The Texas Longhorns return to action at the Erwin Center tonight after a tough weekend in New Jersey. Despite holding second-half leads of eight and 18 at the IZOD Center, Texas stumbled down the stretch against both Oregon State and N.C. State, leaving East Rutherford with a pair of frustrating losses.

Fortunately, the Longhorns now have a pair of winnable games at the Erwin Center to rebuild their confidence before taking on UCLA next weekend. The team opens its short homestand tonight against Sam Houston State, a school that is winless in its four Division I games this season.

By the numbers

No matter how you slice it, the numbers aren’t pretty this year for Coach Jason Hooten and the Bearkats. According to stats guru Ken Pomeroy, Sam Houston State’s adjusted offensive efficiency is one of the 30 worst in all of Division I hoops.

The reasons behind the team’s struggle to put the ball in the basket are numerous. The Bearkats turn it over on 26.7% of their possessions, and are 32nd-worst in the nation when it comes to getting to the free-throw line. For a Texas team that sent Oregon State and N.C. State to the free throw line repeatedly in New Jersey, this statistic is a welcome one.

Sam Houston State is also struggling from long range, where they have made just 22.9% of their threes, the 14th-worst mark in Divison I. The Longhorns experimented with zone defense when they ran into foul trouble in New Jersey, and there’s no doubt that a team struggling this much from long range provides the perfect opportunity for the Horns to work on their zone at game speeds.

The three-point line has also been unkind to Sam Houston State on the defensive end. The Bearkats have faced four D-I opponents so far, and those teams knocked down more than 41% of their looks from behind the arc. Marksmen J’Covan Brown and Julien Lewis should be licking their chops.

Meet the Bearkats

To say that Sam Houston State is rebuilding this season would probably be a tad bit generous. The Bearkats lost four starters from last year’s team and return just three scholarship players. On a team filled with freshmen and junior college transfers, the returning players have accounted for just 23.3% of the team’s minutes so far this year.

The already-thin lineup took a major hit when Antuan Bootle, the team’s lone returning starter, was sidelined by a broken foot during the first week of the season and will be out of action for at least another four weeks. Last season, he led all Bearkat scorers when they faced Texas, just missing a double-double with his 16-point, nine-rebound line.

Big man Steven Werner will also likely miss tonight’s game after injuring his foot on Monday against Mercer. Werner was the team’s second-leading rebounder, averaging 6.7 boards per game. He was also third on the team in scoring, chalking up an average of 8.7 points.

While injuries have forced the Bearkats to get creative with the lineup, the team has received steady leadership from newcomer Konner Tucker. A transfer who played six games for Wake Forest, Tucker was also a juco stud at Lon Morris in Jacksonville, Texas. Averaging 34 minutes per game so far, Tucker leads the team with just under 11 points per game. Although the junior guard is “sneaky quick” in the words of his head coach, his paltry 22% success rate behind the arc means that opposing defenses can sag off and make it tougher for Tucker to blow by them.

The player most impacted by the injury shuffle is senior Marcus James, who has had to slide from the wing to the post in Werner’s absence. The 6’7″ Connecticut native had his own injury issues in the offseason, breaking a wrist playing pickup games back home. Fully healed, he’s now second on the team in scoring with 10.2 points per game and is averaging more than five rebounds.

At the point, junior Darius Gatson has stepped right into the role of floor leader. A juco transfer from Trinity Valley, the 5’11” guard is the only player on the team with more than 10 assists so far this season. Unfortunately, he has had some growing pains since jumping to D-I basketball, shooting less than 30% from the field while turning it over 13 times.

The Bearkats are also getting some immediate contributions from freshman Michael Holyfield and sophomore transfer Demarcus Gatlin. Out of New Mexico, Holyfield checks in at 6’11” and is unsurprisingly the team’s best rebounder, grabbing more than seven per game. Gatlin, who played his first season at Navarro, has started all five games and is averaging more than 27 minutes. He’s still working to find his footing, though, as he’s shooting just 24% from the field — 11% from behind the arc — and has 17 turnovers.

Off the bench, 6’9″ Aaron Thompson is chipping in valuable frontcourt minutes. One of the three returning scholarship players for Coach Hooten, Thompson is averaging more than 17 minutes per game but has scored only 14 points to date. Against Texas last season, the big man hardly saw the floor, logging just a turnover and rebound in his two minutes of action.

Coach Hooten also has a pair of backcourt reserves in Aaron Harwell and walk-on Marquel McKinney. Both have come off the bench in all five games, combining to average 2.9 points in roughly 25 minutes per game. Harwell arrives in Huntsville from Centenary College in Louisiana, a school that just transitioned from Division I to Division III, allowing the sophomore to be immediately eligible for Sam Houston State.

Keys to the game

Although Texas is going to have its struggles this season, there’s simply no reason why the Horns should lose this game. Instead, tonight’s match-up provides good opportunity to work on the issues that cropped up in New Jersey and get the team ready for big tests in the coming weeks from UCLA, Temple, and North Carolina. With that in mind, here are three things we’ll be watching.

1) How does J’Covan Brown respond? – Brown’s exit from the Legends Classic was an abrupt and unceremonious one, as his personal foul and nearly-immediate technical foul were the catalysts for a Texas meltdown against N.C. State. Before that, he was dominant, scoring 17 points while, in the words of Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried, “slic[ing] us up like a side of fries.”

The words from Coach Barnes in the post-game presser weren’t that kind to Brown. He questioned the junior guard’s maturity and put him on notice in a very public setting. Against an overmatched Sam Houston State squad, Brown will need to pick up where he left off and also show poise when he feels foul calls are unwarranted.

2) Can Myck Kabongo regroup? – With Brown out of the game against the Wolfpack, it looked like Kabongo had suddenly misplaced his superhero cape. While Myck has struggled all season with finishing at the rim, he was suddenly unable to create any offense with the dribble and the Longhorns stalled out. Not only will we be watching to see how Kabongo looks with Brown back on the floor, but we’ll also be keeping an eye on how the offense works when the reigns are solely his to hold.

3) Can the Longhorns play defense without fouling? – As mentioned previously, the Bearkats are a perfect matchup for a Texas team that piled up the fouls in New Jersey. Rick Barnes is always a defense-first coach, and there’s no doubt he’s frustrated with his team’s inability to stop its opponents so far this year. Against a struggling Bearkat team, can Texas get back to the kind of defensive dominance it showed against Boston U in the season opener?

The consistent storyline this season has been the youth of the Texas Longhorns. How quickly would this young team produce, and how soon would the freshmen mature? On Monday night in New Jersey, it turned out to be the team’s junior leader who had a costly moment of immaturity.

The Longhorns built a lead as large as 18 points against N.C. State in the second half. The Wolfpack had clawed back to within 13 points with just 8:25 to play. That’s when J’Covan Brown and the Longhorns unraveled. Whistled for his fourth foul, Brown said it was “bullshit” on his way to the bench and was tagged with a technical foul, which was also his fifth personal. His night was over, and so were the hopes for a Longhorn victory.

North Carolina State seized the momentum and stormed back, turning the remaining 13-point deficit into an eight-point lead in less than six minutes. The Texas offense stalled out, earning just two points during the meltdown, with both coming at the free throw line.

The Longhorns managed to wake up and stay competitive in the final minutes, but it was too late. A potential game-tying three pointer from Julien Lewis was slapped away as time expired. Although the ball was on its downward flight when it was blocked, it was well short and already below the iron, sending Texas home with an 0-2 record in New Jersey.

What looked good

For the first thirty minutes, the Longhorn offense was clicking. Early on, the freshmen were the ones lighting up the scoreboard, as Brown took more than 12 minutes to log his first bucket. Jonathan Holmes was aggressive from the start, scoring the team’s first seven points. He was confident with the ball and tenacious on the glass, finishing the night with 16 points and eight boards.

Texas’ early success was built on smart basketball, with the first five buckets all coming after an assist. The Longhorns moved the ball well, kept N.C. State on its heels, and looked for the open teammates for easy finishes. Although Brown’s early exit limited him to just 28 minutes on the floor, the junior was again the major facilitator, dishing out seven dimes to go with his 17 points.

Sheldon McClellan also had another solid game for Texas, consistently putting the ball on the floor and driving to the paint. His aggressive play earned him seven trips to the line, and he knocked down five freebies, finishing with 16 points. The freshman logged 28 points and eight rebounds in his two games in East Rutherford and was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Perhaps the biggest thing for the Longhorns was that they won the rebounding battle for a second straight game. Even more importantly, they did their best job on the defensive glass all season, allowing a very talented N.C. State frontcourt to win just 27.6% of their offensive rebounding chances. In the first three games, Texas had not held an opponent below 41% on the offensive glass.

The Longhorns also continued their success at the free-throw line, knocking down 76% of their attempts. Unfortunately, the team missed three out of five in the minutes following Brown’s foul-out, including the front end of a one-and-one. With the offense struggling so much during the N.C. State run, missing the freebies only made things worse.

It was also encouraging to see solid defensive efforts from the Texas big men early on. Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman both blocked a shot in the first few minutes of the game, and Wangmene frustrated the Wolfpack’s Richard Howell, setting the tone early with sound post defense.

What needed work

Obviously the most glaring issue in this one was a lack of maturity by Brown. He claimed after the game that his words weren’t directed at the referee and were said when he was almost to the bench. Regardless of the where or why, he cannot even put himself in a situation where he could be misunderstood. The simple fact of the matter is that he has to know better.

His coach said as much in his post-game comments. “That’s where he’s gotta grow up,” Barnes told the media. “This happens too much. Sooner or later he’s going to have to figure it out. It’s a team game. It’s not about him.”

Unfortunately, Myck Kabongo and the rest of the Longhorns went into their turtle shells after Brown left the game. The Texas offense deteriorated into weak attempts at dribble penetration, followed by taking the air out of the ball at the perimeter when those drives were turned away. Earlier in the season, Kabongo was able to put the ball on the floor and create offense. After Brown’s departure, it looked like the freshman point guard had completely forgotten how.

That disappearing act by the Kabongo coupled with the frightened play of Sterling Gibbs against Oregon State is huge cause for concern. If Texas has no other guards to step up in Brown’s absence, any foul trouble for the junior will spell disaster for the Longhorns. It wouldn’t even be that surprising to see future opponents get a little chirpy in Brown’s ear in an effort to set him off and eliminate Texas’ leadership.

In addition to Brown’s maturity issues, the Longhorns have to be concerned with how careless the team was with the ball early. Texas turned it over seven times in the first 12 minutes of play, but still managed to hold a five-point lead. Most frustrating was the fact that many of the turnovers were simple miscommunications or lazy passes when the Wolfpack had little or no pressure on the ball. Fortunately, Texas was able to calm down and only turn it over six more times the rest of the game, but their miscues still led to 21 points for the opposition.

Texas also continued to have difficulties with foul trouble. Every Longhorn outside of Gibbs picked up at least three fouls, and the team drew 28 whistles in total. The team’s defensive free throw rate was an improbable 100%, meaning that the Wolfpack took as many shots at the line as it did from the field.

There’s something to be said about the fact that N.C. State was in the bonus before the first media timeout of the second half. But at the same time, the Longhorns have to be cognizant of the fact that they have a short bench and they must play defense with their feet rather than their hands. We saw quite a bit of zone from Texas in New Jersey when foul trouble began to build, and there might be a lot more of that in the future if the Horns cannot play man-to-man defense without drawing whistles.

The big picture

While losing two second half leads to drop two consecutive games is annoying in its own right, these defeats are even more frustrating when considered in a larger context. The Longhorns have a tough round-robin schedule awaiting them in conference play, and precede that with road trips to UCLA and UNC. Quality wins are going to be tough to come by, and for a team that is likely going to be on bubble watch all season long, these two losses are squandered opportunities.

N.C. State and Oregon State are both teams that will likely surprise people in their conferences. The Pac-12 appears to be wide open outside of a strong Cal squad, while the ACC is top heavy with North Carolina, Duke, and Florida State leading the charge. A win in either game this weekend would have looked very good come March. Now, Texas will have to wait to build its résumé.

Next up: vs. Sam Houston State (1-2); Saturday, 7 P.M. CT

On Saturday night, Texas fans got their first taste of the nausea and heartburn caused by rooting for a young, inexperienced team. In the semifinals of the TicketCity Legends Classic, the Longhorns failed to execute in the final minutes, allowing Oregon State to force overtime and eventually escape with a 100-95 win.

The team had little time to dwell on the loss, as less than 48 hours later they square off against a formidable NC State team in the consolation game. The Wolfpack was expected to be rebuilding this year under new coach Mark Gottfried, but have looked impressive in the first two weeks of the season and could make some noise in a top-heavy ACC this year.

By the numbers

NC State has been an enigmatic team so far this year, as suspensions and injuries have made it difficult for Coach Gottfried to find his optimal lineup. He’s utilized seven different starters so far this year, and it’s just a matter of time until sophomore star C.J. Leslie ups that number to eight with his first appearance in the starting five.

The Wolfpack’s strength lies in a talented frontcourt, which allows them to grab nearly 40% of their missed shots and score at will in and around the paint. NC State is shooting 57.1% from inside the arc, with 166 of their 314 points (52.9%) coming in the paint. It’s not just the big men putting back missed shots, though, as the guards and wings are incredibly adept at drawing the defense with penetration and dumping it underneath or kicking it out for open midrange jumpers.

Defensively, the team’s two weaknesses are perimeter defense and a tendency to send opponents to the free throw line. Fortunately for the Longhorns, they have been solid this season both behind the arc and at the charity stripe. Wolfpack opponents are shooting 42.9% from long range and have made at least eight three-pointers in every game.

The Wolfpack also has a defensive free-throw rate that ranks in the bottom third of D-I hoops. The Longhorns, meanwhile, are in the top 75 offensively in that category, so they could find success today by being aggressive with the dribble and attacking the defense. That approach could yield twice the success, as it not only would pile up the points, but also could put the Wolfpack bigs in foul trouble and level the playing field.

Meet the Wolfpack

The floor general for NC State is sophomore guard Lorenzo Brown, who was recruited as a shooting guard but has made a smooth transition to lead ballhandler. He still scores at will as his 11.8-point scoring average attests, but his 7-plus assists per game keep the offense clicking. Brown’s assist rate of 35.8% is currently second in the ACC, behind only UNC’s Kendall Marshall.

The true star of the team, though, is sophomore sensation C.J. Leslie, who made his debut against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. Leslie’s season started late as a result of receiving $410 in impermissible benefits, which he had to repay to charity. The NCAA dinged the sophomore for accepting $260 from a student so his brother could pay the application fee for an apartment and for borrowing another student’s car for a week, which the NCAA figured would have cost $150 as a rental.

With three games to cool his heels and watch the team, Leslie was ready to go against the ‘Dores. He scored 20 points in 27 minutes off the bench, shooting a blazing 77.8% from the field. The 6’8″ forward and McDonald’s All-American is a truly elite talent, but might not be quite up to game shape yet. In the final minutes of the loss to Vanderbilt, Leslie cramped up and had to leave the game temporarily to down fluids and get stretched out on the sideline.

Senior wing C.J. Williams is known for his defensive tenacity, but he’s still averaging 11 points per game so far this season. With former point guard Ryan Harrow’s transfer to Kentucky, Williams also gives Coach Gottfried another ballhandler to compliment Brown. He also does a solid job rebounding from the wing, as his 17 boards are third-best on the team.

The leader in that department is junior Richard Howell. He’s currently averaging a double-double for the Wolfpack, scoring 16.3 points per game to go with 10.3 rebounds. Conditioning issues limited his minutes last season, so the 6’8″ big man dropped 15 pounds in the offseason and has seen his playing time increase to more than 27 minutes per game this season.

Joining Howell inside is fellow junior DeShawn Painter. The 6’9″ center can stretch out the defense with a solid midrange jump shot and has even knocked down a couple from just inside the arc earlier this year. Down low, he’s especially good at sealing off his defender and immediately demanding the ball. The versatile Painter will prove to be a very difficult matchup for the Longhorns tonight.

Another player who can stretch the defense is Indiana native Scott Wood. He started three games before spraining his ankle in a win over Princeton on Wednesday and was forced to sit out against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. His status for tonight’s game is unknown, but if he is on the court, Texas will have to stick to him like glue. Wood made more than 40% of his looks from beyond the arc last season, and was an incredible 58.3% from long range before his injury this year.

NC State has a solid reserve guard in Alex Johnson, a transfer from Cal State Bakersfield who is eligible to play immediately as a graduate student. He brings hard-nosed defense to the team and gives the coaching staff another quality ballhandler to spell Brown. The experienced 5’10” guard is playing more than 30 minutes a game despite coming off the bench in all four games, and his quick hands have logged six steals so far.

Freshman forward Tyler Harris is slowly adjusting to the college game, but he has a lot to prove tonight in front of his friends from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey. The younger brother of former Tennessee star Tobias Harris, Tyler is a good outside shooter, but has looked uncomfortable so far this year. He’s bound to have a breakthrough game soon, so the ‘Horns will have to hope it doesn’t come against them.

The final piece of the core rotation is seven-footer Jordan Vandenberg. The Australian import is still a little raw and his lateral movement is slow and choppy on defense, but his height is an undeniable game changer. When he plays solid defense and stands tall, opponents have a very, very difficult time scoring in the post.

Vandenberg will have another frontcourt reserve joining him tonight, as NC State announced this afternoon that Belgian product Thomas de Thaey‘s amateur certification has been cleared by the NCAA and he will be available against Texas. The 6’8″ big man adds even more depth and size to the Wolfpack roster.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that NC State has one of the best-named, seldom-used players in the country with Staats Battle, whose name sounds like a Swedish advertisement for a throwdown between Ken Pomeroy and John Gasaway.

Keys to the game

1) Limit interior scoring – If Wood is back in action tonight, this will be a very tough task for the Longhorns. His three-point prowess stretches the defense and opens things up inside for the talented NC State frontcourt. Without Wood, however, the Pack becomes much more one-dimensional. Take away his 58.3% mark from behind the arc, and NC State is just 24.5% from three-point range. Without that threat, Texas will be free to zone the Wolfpack, but will have to communicate very well, as NC State moves the ball quickly.

2) Minimize second-chance points – Defensive rebounding has been a glaring issue for the Longhorns through the first three games, and unfortunately the solid NCSU frontcourt does a great job of getting back their missed shots. The Wolfpack reclaimed at least 39% of their missed shots in each of their three wins, but struggled when Vanderbilt kept them off the glass. Gottfried was frustrated by the contact inside, and it was clear his team was too. Texas will certainly not be as successful as Vanderbilt was, but if they can limit the damage from extended possessions, it will only help their chances tonight.

3) Keep J’Covan Brown involved – Brown had a tough second half and overtime against Oregon State, scoring just eight of his 25 points during that stretch. When he’s on his game and lighting up the scoreboard, the rest of the team is also elevated. Defenses have to sell out to stop his drives, which has allowed him to dish out a team-leading 23 assists. Texas must work to keep him involved for the entire 40 minutes tonight.

Keeping up with the game

As it was on Saturday night, this one is airing exclusively on Longhorn Network and streaming online at ESPN3.com. If you don’t have either of those options available to you (or you just want additional commentary), you can also follow along with our live updates from the IZOD Center via Twitter @LonghornRdTrip.

The Longhorns had a fresh-faced 23-year old on the bench Saturday night. He sat with graduate assistants Connor Atchley, Royal Ivey, and Chris Mihm. He listened in from the back of team huddles. He even pulled freshman point guard Myck Kabongo aside for a few quick pointers. About the only thing Kevin Durant didn’t do at the IZOD Center last night was check into the ballgame. Coach Rick Barnes probably wishes that the NBA superstar could have.

With the most famous face of the Texas basketball program looking on, this year’s young batch of Longhorns surrendered a late lead and lost to Oregon State in overtime, 100-95, in the semifinals of the TicketCity Legends Classic. It was a script that likely seemed all too familiar for Durant, as his 2006-07 Texas squad lost their own November tournament semifinal to Michigan State on a last-second shot from Drew Neitzel.

For this year’s team, the well-known weaknesses of depth and rebounding came home to roost. Five Longhorns fouled out in the game, forcing little-used walk-on Andrew Dick to check in for action in the final seconds of action.

Unfortunately, it never had to come to that point. The Longhorns had the game in hand with less than 30 seconds left. Up by two points, J’Covan Brown missed a three as the shot clock expired and managed to race across the top of the key to secure his own rebound. But as he dribbled towards the left wing to await the inevitable foul, Oregon State’s Jared Cunningham stripped him from behind and flipped the ball to a teammate as he fell out of bounds.

Cunningham knocked down three of four from the line in the game’s final 18 seconds, while Kabongo made one of two and had his potential game-winning layup blocked at the regulation buzzer. The Longhorns would take an early lead in overtime, but the ensuing 9-0 push from the Beavers proved to be the difference in the game.

Wilting under the pressure of the final few minutes underscores the youth of this team. Players are still defining their roles, and no one seemed prepared to step up and be the leader in the clutch. Fortunately the season is a long one, and the Longhorns have many months to grow.

What looked good

In the first half, the Texas offense was humming. They moved the ball crisply around the perimeter and on kickouts off of the drive. The Longhorns were 6-for-12 from behind the arc in the first half, but strayed from the long ball after half. Texas shot just three three-pointers in the second half as Oregon State whittled away the five-point Texas lead.

Brown was again the star for Texas, just missing a double-double with 25 points and nine assists. He created shots for himself and for teammates with penetration, piling up the dimes with easy drop offs to the bigs underneath when the defense collapsed on him. There were still times that the junior guard tried to force things and play one-on-five, but Texas fans have to be happy with Brown’s commitment to finding his open teammates this season.

Brown was not the only one creating shots. Sheldon McClellan looked very confident with the ball, proving that he can put it on the floor and knife through the defense for good looks. Despite coming off the bench, McClellan scored 12 points on 56% shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

Jonathan Holmes also did a good job on the boards, snagging five in his 21 minutes of play. Unfortunately, his playing time was limited by foul trouble, an issue that dogged the entire Texas lineup all night.

The Longhorns also continued their success at the free throw line, knocking down 73.3% of their attempts. Texas will likely find themselves in a lot of close games this season, and every single point will be huge. Some fans might point to the eight missed free throws in this game and bemoan missed opportunity, but the overall trend is much more important than dwelling a few single shots. These new-look Longhorns are more than 11 percentage points better at the line than last year’s squad.

Fans can also take solace in the fact that Texas actually won the rebounding battle and did a solid job on the offensive glass. The Longhorns reclaimed 47.5% of their misses, a massive improvement over their first two games. The offense has been highly efficient through three games, and if they can build on this success on the glass and continue to extend possessions, it will only make them even tougher to stop.

What needed work

While the offensive rebounding was solid, Texas still had a terrible time on the defensive glass. They allowed the Beavers to grab 43% of their missed shots, leading to 26 second-chance points. Time and again the Longhorns let balls come off the weak side and fall into the hands of a waiting Oregon State player for an easy putback.

Most troubling about the continued issues on the defensive glass is that Texas struggles regardless of the opponent. The Beavers were a very average offensive rebounding team in their first three games, but absolutely obliterated their previous season high with their performance against Texas.

A big reason for Oregon State’s success was that Alexis Wangmene and Clint Chapman were practically non-existant on the glass, combining for only six rebounds in 42 minutes on the floor. Although they were the beneficiaries of the Texas drive-and-dish attack, scoring 17 combined points, they absolutely have to show up on the glass if Texas wants to find success this season. With games against intimidating frontlines like UCLA and North Carolina still to come, the Longhorn bigs have their work cut out for them.

Texas also looked wild and out of control at many points in the game. The Longhorns have proven to be a run-and-gun team so far this season, but didn’t have any issues handling the ball in their first two wins. Against the Beavers, however, they coughed it up 23 times, which equated to miscues on 28% of their possessions. Kabongo actually turned it over five times against just three assists.

Freshman Sterling Gibbs had the most trouble hanging on to the basketball. He absolutely froze against the Oregon State pressure, twice dribbling himself right into traps. He turned it over three times in just three minutes of play, including an inexplicable one in the final seconds of the game where he simply dribbled it out of bounds. Gibbs did have a couple of key buckets during the team’s late comeback bid in overtime, but he’s going to spend much of the year on the bench if he can’t hang on to the ball.

Jaylen Bond also had a rough night, and it all stemmed from problems on defense. He couldn’t seem to keep any of the Beavers in front of him, and was constantly drawing whistles by hacking from behind the play. He only played 22 minutes and still managed to foul out.

Cunningham played out of his mind for Oregon State, and Texas could do little to stop him. He scored 37 points, earning 20 of them in 23 trips to the line. Unfortunately, Texas is going to have trouble with strong, slashing players like him all season long. The guards and wings were picking up tons of whistles trying to contain Cunningham, and UT actually switched to a zone defense to limit the foul trouble. That led to too many open looks for their shooters — who fortunately made only two threes in the second half — as Texas’ closeouts weren’t very quick.

It’s also concerning that while Brown played with fire and intensity early, he disappeared for the second half and overtime. He had only eight points in the final 25 minutes of the game, and was clearly frustrated as the game came down the stretch. He yelled at McClellan for not passing the ball on one possession and had to be calmed down by Kabongo. Brown and Kabongo also appeared to squabble over who should be handling the ball on a later possession. With such a young team, Brown is going to need to be a leader, so he cannot afford to be petulant when he’s struggling.

All told, it was a tough loss to swallow, as the Longhorns were just seconds away from victory and have an even tougher task awaiting them in the form of NC State on Monday. There were a lot of teachable moments in the game and Coach Barnes will certainly take full advantage of building on them. But teams can learn from close wins just as much as they can from close losses, and for a team that might be sweating the bubble in March, this November win would have been huge.

The young Texas Longhorns looked impressive in their first week of action, knocking off a pair of solid mid-major teams in Boston University and Rhode Island. The Longhorns proved versatile in their two wins, using stifling defense to knock off the Terriers, while the Rams forced them to win a high-scoring duel.

With action in the Legends Classic now moving to the championship rounds in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the opponents change from mid-majors to major conference foes. Texas landed the most-favorable draw, getting the chance to square off with rebuilding Oregon State in the semifinals.

The Beavers are led by fourth-year coach Craig Robinson, who immediately won favor in Corvallis by turning a 6-25 Oregon State team into 18-game winners in his first season on the job. Since then, the results have been less impressive. Robinson’s record in years two and three was just 25-38, and that came in a time period when the Pac-10 Conference was on a downslide.

This year, Oregon State has avoided any early-season stumbles, knocking off Hofstra and Cal-State Bakersfield along with D-II West Alabama. With the rest of their non-conference slate peppered with the likes of Chicago State and Towson, tonight’s game against the Longhorns is one of the few chances the Beavers have to prove that they’ve turned a corner with a win against quality competition.

By the numbers

With the Longhorns coming off a high-scoring win over Rhode Island, they will be very prepared for the up-tempo style of Oregon State. The Beavers have had at least 71 possessions in all three of their games so far, and their adjusted tempo of 71.2 possessions per 40 minutes against D-I opponents is one of the fastest in the nation. Texas has shown it is willing to get out and run, so we are likely in store for another fun, offensive showcase again tonight.

Defensively, the most glaring number for Oregon State is a 40% success rate for opponents behind the arc. This Texas team is full of long-range sharpshooters, so the Beavers will have to improve their perimeter defense. The Longhorns have connected on 42.6% of their threes so far, led by Julien Lewis (7-for-14) and J’Covan Brown (8-for-19). If either of those two are allowed free reign behind the arc, the Longhorns could win this one running away.

Another area of concern for the Oregon State defense is their propensity to send opponents to the line. Oregon State’s defensive free throw rate (measured as free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts) against D-I opponents is just a shade under 60%, putting the team among the worst 25 teams in the country in that category.

Texas made hay at the free throw line against Rhode Island, taking a whopping 44 attempts at the line. If Oregon State continues its trend of handing out free throws like candy, look for the Horns to once again manufacture a lot of points at the line tonight.

While the Beavers have sent opponents to the stripe quite often, they have at least evened things out by taking a bunch of free throws of their own. Their own free-throw rate is an incredible 74.5%, which was ninth-best in D-I hoops heading into today’s games. With that kind of aggressive play from the Oregon State offense, there is a strong possibility of interior foul trouble for Texas, which is cause for concern with such a thin frontcourt.

Meet the Beavers

The leading scorer for Oregon State is 6’4″ junior guard Jared Cunningham. Known best for his authoritative putback dunk against Arizona last season, he has exploded out of the gate this year with a flurry of points. On Wednesday night, he dropped 35 on Hofstra and is averaging more than 22 per game so far.

Joining Cunningham in the backcourt is tiny sophomore Ahmad Starks, who is averaging 10 points per game. At just 5’9″, the speedy Chicago product easily weaves through traffic with the ball and showed some skill from behind the arc in last year’s Pac-10 tournament. That long-range success hasn’t carried over into this season, though, as Starks is just 3-for-13 on his three-point attempts so far.

Forward Devon Collier will be playing in front of family and friends tonight, as the Izod Center is just a short ride from his hometown of the Bronx. In the offseason, he tried out for the Puerto Rican national team, and the experience against top-flight talent appears to have paid off. After averaging just seven points per game last season, the 6’8″ sophomore has averaged 15.7 so far this year.

Junior Joe Burton is a great passing forward, and his great court vision actually has him leading the team in assists. Listed at 6’7″, 280 pounds, Burton is a load to handle on defense, and that extra attention has allowed him to dish out 21 assists in three games to go with his 35 points. The Longhorns will have to make sure they keep an eye on the cutters when Burton has the ball in his hands, or they will likely give up a few easy buckets.

In the middle, Australian center Angus Brandt rounds out the starting five for Coach Robinson. Like Collier, Brandt added some international experience this summer, representing his country in the World University Games in China. His minutes have been limited so far this season thanks to foul trouble, but Brandt is still providing eight points and nearly three rebounds per game while averaging just 16 minutes.

With Brandt spending more time on the bench, redshirt freshman Eric Moreland has had to pick up the slack. A native of Missouri City, Texas, Moreland is tied for the team lead in rebounds despite not earning a single start. In addition to his skills on the glass, the big man is also known for stout defense, and he’s chipped in two blocks and three steals so far this year.

Along with Moreland, the Beavers are getting quality bench minutes from sophomore guard Roberto Nelson. Although he has just 15 points through the first three games, he showed flashes of his scoring prowess down the stretch last season. While playing a full 40 minutes against Arizona State last season, Nelson dropped 34 points on the Sun Devils, and he logged another 12 off the bench against Stanford in late February.

Senior forward Kevin McShane is the final player in Oregon State’s core rotation, a position he earned after three years as a walk-on. Now a scholarship player, McShane has played nearly 15 minutes per game this season and is currently the team’s third-best rebounder.

In addition to the eight-man rotation, Coach Robinson has also used Challe Barton and Rhys Murphy for short stints. The pair average a combined 18 minutes and eight points per game off the bench. Barton, a 6’3″ freshman guard from Sweden, has appeared in all three games. Murphy — a 6’7″ slasher with a solid three-point shot — did not play in the team’s most recent game against Hofstra.

Keys to the game

1) Control the defensive glass – The Longhorns are currently one of the worst teams in the country when it comes to limiting offensive rebounds. Texas reclaims just 41.9% of their opponents misses, which leads to far too many extended possessions on defense. Fortunately, the Beavers haven’t had much success with their own offensive boards so far, grabbing less than 30% of their own misses. This might be the perfect recipe for Texas to get some confidence on the glass.

2) Hang on to the ball – Texas has done a great job controlling the ball in its first two games, turning it over on just 14% of their possessions. Oregon State likes to push the tempo, and it typically leads to miscues from their opponents. So far, the Beaver defense is ranked 33rd in turnover percentage, forcing their two D-I opponents into mistakes on 27.9% of their possessions. The young Longhorns cannot afford to get sloppy against a team that will capitalize.

3) Knock down the threes – Oregon State’s defense has had issues guarding the perimeter, while the Longhorns have been strong from long range so far. Texas should get its share of quality looks from outside, so Brown, Lewis, and the rest of the Longhorns need to take advantage of that weakness and knock down the triples.

A final note

Texas will be playing in the second game of a doubleheader tonight, so a start right at 8 P.M. Central is unlikely. Texas and Oregon State will tip off 25 minutes after the conclusion of the Vanderbilt/NC State game, so give some extra time at the end of those DVR recordings.

Of course, only those with the Longhorn Network can record tonight’s game on their DVRs. For many fans in Austin and other parts of Texas, that means Craig Way and the internet are their only options for keeping up with the Horns tonight. Fans can watch online at ESPN3.com, and can also follow our live updates from the Izod Center via Twitter @LonghornRdTrip.