The Texas Longhorns head to Houston tonight for another game in the Toyota Center, this time with the reeling Rice Owls. The last time these two teams met was in the same building back in 2005, when the Longhorns won by an 85-58 count. All-time, Texas leads the series by a lopsided 130-59 margin.

Rice comes into this one without their top two point guards and their top three-point threat. Jasen Williams was the team’s leading scorer, but is not playing this week so that he can focus on finals. It’s unclear whether Williams is dangerously close to an eligibility situation, but his absence certainly won’t make things any easier on the Owls. Chris Hagan was the backup at the point, but ruptured his patella tendon and is out for the season. Behind the arc, Cory Pflieger was the biggest threat, but is currently out until January with an ankle injury.

The rash of injuries and study breaks leaves Rice with only eight scholarship players for tonight’s game. And for a team that was already struggling to replace the huge hole left by Morris Almond and Lorenzo Williams — both who now play in the NBDL — this bad luck makes the mountain even tougher to climb.

By the numbers

Texas is still holding strong to the 3rd-highest RPI in the country, according to Ken Pomeroy. This game with Rice won’t help that ranking, as the Owls check in all the way at 256th. They also run one of the slowest offenses in the country, and that will certainly be the case with such a short bench tonight. Rice cannot afford to get into an up-and-down contest with a more athletic and more talented Texas team.

The starters

Without the top two point guards, the job at the one falls to Bryan Beasley, a former Aggie who was allowed to transfer and immediately play for Rice during the Billy Gillispie/Mark Turgeon changeover. With an inexperienced, third-string guard at the point, the Longhorns could force a good share of turnovers and earn some easy fast break points. Beasley is a pretty quick guard, however, so on defense he might be able to stick with Augustin a little better than most third-stringers would. We all know it’s impossible to hold D.J. down all game, but Beasley could make things a little more difficult.

Sophomore Rodney Foster will likely start at shooting guard, although he is having a rough start from the floor this year. While he is averaging nine points per game, his three-point percentage is an abysmal 21% after sitting above 35% last season. While the Owls have a solid inside game, their offense is not nearly as effective as that of the Longhorns. If they want to stay in this game, they will need some three-point buckets, and that means Foster will need to break out of his slump.

Aleks Perka will probably be slotted at the three tonight, and he is going to be a bit of an oversized one. If he matches up with Justin Mason, he should try using his five-inch height advantage to post up and earn some buckets. Jay Mase is a much quicker player, so Perka won’t be slashing from the wings for any layups.

In the paint, Patrick Britton comes in riding high after a career-best 24 point game against Texas State on Wednesday. While he’s not the biggest threat on the glass, he could definitely create a problem inside for the Horns. Damion James is a much more athletic player and can match up well with him, but Britton might get a few extra baskets when the Longhorn freshmen forwards are in the game.

Paulius Packevicius is a double-double machine for Rice, having reached that plateau in four of his games so far. Last season, he didn’t achieve that statistical feat even once, so it’s quite clear that the kid has made some huge strides in the offseason. He is averaging 11.3 PPG and 10.1 RPG so far this year and should provide another good challenge for Connor Atchley inside. Much like Atchley, Packevicius is not a flashy player, but is fundamentally sound and is easy to coach.

Key reserves

With the bench so thin for Rice, their options are incredibly slim. Lawrence Ghoram is a solid defender in the backcourt and will likely be called upon to stick Augustin and A.J. Abrams when Beasley and Foster need a breather. Freshman big men Suleiman Braimoh and Scott Saunders may also see an increase in minutes if Rice is unable to control the tempo.

What to look for

The deck is extraordinarily stacked against Rice in this one. With the short bench, their only true hope is to slow this one down into an ugly slopfest and limit the potent Texas offense. The Owls will be forced to run a lot of zone to keep their team from getting too fatigued, so this will likely open Rick Barnes’ dangerous three-point shooters. If by chance Rice is still able to frustrate the Texas offense, they will also need a few timely threes to threaten a much better Longhorn squad.

I finally graduate in about nine hours, which means that I’ll be missing a lot of great hoops action this afternoon. But the good thing about a noon ceremony is that it leaves enough time afterwards to travel to Houston for the Rice game, which tips at 7 P.M. tonight.

And speaking of the Rice game, two people out of the eleven in our group will no longer be able to make the trip. They are really great seats only four rows up from the baseline beside the Texas bench, and I’m being asked to try to resell them at face ($16 each). If you’re interested, leave me a comment with your phone number as they are moderated and will not be made public. I leave town at 3ish, so that will have to be the cut-off.

Not much going on in NCAA hoops last night, but UTA won on a running jumper with 6.3 seconds at Wichita State to move to 8-0 on the season. The Mavs are one of only 17 undefeated teams left in Division I hoops, and are certainly one of the most surprising ones. In the other game of interest to Texas fans, UC-Davis was embarrassed at home by Oregon State, 73-59.

Today the television is full of quality hoops action. Arizona kicks things off at Illinois (11 AM CST, ESPN), while Duke hosts Michigan and new coach John Beilein (1 PM, CBS). Duke will roll, but it’s a chance to see how Beilein’s style translates to a new, troubled team. DePaul faces Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse with Brandon Rush on the court (1 PM, ESPN), with Pitt and Washington tipping just an hour later way out west (2 PM, FSN). Kentucky also faces IU (3 PM, CBS), Purdue travels to Mizzou (3 PM, ESPN2), and Texas A&M hosts Texas State (7 PM, FSN). But perhaps the most interesting televised matchup of the day is the grudge match between Marquette and Wisconsin, airing at 5 PM on ESPN2.

Some more games of note not on TV today: Michigan State faces their last real test before Texas when they travel to BYU (3 PM CST) and Colorado looks for a road win in Wyoming (3 PM). While I mentioned that UTA was one of the most surprising undefeated teams remaining, the other two shockers are Ole Miss and Sam Houston State. Both are in action today, with the Bearkats facing Ian Mooney’s old school, St. Louis (7 PM) and the Rebs traveling to Central Florida (6 PM).

If you’re going to that Texas/Rice tilt and want to catch some high school hoops action, your ticket also gets you into a doubleheader starting at 1 P.M. Fans can get a preview of some future Big 12 action when two class of ’08 recruits face off in the first game. Baylor commit Anthony Jones plays for Yates, who will square off with Texas verbal commit J’Covan Brown and his Port Arthur Memorial team. The second half of the high-school doubleheader features Madison against Duncanville and highly-touted ’09 prospect Shawn Williams.

While it’s not basketball, the fantastic Texas volleyball team will be televised in their Elite Eight match against USC at 3 PM CST on ESPNU. And if talented girls in spandex beating the crap out of the Trojans isn’t enough to entice you, then I’m just not sure what else I can throw out.

There’s disappointing news today coming out of Lawrence, Kansas, where Brandon Rush was arrested yesterday for failing to appear in court. He had two separate traffic incidents in October of this year and December of 2006 which led to charges for speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, having no proof of insurance, and driving with a suspended license. After posting $500 bond, he was released from custody.

Clearly the kid thinks he is above the law, and maybe this will slap a little bit of sense into him. I highly doubt it, though, and that’s why I’m incredibly disappointed in Bill Self’s decision to not suspend Rush. Do I think this incident is actually worth a full suspension? Probably not. But the alternatives — keeping him out of the starting lineup or sitting him for a half — really won’t make much of an impact with the way his year is going. Rush hasn’t been starting thanks to the injury he suffered this summer and is only averaging 22 minutes per game since he rejoined the team. It’s not like they are going to lose to DePaul without him; the Blue Demons lost to North Carolina AT&T, after all.

If you think back to 2006, you might remember another traffic incident involving a Jayhawk under Self’s watch. Senior guard Jeff Hawkins had the munchies one night, and decided to drive to the McDonald’s for some food. But he just couldn’t wait in that long drive-thru line, so he thought he’d try to cut ahead. After hitting another car, he sped off and was ultimately suspended one game — against Baylor. Personally, I think the four charges against Rush plus failure to appear is a little bit worse than leaving the scene of a car accident. Yet Hawkins was suspended a game while nothing will happen to the future NBA pick. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Hawkins was a reserve guard who only averaged 19 minutes per game that year, while Rush is a star on this loaded Kansas squad?

Brandon Rush is only back in Lawrence because he hurt his knee. Without that poorly timed injury, he’s playing on an NBA team right now. I’m sure he feels that college and even NCAA basketball are beneath him, and that he’s just wasting some time until he hears his name called next June and starts cashing the checks. The apology he made today smacks of half-heartedness as he blames a mix-up in dates. Could his license have been suspended because he never cleared up the charges from his traffic stop twelve months ago? That oversight takes a little more than a mix-up in dates, don’t you think?

I realize Texas fans don’t have much room to talk thanks to the moronic football players who decided to get arrested 793 times this offseason. But the Longhorn basketball program has always run things the right way, while Bill Self doesn’t really seem to care. I’m not asking the guy to suspend a star player for a post-season game or even a conference one. But the message that he’s sending to Brandon Rush is just reinforcing the kid’s warped worldview — he’s already a big star, and Lawrence is just small potatoes.

John Brady and the LSU Tigers held a 20-point lead with 8:51 to play last night…and still ended up losing to Villanova, 68-67. After seeing Brady’s talented teams come up short again and again the last two years, I still wonder how they overcame his ineptitude to beat Texas in the 2006 Elite Eight.

No Pete Campbell, no problem for Butler. The Bulldogs stayed perfect and grabbed their first conference win last night, taking out Detroit on the road, 53-46.

Some of you may have already discovered this (or have even come to this website thanks to the coverage), but I was featured in a Q&A by San Antonio Express-News sports columnist Lorne Chan. You can check out the article in his appropriately titled Chanifesto.

Lute Olson announced today that he won’t be returning to the Arizona bench this season. Olson does plan to patrol the sidelines again next year, and Kevin O’Neill will continue his duties as interim coach. Later in the day, news outlets began announcing that Coach Olson had filed for divorce from his second wife. The two stories may be connected or his “personal issues” could turn out to be something completely different, but in all honesty, it’s nobody’s business but Lute Olson’s. We wish him the best in the meantime and look forward to seeing him in action again soon.

There’s pretty much nothing on TV tonight, even for those with the ESPN Full Court package. Despite that, there are still a couple of games of local interest which will be worth score-checking in the morning. UC-Davis hosts Oregon State in a matchup that will have a slight impact on the Texas RPI, while undefeated UT-Arlington faces their biggest test yet in a road game against Wichita State.

Texas moved up to 3rd in the latest Ken Pomeroy RPI approximations after thumping North Texas last night, just one slot behind St. Mary’s, who the Longhorns face on January 5th. With Michigan State (19th) still looming and the Big 12 sporting the third-best conference RPI, that final SOS should be looking mighty solid for Texas.

In meaningless polling news, Texas also ascended to 2nd in this week’s Power 16 at ESPN.com. These rankings are so pointless, I don’t even have a follow-up sentence.

The Big 12 had fun with some creampuffs last night. Oklahoma State handled a fiesty Texas A&M Corpus Christi squad 60-46, while their rivals from Norman crushed Tulsa by 26. Kansas got in some worthwhile practice against Eastern Washington, cruising to an easy 85-47 win. The most lopsided win of the night came from Texas Tech, however, who demolished Lousiana Tech by an 86-31 count. Iowa State fell on the road to Drake, 79-44, while Nebraska lost in overtime to a solid Western Kentucky team, 69-62.

Tonight’s TV lineup leaves a bit to be desired, with LSU/Villanova being the “highlight” at 8:30 PM CST (ESPN). South Carolina and Providence play a little earlier on the Deuce, tipping at 6 PM CST. And on ESPNU, there’s a mind-numbing matchup between Jacksonville State and Samford, two teams with a combined 4-9 record. It’s faaaaantastic!

The lack of good hoops on the tube gives you all the more reason to tune in to Longhorn Sportsline with Coach Barnes at 7 PM CT tonight. It broadcasts live from the brand new Pluckers location in West Campus, so if you’re in the Austin area and haven’t been by the new digs, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Thursdays are usually Mexican night at Pluckers, meaning specials on Tecate, margaritas and other booze that I’m forgetting. So swing on by, have a few drinks, and chat hoops with Rick. And if you’re elsewhere in Texas but want to tune in, take a gander at the affiliate list from TexasSports.com.