Austin the following week to take on the Jayhawks and Longhorns. For a Texas A&M team that has hardly been tested in non-conference play, this opening slate will truly be a trial by fire.

Kansas JuCo transfer Mario Little won’t take a medical redshirt this year, despite missing the first twelve games of the season. The guard has seen limited action in three games, including a lightning-quick foul-out in East Lansing this weekend. But with the hardship option still on the table until tonight’s game against Kansas State, Little informed Coach Self of his intentions to finish out the season. The decision will give Sherron Collins some much-needed veteran help in a backcourt that starts freshmen Brady Morningstar and Tyshawn Taylor.