Texas (5-1) cruised through their final tune-up before the Gonzaga game, crushing the Texas Southern Tigers (1-5) by a 90-50 margin on Tuesday night. Coach Barnes utilized the entire bench, not only using the chance to give our reserves more playing time, but also keeping the core group of players fresh for this weekend’s contest.

At this point, it’s a given that A.J. Abrams and Kevin Durant are going to provide a lot of points for the Horns. And that’s especially true when playing ITT Tech, University of Phoenix Online, DeVry Institute, or Texas Southern. The pair combined for 42 points, with Abrams knocking down four three-pointers. He came out shooting hot, but ended up missing seven threes on the night. I wonder if the increased time on the bench could have possibly thrown off his rhythm. Durant also hit four threes — on only six attempts — and made all six of his free throws.

The team forced a lot of turnovers, and in turn the tempo. Abrams had five steals alone, while the team had sixteen. The Longhorns converted those TOs into a clicking transition offense, and logged 39 points off of them.

I promised I’d keep an eye on Harrison Smith, and it was difficult as he only had six minutes on the floor. But I distinctly remember one great play the kid had where he crashed the glass on the offensive end, slipping between the big men and tipping it back in for two. The stat sheet shows Smith with three rebounds, which surprises me considering the other mental note I made on him was how much smaller he looked than the rest of the guys on the floor. With his minutes still so limited in this game, I’m convinced we will see very little of Harrison all year, and will not get a good feel for him until later in his (four-year) Texas career.

The story of the game in my book was Dexter Pittman. Big Dex looked a lot more comfortable out there on the floor, and while it’s tough to say if that’s a result of playing Texas Southern or of beginning to adjust to his lighter body, it’s great to see. It seemed like he gobbled up every rebound that came within reach, and his touch inside was great. I remember a few plays in the first half where he’d get position inside and call for the ball, only something was different from previous games — the guards actually managed to get him the ball. Pittman took advantage and finished the night with 10 points, six boards, and two blocks in his eleven minutes of play.

Justin Mason is quickly becoming a favorite player of mine. He earns his minutes (and the starting job) with great effort on the defensive end, and he’s not a liability on offense. Tuesday night he got on the stat sheet early, cutting to the rack on two sweet layups. He was a huge part of the Horns’ first-half surge, and he finished with nine points.

D.J. Augustin had his assist-to-turnover ratio marred by unprepared teammates against Texas Southern. He notched six assists, but had four turnovers, two or three of which weren’t even his fault. It still seems like D.J. sees plays and passes that others don’t, and that leads to guys not being ready for his passes. Tuesday night one zipped past Matt Hill and into the North O-Zone, while another bounced off our hands and ended up going the other way. It’s really exciting to think about D.J. playing many years here with other members of this recruiting class, and just “knowing” by the third or fourth year where everybody will be and when the passes will come.

Damion James is still struggling, and it’s tough to watch. The guy has so much skill and athleticism wrapped up in that package, and you know that something’s just a little off either mentally or physically. I’m leaning towards the mental side of things, considering he seemed perfectly healthy on a sick dunk that just about brought down the basket supports. Hopefully that play will serve as some sort of emotional release and get him over this funk. We will desperately need his early-season form to return in time for these next two games.

Matt Hill didn’t do much on Tuesday night, and was definitely overshadowed by Pittman. Hill did still play more minutes than both Connor Atchley and Pittman, but did less than both of them. I’m convinced that we need Matt to get aggressive inside and force his way to the line. He’s a good free throw shooter — he made both of his attempts again on Tuesday — and in addition to the easy points, we need our bigger opponents to get in foul trouble to neutralize their advantage inside.

Atchley looked better, but again I have to wonder about the quality of opponent tainting the stats. His best game last year came against Louisiana-Monroe, but just a month and a half later he was still laying eggs in big games. We’ll see over the next week and a half whether or not Connor has actually improved, when he has to play against the likes of Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt and LSU’s Glen Davis. For those interested, Atchley scored two points and pulled down five rebounds.

One of the best moments of the game came in the final minutes. Fan-favorite Ian Mooney had played many much more than usual, even coming into the game in the first half. But after spending most of his time setting picks for the guards, he was fouled on a layup attempt with time winding down. Mooney swished his first free throw attempt and the few thousand fans still left in the Erwin Center went nuts.

I will say that when Ian is on the court, I am actually impressed by the screens he sets. He’s not going to even see the floor in many games after Centenary, but if he’s needed in some sort of emergency situation he at least still provides some sort of value.

Of course, the first big test of the year looms on Saturday. Texas takes on Gonzaga in Phoenix at 2 PM central time, airing on ESPN. I’ll take a look at the Zags and some key storylines after arriving in Arizona on Friday night.

Many fans may be looking ahead to next week, when Texas faces both Gonzaga and LSU on neutral courts. But first the Longhorns have to beat up on another team that has no business being on the same court with Texas. Tonight it’s Texas Southern (1-4), our second opponent from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Texas won their earlier matchup with the SWAC, knocking off Alcorn State in the season opener.

Most recently, the Tigers had their teeth kicked in 74-44 by Alabama. But this year they’ve also suffered crushing losses to Oklahoma State (86-65) and Baylor (74-50). Evidently the entire Big 12 is going to bully this scrawny kindergartener.

Judging by the team’s minutes, they are going to sub liberally, as only forward Jacques Jones plays more than 30 minutes a game. No one on the Texas Southern roster is listed as a center, and it’s really not hard to see why. Besides 6-11 junior Matt Bell, the team’s tallest players are 6-8 Chris Moore, and the aforementioned Jones at 6-7.

The players to watch for TSU are Jones and freshman guard Nick Walker, a product of Houston’s Northshore High School. Walker rebounds much better than would be expected from a guard, but against the Horns I’m not sure if he’ll keep up that pace. Another freshman to look for is St. Paul Latham. Not because he’s good, but because his parents annointed him a saint. Seriously?

Alabama outrebounded the Tigers by a 56-33 margin. And while I don’t think that Texas will have as easy of a time on the glass as it did last Tuesday, the Horns should still end up winning the rebounding battle again. It should be telling to watch Matt Hill and Connor Atchley against these guys. If they can’t manage to get rebounds against Texas Southern, I’m going to have a hard time watching them try against the Big 12.

Tonight will be a good opportunity to get more minutes for our role players. I’m looking forward to seeing more time out of Dexter Pittman, and I’m going to make it a point to actually focus on Harrison Smith when he’s in the game. I’ve overlooked the poor kid all year, so I’d like to finally have something to say about him after the game.

If you’re in town, swing by the Frank Erwin Center for a 7 P.M. tip. It’s your last chance to see the team at home until they play Texas State on December 16th, so come on out. We’ll see you at the Drum.

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Everywhere you look in New York, you can see yuppies — does anyone still call urban professionals this? — rushing down the sidewalks or sitting on the subway, listening to their iPods. Or perhaps if they’re “unique,” they have a Rio or somesuch. So Friday morning I decided to try it for myself. And there’s really nothing more fun than being in your own world, with your favorite songs, as you navigate the best city in the country. Being self-absorbed is awesome.

If you have a good sense of direction or can read a subway map, after a few days you start to hate tourists. Incredibly hypocritical, but it happens. You glare at the little groups who stop on the sidewalk blocking foot traffic, or roll your eyes at the dumbasses who mindlessly follow someone across the street and nearly get plastered by a taxi. I feel like the city’s attitude has rubbed off on me. Or perhaps I’ve just always been an asshole.

Friday’s lunch turned into something of an adventure. We wanted a hole-in-the-wall Italian place with good word-of-mouth. Using the magic of the interwebs, we ultimately went with Carmela’s, on Canal Street in the financial district. After a long subway ride and a longer walk, we came to the address — and a sign that said the restaurant had been shut down by the food and something commission. It may have been a blessing in disguise that we never got to eat there.

Random walking brought us to a place that I think was called Giuseppe’s. If you ever want to find the place, just walk around the area and look for the only Italian place that two guys in t-shirts and jeans would be able to walk into. Their menu had just about everything you could want on it, but we ultimately ordered some paninis and scored free sodas. If you’re looking for fancy food or atmosphere, I wouldn’t recommend the place. But if you want good food and great selection for cheap, you can’t beat it.

We raced back to Midtown just after 5 P.M., riding the subway with the go-getters of our society. An interesting note here is that the nicest subway trains we rode on were at Wall Street and on the East Side. I guess even the MTA panders to its audience.

The St. John’s game was an absolute disaster, and I covered it in an earlier post. But is there a better way to get over a narrow victory against St. John’s High School than going out on the town?

Dinner was at Lombardi’s (32 Spring Street), which was by far the best meal of the week. Their food was absolutely amazing, particularly the calzone I ordered. The thing was absolutely bursting with ricotta, which is really the only way to go. A warning for anyone planning on checking out the restaurant — they only accept cash, and while they do have an ATM on site, you may want to hit up your own bank’s machine beforehand to save on the fees.

Absolutely stuffed, the next stop was at Rice to Riches (37 Spring Street), a rice pudding place whose decor perfectly defined pretentious hipster. I fucking loved it. Unfortunately, I was too full to order the ($5) “solo” bowl. But whatever you do, don’t order the rocky road. It looks like gruel made out of diarrhea. Mmmm, mmmm good.

I couldn’t even tell you what bar we ended up at. But I was sorely disappointed by the lack of Jersey guys blasting Springsteen and Bon Jovi on the jukebox. In fact, there were none. So this can’t really be classified as a grungy NYC bar experience, can it?

Everybody bitches about drink prices in New York. And rightly so. But try ordering a mind eraser at this particular mystery bar, and your idea of a “shot” may be redefined. That thing was big. And a few drinks and hours later I was loving it.

So my fairly drunk ass ended up in Times Square at 3:30 in the morning. And, much to my surprise, the place actually gets dead. I was on the phone at one point when a nerdy-looking guy — crackhead? homeless? — came up to me and offered me 100 dollars for my nasty, ratty, falling-apart Red Sox hat. I didn’t even honestly consider the offer. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the fear that this weirdo was going to shoot a ricin pellet into my arm. Who knows. But I’ve still got my hat, and that guy still thinks he actually has 100 dollars to his name.

Saturday I took Rasul to my favorite stop in New York City. Just outside of Columbia University sits Koronet Pizza (2858 Broadway), where the pizzas are 32-inches. You can get just a slice for two bucks, or add a topping for a few quarters more. And with slices this big, that’s the best deal I’ve ever had in any city. If you’re visiting NYC and choose to check out this little slice of pizza heaven, just head a few more blocks up Broadway to see the place that was used for exterior shots of Monk’s Restaurant on Seinfeld.

For those looking for a good, quiet place to drink and watch the game, I have to give a nod to Blaggard’s Pub on 35th between 5th and 6th Ave. The food is obviously just bar food, but the drafts are large and there’s no crowd to speak of. Of course, when I was there, USC knocked off Cal, so maybe the superstitious among you will call the place “bad luck.”

And that’s about it. As always, New York City was a blast. Hopefully we can advance far enough in the preseason NIT next year to make a third-straight trip. But next up for my own travels is Phoenix, coming up this Friday. I’ll have an open post for recommendations sometime after the Texas Southern post-game.

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The thing about New York is that they treat ice as a valuable commodity. Hell, when we were in the financial district, I had to ask around to make sure it wasn’t being traded alongside gold, silver, and oil.

You order a water in this town and get some lukewarm liquid straight from the tap. Actually ask for ice and you may even get a sideways glance. Order a soda at many places and you’ll get only the can. If you’re lucky, it might even be cold.

But the food in New York….oh, the food. It more than makes up for the city’s miserly attitude towards ice. Everywhere you go, you can find great meals from diverse locations, and even in every price range.

The first night I ate at Zorba’s in Astoria (29-05 23rd Ave), a friendly little Greek restaurant that I always make it a point to visit. The staff is great, the food is quality, and there’s always sports on the TV in the corner.

The waitress informed me that a movie was filming in the neighborhood, starring Uma Thurman and “a guy from Grey’s Anatomy.” A later IMDb search revealed the guy to be Jeffrey Dean Moran (Denny from the show) and the movie to be The Accidental Husband. I just missed the shooting one morning after visiting the Astoria Bagel Shop (28-12 Ditmars), and they returned for another shooting day just after I left town. It’s really quite depressing, because…well…it’s Uma, Jerry! Uma!

Thursday’s lunch was at a Cantonese place on the east side of the city called Phoenix Garden (242 E 40th St). It is Zagat-rated, but as we were too cheap to pay for Zagat’s expertise, we had to hope the rating wasn’t “worse than reheated dog turds.” In the end, it was better than microwaved canine feces, but it was really just….blah. It had a nice atmosphere and an even nicer owner, but the food was average and the tables were practically on top of each other.

Next we randomly hopped on the 7 train to Shea Stadium. And I’ll tell you something — John Rocker is a fucking liar. There were no kids with purple hair, no moms with four kids, and it really didn’t look like Beirut. In fact, we were treated to a nice guerilla-style musical performance from a guitarist who sang like Rufus Wainwright. But then again, we’re a lot nicer than that washed-up hack pitcher.

Shea Stadium isn’t very exciting in the offseason. Although, we did see this truck with a sticker that should make Mets fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The parking lot was host some giant pink tents emblazoned with “CIRCO VAZQUEZ.” It looked the exact opposite of a circus — the place was deserted, no one was having fun, and there were no clowns doing blow in a dilapidated trailer. Since the place seemed to be more of a ruse to steal our kidneys than a place with trapeze artists, we split. But not before snapping this picture.

After that came Madison Square Garden. And we all know what happened with Michigan State. But the Maryland/St. John’s tilt was fun to watch, if only for the clinic that the Terps put on. They’ve got a young, talented pair in their backcourt with Eric Hayes and Greivis Vasquez, Kevin Durant’s teammate at Montrose Christian. They will be tested by the tough ACC schedule, but Maryland is going to be a tournament team in March, and they are going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Madison Square Garden is a good arena because there isn’t a bad seat in the house. But while the court has more lights on it than a small island nation, the rest of the arena is lit like a seance. It made taking pictures difficult, which is unfortunate because St. John’s student section made our weak one look a lot better. They had maybe 20 people — Students? Who actually knows? — even though they were playing in their own city against big-name schools. We had a better student turnout against Lenoir-Rhyne for an exhibition.

I’ll cover part two of the NYC trip tomorrow, and bring you a preview of our overmatched opponents from Texas Southern on Tuesday morning.

So the comment feature is fixed for those of you using Internet Explorer. Of course, for you IE folks the layout and colors still look like a baby vomited up pea soup. And for that I apologize.

If any of my readers happen to be HTML or CSS geniuses and would like to offer some help, please feel free. I might give you a piece of gum I chewed, which will definitely fetch a pretty penny on eBay. Or I could just give you a public thanks in this space.

But in the meantime, for all of you who have e-mailed or IMed to say the comment feature doesn’t work — problem solved. Talk amongst yourselves. I’m all verklempt.