Forgive the tardiness with this breakdown, but the post-New York school catch-up, combined with the holiday family socializing and twenty hours of work in the span of twenty-seven real ones….well, it’s enough to make somebody have a Tom Penders sport-coat-throwing hissy fit. And if this post-game makes little sense — or none at all — I must apologize again, as my blood is probably about 90% tryptophan right now. Mmmmm, mmmm good.

Texas (4-1) had absolutely no problems with Nicholls State (0-6) on Tuesday night, running away with a 91-60 victory. Fortunately for the Horns, Nicholls State was without their two (best) big men, giving them a look reminiscent of last year’s Villanova squad. Of course, the Colonels also have only a fraction of Nova’s talent. Stefan Blaszczynski told me before the game that he had “strained” his foot, while forward James Dixon was just “hurt” according to teammate Eddie Crockett.

With the lack of big men inside for Nicholls State, the Horns absolutely abused their visitors on the glass. Texas finished with a 57-29 rebounding advantage, with Damion James pulling down nine boards. Kevin Durant grabbed twelve en route to another double-double; he also scored 21 points in his 27 minutes of play.

Tuesday’s contest saw more man-to-man defense from the Horns, most noticeably while the bench was being emptied. It was very odd to see Dexter Pittman following his man to the three point line, so those defensive sets stick out in my mind. Pittman played twelve minutes off the bench, scoring eight and logging six rebounds. He looks very good inside — although the talent level of the opponent should be revisited here to temper excitement — but what I think was most important was the fact that he did not pick up a single foul in his increased time.

Justin Mason earned his first collegiate start, and the early lineup of Mason/Durant/James/ Augustin/Abrams came out in the 2-3 zone that Barnes likes to employ when Mason is on the court. I have not mentioned it over the past two weeks, being far too focused on my schoolgirl excitement over Damion James’ immense potential, but Mason is just as scrappy of a player. I love him on the defensive end, he hustles all over the damned place, and he’s not too shabby of a shooter either. Jay knocked down 6-of-10 on the night and finished with fifteen points.

A.J. Abrams once again made himself a huge part of the victory, shooting 7-of-12 from behind the arc and scoring 23 points. He also had a squeaky-clean game on the ballhandling side, with no turnovers and five assists. It’s great to have such a solid team leader who is only a sophomore. And it’s even a little funny to have it be such a tiny guy among the giant youngsters.

I think I came to a realization with Matt Hill during Tuesday night’s game, so I’ll keep my eye on it again next week. There’s no doubt that Hill is a tough player who gets after it. But while I was giving him on the benefit of the doubt on those “near-miss” rebounds, I think I was overlooking the problem. If Hill fought for a board and got a hand (or both) on the ball but ultimately lost it, I was giving him credit for being one of the few who seemed to crash the glass. But after seeing him mishandle a few passes on Tuesday night, I’m starting to think he just doesn’t have soft hands. It definitely explains all the fumbled passes, and it could account for those missed rebounds he gets a paw on, too. We’ll see what happens against Texas Southern next week.

Craig Winder is starting to convince me that he’s made some pretty big strides since last year. I’m hoping that he has his insane athleticism under control, and it’s looking like he might. During the long season, we need some quality minutes from guys other than our core seven players, and I have the most faith in Winder providing them.

Connor Atchley looked a bit better defensively, and even blocked two shots. But — as with Pittman — I think a lot of this had to do with the quality of opponents. Here’s to hoping that beating up on the little guys gives Connor some confidence and the needed quality minutes to improve. And you can chalk up another little victory for Atchley, as he grabbed six boards on the night and kept his foul total down to two.

As I mentioned earlier, Durant logged another double-double on the night. It’s just fun to watch this kid play. He manages to always have some sick blocks — in the Nicholls State game, he stuffed two — and the ridiculous wingspan makes my insides tingle. Kevin did turn the ball over a few times, including yet another gaffe on a crossover attempt. But I figure that when you’re automatically dropping 20 points, even on an off night, I’ll take a turnover or two in exchange.

Harrison Smith saw increased minutes but didn’t make much of an impact on the stat sheet, or my memories. Maybe I was distracted by the dancing cow behind me, or maybe I was snacking on those fine Erwin Center nachos. Either way, I can’t give any notes on the kid. But at least he played a lot more, even though I do kind of remember him being on the floor during most of the garbage minutes.

D.J. Augustin continues to be the little floor general, and was credited with eight assists on Tuesday. He still picks up more fouls than I’d like him to, but as with Durant’s occassional turnovers, I think it just comes with the package. I’m sure that the defensive-minded Barnes will work with D.J. on his foul problems during the season, so we may see improvement. But for now I’m quite happy with his court vision and his hidden scoring threat that we saw break out in New York City.

All told, it was a quality game that allowed us a chance to look at a few more players. And while Nicholls State’s decision to come to Austin was about as ill-conceived as Skittles electing to replace the red ones with strawberry pink ice cream flavor, we appreciate their willingness to walk into the inevitable mudholing.

We get another crappy team this coming Tuesday in Texas Southern. It’ll be your last chance to see the Horns at home until December 16th, so try to get out to the Drum and catch the action. In the meantime, I’ll try to get around to writing about the New York trip at some point this weekend.

I’m wary of predicting another beatdown after the near disaster on Friday night. But even a 13th-place-in-the-Big-East St. John’s team is infinitely better than Nicholls State.

Hailing from Thibodaux, Louisiana, the Colonels of Nicholls State (0-5) make it a school tradition to be everybody else’s bitch. In a 2005-06 season where they went 9-18, the Colonels even found themselves on the losing end of 73-71 score against Lipscomb. Fortunately for Nicholls State, our friends from Texas State were even more futile in the Southland Conference, finishing a full four games behind the Colonels.

Looking at Texas’ weaknesses — rebounding and man-to-man defense — it would seem at first blush that Nicholls State may find some success. But oddly enough, the two senior forwards listed on the roster have yet to play in any of the first five contests. And quite frankly, I don’t care enough about Nicholls State to spend any more time finding out why.

The Colonels do have a beast of a freshman at center in 6-11 Aussie Mitch Boyce. Boyce only averages eighteen minutes a game, but will likely cause problems for Texas on the glass when he’s in the game.

The chunk of their minutes are eaten up by combo guard-forwards, juniors Adonis Gray and Aaron Scott, and sophomore Ryan Bathie. Otherwise, the Colonels seem to have a pretty deep rotation. Of course, with Southland Conference talent, depth may not be a blessing.

Tip is 7 P.M. at the Drum. I have this odd hunch that there will be plenty of seats available, so bring the family and the visiting in-laws out for a beatdown of epic proportions. For those of you in-state who are unable to make it to the Frank Erwin Center, the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest.

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The taste of foot in one’s mouth is never pleasant, but when it’s the alternative to having crow shoved down your throat, you’ll take it. St. John’s came within one shot of beating Texas on Friday night, ultimately falling to the Longhorns in a 77-76 thriller.

On Thursday, I blasted the Red Storm in this column, particularly their ineffective offense. In retrospect, I should’ve been lauding Maryland with a lot more praise and wringing my hands over this Texas team’s atypical lack of defense. With Rick Barnes at the helm, having some individuals unable to play even average man defense is surprising.

Granted, the Johnnies (2-2) shot lights out. And coming a night after they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, it came as quite a shock. But Texas (3-1) didn’t help matters by being unable to react to good ball movement and having men get lost on simple high screens. In addition to rebounding, this is likely going to be a recurring theme for the team this season.

Once again, Kevin Durant carried the Longhorns. As St. John’s came running out of the gate — hitting their first five shots, including a trio three-pointers — Durant single-handedly kept Texas in the game. He opened the game a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc, and finished the night with 29 points and 10 boards.

Durant’s value to the team was made crystal clear in the second half. With roughly fifteen minutes left in the contest and Texas up by nine, he picked up his third foul and was sent to the bench. With Durant out of the game, St. John’s made up a huge chunk of the deficit, tying the game four minutes later. It’s apparent that Damion James is going to need to step up if Durant goes cold or gets into foul trouble later in the year.

D.J. Augustin continued to impress, reaching double digits again with seventeen points and dished out seven assists. This shift to more of a scoring mentality is certainly an added bonus. Texas hasn’t had a true point guard since T.J. Ford led the team to New Orleans and the Final Four in 2003. With Augustin, Barnes has another floor general who can run the show, attract extra defenders, and has an uncanny knack for finding passing lanes invisible to the average player.

I hate to make this the daily Connor Atchley bashing column, but the poor guy is really struggling. It’s clear as day that the scouting report is to attack Atchley, and every team seems to have gotten the memo. Just think back to the brutal three or four-minute stretch in January’s Villanova game for the most painful example of this.

Friday night, St. John’s did the same. Atchley came in at one point, guarding useless foul-magnet Aaron Spears. At the time, Spears had two personals and two points. Roughly twenty seconds later, they fed it to Spears, who isolated Atchley and quickly doubled his meager point total.

Fortunately, Atchley did not pick up the stupid fouls that had plagued him in Thursday’s Michigan State game. And while that helps the Horns in the team fouls department, his defense is still a huge liability. Out of all the players in what is amounting to a seven-man rotation, Atchley is by far the most worrisome. I’m still hoping his light-bulb moment is not far away.

Damion James had another frustrating night on the offensive end and saw his minutes decrease. After playing 31 minutes in the semifinal game against Michigan State, James played only 26 in Friday night’s contest. He scored six points, but did not have the same impact on the defensive end that he did against the Spartans.

The effects of having a short bench were apparent on Friday night, but Coach Barnes was ready to go a little further down the pine to spell his core seven players. J.D. Lewis saw early action to get A.J. Abrams some extra rest, and Dexter Pittman played earlier than usual in an effort to save energy for Matt Hill and Atchley. The two subs only provided six minutes, but the starters desperately needed the (short) early rest after the Michigan State contest.

Abrams only scored twelve points against St. John’s, but played 36 of the 40 minutes. His three-point shooting was a little off, as he finished 3-for-7 on the night. Abrams helped out on the defensive end, logging three steals in the contest.

Texas certainly saw its share of late-game scenarios in New York, and hopefully the added exposure will help by March. The team’s youth showed in the waning moments of Friday night’s game, as time ticked away with the shot clock turned off. St. John’s was at first unaware of the need to foul, but then scrambled as Texas shifted into its half-court set. Justin Mason received the ball on the wing and nearly shot a three-pointer with 14 seconds left and a one-point lead. Then, instead of quickly working the ball around in an effort to get it to Abrams, he held it and waited for the foul. Mason then missed the front end of a one-and-one, allowing St. John’s a final possession and shot for the win. Luckily for the Horns, it was one of the few shots that the Red Storm missed all night.

Thankfully the season is still young and there is more than enough time to work on rebounding and team defense. I just hope that in the meantime, the Horns can play some games that don’t come down to the final possession. At this rate, I’ll be dead from a heart attack before conference play even arrives.

Texas faces St. John’s in the consolation game of the College Hoops Classic tonight at Madison Square Garden, marking the fourth of five straight games that the Longhorns (2-1) will face an opponent with the abbreviation “St.” in their name.

Having watched the Red Storm (2-1) get absolutely dismantled by Maryland, I’m about as concerned over this game as I was Chicago State or Alcorn State. To put it simply, St. John’s handled the press as well as an under-14 rec league team and ran an offense that was seemingly focused on racking up more illegal screen fouls than points.

When not getting whistled every time down the court for clothes-lining someone on a screen, the Red Storm likes to stand around, fail to penetrate, and then feebly attempt to jack up a three-pointer. And while the Texas shooting in the second half last night was certainly a painful thing to watch, I am going to stand in my glass house and throw boulders. The St. John’s offense is so anemic, their shooting is colder than Mark Foley’s wife after reading his instant messages. And following the final twenty minutes of our game last night, that makes my insides happy.

St. John’s also apparently didn’t have time in practice to cover the topic of ball control, which bodes well for a team with the transition game that Texas boasts. Although St. John’s only lost 92-60 to Maryland, the box score won’t show that they actually gave up 183 points off turnovers. Luckily for the Red Storm, Terps coach Gary Williams had decided by halftime to donate the rest of their points to the Oakland Raiders and asked for a running clock.

Most importantly, our pom squad is at least 87 times hotter than the St. John’s football team dance team. Unfortunately for those of us in New York, there is no UT pom, cheer, or band representation here in the city. And a lack of chaps is really quite criminal.

The powers-that-be did, however, rent out a band from Ridgefield Memorial High School in New Jersey. And honestly, thanks kids for all your hard work. But when you can’t play March Grandioso — yet still try to do so four times — I’d really prefer it if you just bring some homework to do. The Ridgefield fight song was a nice touch, though.

Oh yeah, St. John’s. If you’re into exhibition games, tune in tonight at 6 P.M. on ESPN2. But if you had your fill with Lenoir-Rhyne, Xavier University, Alcorn State, and Chicago State, go out and enjoy happy hour at Trudy’s. I’ll recap the mudhole stomping for you tomorrow.