Home games against mid-major opponents haven’t been that enjoyable for Texas or its fans in recent weeks. Against Rice, the Longhorns barely escaped with a three-point victory. Days later, a 21-point win over Lamar was marred by sloppy, uninspired basketball. This afternoon, Texas finally did what it was supposed to do against an overmatched opponent, dispatching Texas State with ease.

At first, it seemed like the Longhorns still hadn’t recovered from the beating USC laid on them just six days earlier. Texas allowed Texas State far too many easy looks out of the gate, and the Bobcats made their first five shots en route to an early 10-9 lead. The Longhorns were struggling against the zone as well, taking three of their first four shots from behind the arc, while making just one of them.

The struggles were short-lived, however, as the Horns surged past the Bobcats and never looked back. Texas State managed to stay within three points of Texas for the first 13 minutes of the game, but that was as close as they would get. A 16-4 run closed out the half for the Longhorns, who put on a scoring clinic throughout the final 20 minutes. All three Texas walk-ons even managed to see action in the final two minutes, with Andy Dick‘s runner pushing the Horns over the century mark for a 101-65 win.

What looked good

The offensive outburst for Texas was fueled by a bevy of three-pointers. The Longhorns were 11-for-19 from behind the arc, and the success was a result of smart, patient basketball. The Longhorns moved the ball around well, kicked it out when driving lanes were cut off, and didn’t force up bad shots.

Many times this season, Texas players have dribbled the air out of the ball before taking bad shots — particularly from behind the arc — and wasting possessions. This afternoon, the only long-range bombs coming off the dribble were a result of good ball screens to free up Cory Joseph and J’Covan Brown. In fact, the only “bad” look from behind the arc was one that Brown was forced to put up just before the shot clock expired.

In addition to taking and making open threes, the Longhorns destroyed the Texas State zone with the help of Gary Johnson‘s midrange game. He made a handful of jumpers throughout the first half and headed to the locker room as the team’s top scorer with ten points. His ability to find soft spots in the middle of the zone and then calmly knock down those jumpers is going to be important this season as teams try to test the Texas shooters with the 2-3 look. It’s also worth noting that Johnson added nine boards to his 14 points, including some scrappy work on the offensive glass when Texas was struggling in the early minutes of the game.

The win also marked yet another career-high for the freshman Joseph, who chipped in 19 on 7-of-11 shooting, including an eye-popping 5-of-8 from behind the arc. Cory started off the year slowly, averaging just over six points per game through the first four contests. It was clear that he wasn’t quite comfortable enough to embrace the scoring-point role that people had hyped for him coming out of high school. But Joseph has quickly adjusted to the college game and his role with this team, as he’s doubled his scoring average to 12.8 over the last five games.

Perhaps lost amidst the three-point barrage was the fact that Jordan Hamilton quietly had one of his best games of the year. He may not have led the team with a 20-plus point performance, but he played great team basketball across the board. Hamilton did manage to score 16 points on the afternoon, but also grabbed 10 boards and dished out five assists. He took the open three when it presented itself, but often he was attacking off the dribble from the wings, forcing the Texas State defense to react. When it didn’t lead to good looks at the rim, Hamilton was able to quickly shovel it to waiting teammates in the paint and on the blocks. If Jordan can play this unselfishly throughout the year, the Longhorns will be a better team.

What needed work

On defense, the Longhorns had a glaring weakness in the post. It was far too easy for Texas State to toss lob passes in to their big men. If Texas is going to overplay the passing lane in an effort to deny the entry, there has to be help defense on those lobs. Time and again, the Bobcat big men were able to catch the ball in mid-turn and lay it in with no resistance. The Longhorns need to be more alert when off the ball on defense so they can react quicker in help situations.

The Texas forwards also picked up too many fouls on fadeaway jumpers. The Longhorn frontcourt was generally doing a good job of standing tall when the Texas State forwards were trying to face up or make a move with their backs to the basket. Unfortunately, Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill then erased all of their good defensive work by bailing out the opposition with weak fouls on those fadeaway Js. The Horns need to let their opponents take those low-percentage shots and work on establishing good position to rebound the inevitable misses.

Finally, our “What needed work” section can never be complete without a few sentences about free throws. As a team, the Horns shot 66.7% from the line this afternoon. That’s a slight improvement over the team’s season average, but still below the nation’s median. Once again, the bulk of the issues came from Tristan Thompson, who was 4-for-9. His difficulties at the line are likely never going to change, but for a player who has a free-throw rate above 108 — meaning he actually attempts more free throws than field goals — a free-throw percentage of 48.4% is just not going to cut it.

Next up: vs. North Florida (4-5); Tuesday, 7 P.M. CT

In what has become an annual tradition, Texas and Texas State meet once again in a game dubbed by some as the I-35 Series. Considering that the highway runs from Laredo to Duluth, MN, it doesn’t seem like that would be a very original name. But I digress.

Both teams are reeling as they head into this afternoon’s contest, although the troubles are much worse in San Marcos. The Bobcats come in on a three-game losing streak, including a home loss to the NAIA’s Our Lady of the Lake. In that one, the Bobcats needed a 73-point second half to overcome a 20-point halftime deficit, but still fell just short in overtime.

For the Longhorns, today can erase the bitter taste of the team’s worst outing of the season, an embarrassing 73-56 loss at USC on Sunday. The Longhorns were outplayed in every facet of the game, as the Trojans shut down the Texas offense and scored at will. Texas shouldn’t have any problems with the Bobcats this afternoon, so this one should be a chance to work on everything that went wrong last Sunday.

By the numbers

In each of the four years that Doug Davalos has been at the helm for the Bobcats, Texas State has been one of the five fastest teams in college basketball. In fact, in his second season back in 2007-08, the Bobcats had the quickest adjusted tempo in Division I college hoops, cramming more than 80 possessions into each game. This year, the team is currently ranked 6th in the nation, as the Bobcats have 75 possessions per ballgame. With Texas also checking in to the top 50 nationally in tempo, these two teams will certainly log a few miles as they sprint up and down the court.

Unfortunately for Texas State, they don’t score that frequently. Their offensive efficiency numbers are in the bottom third of Division I basketball, with the team scoring just 0.961 points per possession. The only place the Bobcats can consistently score is in the paint, where they have one of the best and deepest frontcourts in the Southland Conference. When they don’t get the ball inside, though, look out. Texas State is making just 24% of their three-point attempts and are an abysmal 57.8% from the line as a team.

That strong frontcourt does mean that the Bobcats reclaim a lot of their missess off the glass. Texas State has grabbed over 39% of their offensive rebounding chances so far this season, but so far their most challenging opponent has been North Texas. The Bobcats likely won’t see the same success on the glass today, but should still score their fair share of points on putbacks.

Meet the Bobcats

Thanks to the up-tempo approach of Coach Davalos, the Bobcat bench earns a ton of playing time. This year, Texas State is running 10 deep, with all players seeing the court for at least 14.5 minutes a game. Even the busiest Bobcats don’t play for more than 26 minutes per game, so it will be tough for fans and broadcasters to keep up with all of the new faces shuffling in and out of the lineup.

That strong Texas State froncourt is anchored by Cameron Johnson, a 6’7″ senior forward who can score in a variety of ways. He can face up on opposing forwards, bang inside for his points, and is securing 5.8 rebounds a night. In a 33-point loss to Texas last year, Johnson struggled mightily, going 0-for-11 from the field in just 14 minutes of play.

Fellow senior Tony Bishop has also come on strong this year, taking the team lead in both points and boards. The 6’6″ Bishop is averaging a double-double at this point, logging 13.5 points to go with 10.5 rebounds each game.

A.J. Stewart is yet another forward who is contributing for Coach Davalos, as he’s averaging 10.8 points per game. He started his career at Kentucky before transferring to Texas State and redshirting during his year of ineligibility. He’s yet to start a game this season, but is still playing nearly 20 minutes a night. Although the Bobcats are already getting great production from Stewart, it’s scary to think of what he’ll do next season as the sole superstar in the frontcourt.

Stewart is joined by another pair of transfers in Eddie Rios and Travis Jones. Now a junior, Rios faced the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament as a member of the Miami Hurricanes in March of 2008. The guard had just three points in his ten minutes off the bench, but also dished out three assists for Miami coach Frank Haith, a former Longhorn assistant.

Jones, meanwhile, came to San Marcos with a reputation as a scorer at Lon Morris, and he’s fitting the bill so far. He’s averaging 8.3 points per game, good for fourth on the team, despite coming off the bench in two games. The 6’7″ swingman has made just about 30% of his three-pointers this year, but the real long-range threat for Texas State is John Bowman. The only player to started every game this season, Bowman has made 46% of his threes this year. After a season in which he struggled to a 27.8% mark from behind the arc, the hot start is a welcome sight for Bobcat fans.

Ryan White, Jonathan Sloan, and J.B. Conley all came off the bench against the Longhorns last year, combining for 18 points and 11 boards. This year, Sloan is the starting center and is averaging eight points and nearly six rebounds a night. Conley, who led Texas State in scoring when they played the Longhorns last season, has seen his minutes diminish to just about 14 per game. White, on the other hand, has played so well at the point that he’s earning the most minutes on the Bobcat roster. He’s only scoring about eight points a night, but his mediocre 1.68-to-1 TO-to-assist ratio is actually best on the team.

Keys to the game

Against the Bobcats, there’s absolutely no reason the Longhorns should struggle. Due to the up-tempo approach of the Bobcats, Texas may see some issues with fatigue late in the game, but the result should be well in hand by that point. What’s most important, then, is that Texas improve upon the issues that have cropped up over the last two weeks.

1) Will the Longhorns take smarter shots? – For Jordan Hamilton, shot selection needs to improve. He shot just 31% from the field in the last three games, and a big part of that was a regression to his freshman-year form, where he forced up bad shots against good defense. Tonight, Jordan needs to shoot in the flow of the offense and not try to play one-on-five basketball. The same can be said for J’Covan Brown, who started off hot against USC, but continued shooting when the looks weren’t there. Brown was just 1-of-9 from the field in the second half.

2) Has the frontcourt defense improved? – The Longhorns should be challenged this afternoon by a deep and skilled group of Bobcat big men. While Texas State certainly doesn’t have forwards as talented as USC’s Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stephenson, the Longhorn frontcourt still needs to show some improvement on defense. If Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill can’t hold the Texas State forwards one-on-one, will the Longhorns adjust to make things more difficult? They certainly didn’t on Sunday, and they will need to do so in the near future. Today provides a great opportunity for a practice run.

3) Can the defense force mistakes? – We will also be watching to see if the Longhorns can force mistakes by the Bobcats. Texas has not forced many turnovers this year, as their defensive TO rate is just 19.7%. That ranks near the bottom third of D-I basketball, and it simply won’t cut it when the Longhorns face more talented teams down the stretch. The Bobcats, meanwhile, have been pretty sloppy with the ball, turning it over 22.5% of the time. If Texas can’t force mistakes by a team that’s careless with the ball, there’s little chance they’ll do it against well-disciplined offenses in the future.