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.

Los Angeles and New York City are separated by 2,800 miles. The performances by the Longhorns in those two cities might have been even further apart.

Texas impressed the basketball nation with their gutsy effort against Illinois and Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. With another national TV audience on hand for last night’s game against USC, the Longhorns immediately erased those memories with one of the ugliest, most uninspired performances in years. The Trojans, coming off back-to-back road losses against Nebraska and TCU, completely shut down the Texas offense and easily dissected their defense, cruising to an easy 73-56 win at the Galen Center.

What needed work

We have to flip the script on this game report and open with all of the bad news. There’s almost nothing good worth noting, so we can save those few shiny nuggets for the end. The bad things, on the other hand, could fill a Dostoevsky-sized novel.

Just four days after their second-best defensive performance of the season, the Longhorns played the worst defensive game all year. USC was shooting 57% from the field in the waning minutes of the first half, and finished the night with a 48.9% mark. Their efficiency numbers were off the chart, as the Trojans scored a scorching 1.129 points per possession.

We’ve wondered all season what would happen when a thin and inexperienced Texas frontcourt met up with a physical, talented team. We finally got a chance to see it, and the results weren’t pretty. Nikola Vucevic matched his season average with 16 points in the first half, and finished the night with 24. Alex Stephenson chipped in a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

It seemed that Coach Rick Barnes was trying to match the USC size in the first half, as most of the time Tristan Thompson was sharing the court with either Alexis Wangmene or Matt Hill. The problem was that it quickly became apparent that Vucevic couldn’t be contained by one Longhorn defender, yet he still ended up isolated on Wagmene or Hill on multiple occasions. Vucevic constantly abused the Longhorn frontcourt, but was almost never doubled when he touched the ball.

On offense, Jordan Hamilton was clearly pressing in front of his friends and family, and said as much in the post-game press conference. It took him fifteen minutes to make a basket, and even that came on a goaltending call. Hamilton heated up in the second half and finished with 12 points, but by then it was far too late for Texas to make a threatening run.

The offensive struggles extended to the entire team. USC was one of the best defensive squads in the country last season, and they will likely finish near the top of those rankings again in 2010-11. The Longhorns were clearly frustrated by that excellent defense and forced up a ton of bad shots. J’Covan Brown was hot early on, which unfortunately meant that he continued to shoot all game long, even when good looks weren’t there. Although he led the team with 17 points, J’Covan shot just 33% from the field, including a 1-for-9 performance in the second half.

One of the most puzzling things we saw from our seats in section 112 was the lack of playing time for Dogus Balbay. The Longhorns were being picked apart on defense, yet their best defensive player only saw the court for nine minutes. If there was an injury limiting his playing time, it wasn’t apparent from our vantage point.

What looked good

The only thing that the Longhorns did well on Sunday night was shoot free throws. Coming into the game, the team’s percentage at the line was hovering around 62%, but they knocked down 80% of their attempts against the Trojans. Thompson, who has been battling mental demons at the stripe all season long, still only made two of his four attempts, but the rest of the team was excellent.

In addition, concession prices were incredibly reasonable. At a sparkling arena located across the street from one of the priciest universities in the country, you wouldn’t expect to find a 33 oz. soda for just $3.50. And the free Coke Zeroes being handed out as we left the arena went down a lot easier than the 17-point drubbing we had to sit through. So, there’s that.

Next up: vs. Texas State (2-4); Saturday, 3 P.M.

In late October, the Big 12 and Pac-10 announced the end of a four-year series pitting teams from the two conferences in an annual basketball grudge match. With all of the shuffling and re-alignment going on this summer, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the two leagues parted ways. Colorado was bolting the Big 12 for the greener pastures of the soon-to-be Pac-12 Conference, while last-minute deals kept the remains of the Big 12 intact and ended Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott’s dream of a 16-team league stretching from Seattle to College Station.

During the first three years of the conference alliance, the Texas Longhorns have tallied three wins. That perfect mark includes a momentous upset, when the Longhorns secured the first-ever road victory over a No. 1 team in school history with a last-minute win at UCLA. Three years after that upset, Texas finally returns to Los Angeles, this time to face off with a struggling USC squad.

Tonight’s game at the Galen Center will be the first true road game for the Longhorns, although their two neutral-site games at Madison Square Garden had crowds that were certainly skewed in favor of the Texas opponents. USC’s home arena isn’t a loud, intimidating place to play, but one can imagine that the prospect of another USC-Texas battle — even if it isn’t on the gridiron — could fill a few more seats.

The game will also be a homecoming for sophomore Jordan Hamilton, who played his high-school ball in Los Angeles. Jordan will be looking for a breakout game, as he struggled in the last two Texas wins. Of course, for a scorer like Hamilton, “struggle” is a relative term — he still chipped in 29 points in the two games despite only hitting 32% from the field.

By the numbers

Head coach Kevin O’Neill inherited a difficult situation when he arrived at USC, with the team mired in an investigation surrounding former Trojan O.J. Mayo. The Trojans have gone through a litany of roster changes over the past two years, but have emerged with a small, tight-knit group of players who hang their hat on in-your-shirt defense. Last year, USC was tops in the Pac-10 in scoring defense, and 2nd nationally in defensive efficiency. Trojan opponents managed just 0.849 points per possession on the year.

This season, defense is still a strength for USC. While this year’s numbers aren’t quite as impressive, the Trojans are still holding opponents to just 0.920 points in each trip down the court. A big part of their defensive success comes from limiting opponents to just one shot, as the Trojans are giving up just one offensive board in every four opportunities.

USC is also very disciplined on defense, committing very few fouls for such a solid D. The team averages just 15.5 fouls per game, which is an important number for a team that has just six players accounting for 92% of the team’s minutes.

Meet the Trojans

The USC team that takes the court tonight will be a very different one from the team that tackles the Pac-10 conference slate. That’s good news for Texas, because the Trojans will welcome Fordham transfer Jio Fontan on December 18th when the team faces Kansas. Fontan offers experience and leadership at the point, something USC is lacking at the moment.

Right now, the leadership comes from the frontcourt, where Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stephenson anchor the team. Vucevic is averaging a double-double so far, with 16 points and 10.9 boards per game. He’s a good midrange shooter and can knock down the three, so he spreads the defense out and opens up the lane for the team’s tiny, slashing guards.

Stephenson, meanwhile, is making a big impact after transferring from North Carolina. Last season, Stephenson often found himself in foul trouble, which limited his production. This year, he’s posting 8.3 points and 7.6 rebounds a night, despite playing the entire season with a fractured bone in his left hand. The injury is limiting his offensive game to putbacks and easy lay-ins, but even that doesn’t stop him from contributing down low.

In the backcourt, freshman Maurice Jones is filling the void at point until the arrival of Fontan. At just 5’7″, Jones isn’t a guy who typically creates his own shot. However, the Trojans work hard setting high ball screens with Stephenson and Vucevic, so Jones is often able to speed to the rack for easy buckets.

Although Jones is only a freshman, he’s proven to be a heady point guard so far. He doesn’t press the issue when the shot isn’t there, which saves him from a lot of embarrassing blocked shots. If he’s driving the lane and the defense shuts things down, Jones has no problem backing it out and resetting the offense.

Another freshman in the starting five is Bryce Jones, a 6’5″ off guard who is second on the team with 12.8 points per game. Although he’s only made 36.6% of his threes so far this season, his three-point prowess was well-documented in high school, and he could certainly give Texas fans a headache if he gets hot from long range tonight.

Senior Marcus Simmons is taking on a larger role this season, having started all eight games so far. He’s doubled his scoring output from last year’s three points per game to more than six this season, but more importantly he is grabbing 4.5 boards a night. On a team that only has two players taller than 6’7″ earning significant minutes, the 6’6″ Simmons has to be active on the glass.

The Trojans have another senior leader coming off the bench in Donte Smith. Just 5’11”, he’s another quick guard at Coach O’Neill’s disposal, and he’s another three-point threat to compliment Bryce Jones. It’s also worth nothing that Smith is 9-of-10 at the line this year, a very impressive number on a USC team that is shooting just 64% at the line.

Garrett Jackson is the only other Trojan who has played in every game this year, although he’s averaging just 13.5 minutes a night. He was Gatorade’s Player of the Year in Oregon as a high-school senior last season, and he seems to be adjusting quickly to the college game. He’s still very thin for a college player, but he’s athletic and knows how to score inside against bigger players. He also has a smooth midrange jumper, the threat of which allows him to pump fake opponents off the floor before he slashes to the rim.

Keys to the game

While we’ve talked about the lack of depth for Texas all season long, this Trojan team has it even worse. USC is well-known for its excellent half-court defense that pressures the ball well past the perimeter, so Texas would be well-served to push the tempo. This serves two purposes, as it wears out the Trojans’ core rotation, and gets Texas easier points in transition before the tough USC defense can get set.

In addition, Texas can exploit the lack of depth by attacking inside. Beyond Vucevic and Stephenson, there is very little experience or size on the Trojan bench. At 6’9″, freshman Curtis Washington is the only other forward with any size on Coach O’Neill’s bench, and he’s played a grand total of seven minutes in the team’s first eight games. Getting Vucevic and Stephenson in foul trouble will not only take a bite out of USC’s scoring threat, it will also give Texas an even bigger size advantage.

Finally, the Longhorns have to erase the mistakes tonight. Against Lamar, Texas played one of the sloppiest games we’ve seen in years, turning it over 23 times. The Longhorns also struggled early against Sam Houston State, coughing it up 11 times in the first half. USC’s defense is much, much better than what Texas saw against the Cardinals and Bearkats, so the Horns simply cannot afford to be that careless with the basketball tonight. Giving up possessions and easy, fast-break points is a recipe for disaster.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but it still was a win — the 300th win at Texas for Coach Rick Barnes, in fact. But in a game where the two teams combined for more turnovers than field goals, it sometimes felt more like an episode of Benny Hill than a Division I collegiate basketball game.

Texas (6-1) and Lamar (4-3) had a combined 44 turnovers on the night, but it was the Longhorns who finally found an offensive rhythm. While the Cardinals held a six-point lead over the Longhorns five minutes into the game, Texas turned up the defensive pressure and ran away with it. Over the ensuing 18 minutes of basketball, the Longhorns outscored the erratic Cardinals by a 43-16 margin and never looked back. Texas cruised the rest of the way, enjoying an easy 76-55 win in front of 5,473 burnt-orange faithful.

What looked good

The Texas defense was stellar for most of the night. The Longhorns held Lamar to just 25.7% shooting from the field, giving the Cardinals an offensive efficiency of just 0.661 points per possession. Texas denied the perimeter, shoring up what had been a glaring weakness against Rice just days before. As a result, Lamar was only 1-of-9 from behind the arc.

Often, the baskets that the Cardinals did get were a result of the Longhorns actually overplaying on defense. But in a game where Texas forced 21 turnovers and blocked nine shots, those few easy looks were a fair trade-off for the active, suffocating D.

Matt Hill had three of those blocks, as he performed admirably off the bench for 19 minutes. The second half was initially a whistle-fest, with the referees calling 15 fouls in less than eight minutes of action. As a result, Gary Johnson was saddled with foul trouble and Hill was needed to plug the gap. In addition to his three blocks, Matt added six boards and five points. While many teams remaining on the Texas schedule will have bigger frontcourts than the Cardinals, the performance from Hill was promising.

Alexis Wangmene was also bothered by fouls, including one offensive one that looked very much like a Zinedine Zidane-style flop by Lamar’s Devon Lamb from our vantage point. But in the seven minutes that Wangmene did manage to stay on the floor, his defense was much better than in weeks past. He established position, stayed tall, and managed to recover quickly when he was out of the play. Alexis was still outworked for rebounds by a smaller Lamar team, but it was encouraging to see the strides he had made defensively.

On offense, Cory Joseph continued his hot streak, posting a new career high for the second-straight game. He knocked down three of his six long-range attempts as he chalked up 16 points, and just missed a double-double by grabbing nine defensive boards. In the Rice and Lamar games, Joseph shot 58.3% from behind the arc and logged 30 total points.

Tying Joseph’s 16-point output was sophomore star Jordan Hamilton. Against Rice, Hamilton was one of the few Longhorns probing the Owl zone, but he often ran into resistance near the lane and missed the challenged shots he took.

On Wednesday night, Hamilton looked to pass when the shots weren’t there. Unfortunately, his teammates usually weren’t ready for the ball, and the Longhorns fumbled away a few passes that would’ve resulted in easy layups. In the post-game presser, Barnes also praised Hamilton’s defensive play, saying that it was all the sophomore wanted to work on in the previous two days of practice.

Tristan Thompson also quietly posted some good numbers, earning his second career double-double with an 11-point, 13-rebound performance. Perhaps more importantly, Thompson only had to play 31 minutes in the win. The freshman logged 80 minutes in back-to-back games in New York, and will likely be called on for a ton of minutes in tough games once conference play rolls around. These glorified exhibitions are a perfect opportunity to get Thompson some game-speed reps without overworking him.

What needs work

The most glaring issue for the Longhorns was once again an inability to hang on to the basketball. Texas turned it over 23 times, giving the team a turnover rate of 27.6%, or more than one miscue in every four possessions. Most frustrating was the fact that many of the Longhorn turnovers came from bobbling passes or throwing it directly past an oblivious teammate and into the stands. Joseph, Jai Lucas, and J’Covan Brown accounted for 14 of the Texas turnovers, while posting just eight assists between them.

In addition, the free throw rollercoaster continued against Lamer. The Longhorns started out wonderfully, knocking down 11 of 15 attempts in the first half. But yet again the charity-stripe demons resurfaced, as Texas posted a 12-for-22 mark in the final twenty. The main culprit was Thompson, who finished a disappointing 5-of-11 at the line. If the freshman continues to struggle with his free throws, opponents will simply not allow him any easy baskets inside. He’s going to have to find his stroke once again, because opposing frontcourts are going to make him earn those points.

Next up: vs. Southern Cal (4-4); Sunday, 9:30 P.M. CT