TV: ESPN2, 8 PM CT

That odd sound you hear coming from the Erwin Center isn’t actually a pig call. It’s really a celebratory cry after another welfare check is succesfully cashed. And with an intro like that, there can only be one team in town to face the Horns tonight — the hated Arkansas Razorbacks, and their unwashed fans. They’re a lot like Sooners, only fatter.

As for the basketball, it should be a fun game. For Texas, it provides another chance to beat a high-quality RPI opponent and pad the March resume. Arkansas is currently ranked 20th in Ken Pomeroy’s RPI approximation, despite getting manhandled by Missouri earlier this season and Texas Tech in Little Rock last weekend.

The Tech win is a little bit misleading, as a look inside the numbers will reveal. The Red Raiders shot lights out in the game, hitting at a 54.3% clip, including 6-of-10 from behind the arc. Arkansas, on the other hand, took nearly half of their shots from three-point land and had a success rate below the Mendoza line. The Pigs were 3-for-21 on threes, or 14.3% successful.

Arkansas has a much bigger team than the Texas State squad the Horns beat up on, but it may not make a huge difference in the rebounding department. Seven-footer Steven Hill provides quality minutes off the bench for the Razorbacks, averaging just over a half of play per game, but is only averaging 2.7 boards. Something doesn’t quite add up for this guy, and fortunately for Texas the sum is a giant with piss-poor rebounding skills. Darian Townes and Vincent Hunter are both 6-10 guys but generally useless on the glass. They also come off the pine for Arkansas and average roughly seventeen minutes a game.

Offensively, Texas will have to deal with star freshman Patrick Beverley. He leads the team in scoring, but struggled in the win over West Virginia and the loss to Texas Tech. His scoring average comes mostly from dropping 29 points in the opener against Southeast Missouri State and another nineteen on Oakland. Other than those two games, he has yet to truly show the talent he possesses. Hopefully it doesn’t come out tonight at the Drum.

Texas should be able to get their share of transition baskets in this game. With Barnes’ focus on defense, plus a Razorback team that averages 17.8 turnovers a game — yes, you read that right — Texas should get a fair number of chances at pushing the tempo. And fortunately for the Horns, the teams that have been able to do that against Arkansas have found success.

As always, the keys for Texas are Kevin Durant, rebounding, and quality minutes from their inside men. I can’t help but think that Durant will bounce back from his shockingly mortal game against Texas State. As for rebounding, the lack of skill possessed by the Razorback big men will likely cancel out their height advantages. And if the past few games are any indication, we should see more quality time from Connor Atchley and a few solid minutes from Pittman as well. Only time will tell how Matt Hill does against the Pigs, but I don’t think his contributions will be as key as Atchley’s.

I think Texas can win this in front of a home crowd with a team still riding high from the LSU upset. Keep your eyes on A.J. Abrams to see how he bounces back from Saturday’s rough outing. And as always, look for great things from our exciting freshmen D.J. Augustin and Justin Mason.

UT announced today that there were still 2,200 tickets available as of 10:30 this morning. So if you’re in town, get yourself out to the Erwin Center and help to revive this old rivalry. I can still remember being at the last home game against them in 1991 and the atmosphere and mutual hatred was amazing. With any luck, by the end of this four-year contract we can get the series back to where it was under Tom “Fake-Bake” Penders and Nolan Richardson.

Tip’s at 8 P.M. Hope to see you there.

Coach Rick Barnes earned his 400th career win on Saturday as the Longhorns defeated Texas State, but it wasn’t pretty. That’s not to say it wasn’t an easy win, because it was — Texas pulled away in the second half and won by a final score of 96-70. But in a game marred by sloppy play and excessive fouling, it was hard for either team to look good doing it.

There were certainly bright spots for Texas despite their 19 turnovers. D.J. Augustin again had an outstanding offensive effort, following up his stellar performance against LSU with another 24 points against the Bobcats. He knocked down his two three-point shots, and on a day where Texas State had ten team fouls only eight minutes into the game, Augustin hit twelve of his thirteen free throws. The Bobcats finished the game with 31 team fouls and miraculously only had one player foul out.

Justin Mason looked good again, and the three-point stroke we saw from him in the waning minutes of the Gonzaga game returned. Jay was 2-for-3 from behind the arc and finished with eighteen points. He was active all over the floor, ripping down five defensive rebounds (seven total) and was credited with two steals. Mason is by far the biggest surprise of the season for me, and I’m thrilled to have him in our starting five every night.

The minutes from our young big men were once again outstanding. Like Augustin, Connor Atchley followed up his solid LSU game with another great effort. He provided 22 minutes off the bench, giving the team ten points, two blocks, and continued to show his improvement defensively.

One thing Atchley has done very well all season long is provide solid screens, and he gave one of the best I’d seen on Saturday afternoon. Bobcat Antwoine Blanchard ran straight into Atchley’s pick and fell to the ground. It was like seeing Wile E. Coyote hit a brick wall. Blanchard had to have medical staff come out to check on him, but ultimately was well enough to come back into the game.

Two of Atchley’s ten points came on a dunk right in the face of a Bobcat defender, which was the first time that I could remember Atchley successfully finishing a dunk attempt. But I’m not saying that his game is solely going to be inside now; Connor still tried two shots from the outside, although he missed both. We’ve all seen that he can hit those, so it’s important for him to keep shooting. When he can score on the outside as well, he throws a wrench into man-to-man defenses and their rebounding efforts.

Speaking of rebounding, the Longhorns had fun against their smaller opponents from San Marcos. Texas won the battle of the glass by a lopsided 51-33 margin, converting their 23 offensive boards into nineteen second-chance points.

Damion James was the most prolific rebounder of the day for the Horns, bringing down ten. He also looked better offensively, finishing strong on dunks and taking the ball to the hole. He finished the game with a double-double, scoring ten points.

Dexter Pittman played only six minutes at the end of the game, but somehow almost came up with his own double-double. He vacuumed up every rebound for a total of five, and actively called for the ball in the post. Harrison Smith set him up with a pair of nice entry passes in the pair’s limited minutes. Pittman went straight up — something that I’m hoping Matt Hill will pick up on soon — and forced his way to the line. He finished 5-for-9 at the line — nine free throws in six minutes! — and scored nine points. He also shamed a Bobcat player and his entire family with a monster rejection.

An unfortunate side effect of the sloppy, foul-ridden game was a poor day for Kevin Durant and A.J. Abrams. Both had three fouls on the day, and Durant spent much of the late first half riding the pine. I’m not sure if that was to protect him from foul trouble or to punish him for the sloppy ballhandling he showed in the game; Durant finished with four turnovers. He did make up for it, swiping four on the other end.

Abrams struggled with his shot in his 31 minutes, going 2-for-11 from the field and 1-for-3 from behind the arc. One point that might be lost amidst his rough shooting day was the effort he gave in creating closer looks for himself. Rather than be content with jacking up threes, A.J. made a lot of good cuts to the basket. Sometimes it resulted in off-balance misses, once it ended with a great layup, and twice it sent him to the line where he hit all four free throws.

For Coach Barnes, the win pushed his career mark to 400 wins and 212 losses, and his Longhorn win total rose to 198 against only 78 losses. His 200th win could come as early as Saturday in Knoxville, Tennessee, but will come no later than January 2nd against UT-Arlington at home.

Tonight the Longhorns look for 199 against Arkansas, with a tip time of 8 P.M. Which means in addition to this very delayed write-up, you also get a Razorback preview. It’s content Wednesday! Preview coming to you within the hour.

TV: 3 P.M., Fox Sports Net (Texas only)

The Texas Longhorns (6-2) get a break from their brutal December non-conference slate as they host perennial patsy Texas State (4-5) in a 3 P.M. game at the Frank Erwin Center. Considering that the Bobcats have beaten Texas only five times in 40 tries and have already lost this year to such powerhouses as the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and University of Texas Pan-Am, I feel that the Longhorns should do just fine.

Texas State is a very small team, with their tallest players checking in at 6-foot-7, one of whom is sophomore guard Brandon Bush. They run a three-guard look with a bench that runs only about two or three deep. Although eleven players saw significant minutes in Texas State’s last game against UT-Permian Basin, the game was a blowout over a Division II opponent and allowed the team a chance to play the scrubs.

Although a guard, Bush leads the team in minutes, points, and rebounds per game. Against UTPB, he scored 21 points and logged six assists. Freshman Atnwon Williams notched his highest rebounding total in the Bobcats’ win, ripping down fourteen boards. But most importanly for Texas State, their win over UTPB avenged a loss from last season — yes, a loss to a D-2 school — and pushed their 2006-07 wins past last season’s grand total of three.

For Texas, this will be a chance to get some more experience for our less-seasoned players and an opportunity to fine-tune some aspects of the game. We know that Kevin Durant, A.J. Abrams, and D.J. Augustin should do fine against this team. Hell, the whole squad should look great against the Bobcats. But personally, I will most interested to see if Connor Atchley picks up where he left off on Sunday night. He seems to do fine against the lesser opponents — think back to his great game against Lousiana-Monroe last November — so he should be perfectly fine against Texas State. But psychologically, I think it would be good for him to have two solid games of momentum coming into the Arkansas tilt on Wednesday.

Damion James needs to continue his re-emergence on the offensive end and on the glass. He has been working his way back to the level we saw in the earliest games of the season, and we will need him to play at that same level (or higher) when conference play arrives. Also, it would be good to have “The Omen” reach the free throw line and get those four misses from LSU out of his head. According to recruiting gurus, he was not a poor free throw shooter in high school, so I’d like to see that mental block disappear.

I’m hoping to see more quality minutes from Dexter Pittman this afternoon. With the game likely well in hand before halftime — the Longhorns have won the last two contests by an average of 34 points — Pittman should get a chance to work on his inside game with his leaner frame. He should also get in some good conditioning, because I’m guessing that Texas State and its three-guard scheme will push the tempo.

We will get a chance to see more out of Craig Winder and J.D. Lewis today, and hopefully there will be more playing time for Harrison Smith. Besides J.D. giving our starting guards rest, none of these players have much of a role with the team yet. And honestly, I’m no sure that Smith is going to have much of one this season. But it’d be good for him to get as much experience as possible to prepare him for future years. And as far as Winder and Lewis go, they’ll need to be ready to give some important minutes off the bench as the long season wears on and our starting five start to feel its wear and tear.

Of course, the subplot of the game is the inevitable 400th win for Rick Barnes. There isn’t much suspense here, but it will be nice to see him recognized after the game. Coach’s 200th win at Texas is also fast approaching, although there is the possibility it could come as early as the road game Tennessee. I’d never like to see a Texas team lose, but if it happens that way, then Barnes’ 200th Longhorn win would come at home against Centenary.

For me, the most intriguing storyline of the day is whether or not I can make it to tipoff in time. As I type this, I’m waiting outside the Erwin Center to reserve my seat when doors open in just over an hour. Then it’s a rush over to the UTC for a 2 P.M. final exam in a fairly easy elective. The goal time for finishing the final is 30 minutes, at which point I’ll then sprint up the bitch of a hill on MLK and try to reach the front row of the South O-Zone by a 3 P.M. tip. Wish me luck. Or just bring me a bottle of water for my post-run thirst.

For those of you in Austin, they are running a ticket special on this one — buy two general admission tickets and get a third free. And with many students already gone for the holidays, there should be a bevy of seats behind either basket that will be open for GA folks to sit in.

If you’ve seen this man, please call authorities immediately. He is deranged, criminally underdressed, and apparently out of his medication. Police think he may be trying to push his trailer home down a dirt road in the direction of Austin. If you see him trying to enter the Frank Erwin Center on December 20th, please give him a sweatshirt. Or some tranquilizers.

Wow.

That was about the only reaction I could muster after last night’s game with LSU in Houston, which ended with a 76-75 Longhorn victory in overtime. And 24 hours later, it’s still the main thought running through my head. There’s so much to talk about, it’s hard to keep it straight.

There was D.J. Augustin, who took his early flashes of offensive brilliance and turned in the performance of the year. There was Connor Atchley, who looked remarkably unlike the Connor Atchley Texas fans are used to. Then there’s the implications this has on March, even though we’re still twelve weeks from Selection Sunday. There’s the drunken LSU fan on row one. And of course, there’s the complete lack of the LSU Golden Girls, which is basically a crime against humanity.

I figure you have to start with Augustin, who dropped 25 points on the Tigers as 50 fans from his New Orleans high school watched, waving “D.J.” signs and sporting the school’s colors of garnet and gold. His performance in the one game was good enough for Big 12 Rookie of the Week, as announced today by the league office.

After the last game, I noted Augustin’s lack of dribble penetration against the Gonzaga zone. Sunday night, he was able to do that time and time again against an LSU man defense that seemed a little too committed to sticking A.J. Abrams and Kevin Durant. He started the game by driving to the bucket, laying it in, and drawing the foul. It was a sign of things to come, as he seemed to effortlessly control the game the rest of the way.

Coming into the game, I expected the Atchley/Hill/Pittman platoon to eat up some minutes and absorb some fouls against the physical Glen “Big Baby” Davis (real name Ronald). Instead, Connor Atchley played the game of his life, giving Coach Rick Barnes 27 strong minutes, 9 points, and 6 rebounds. But most importantly, Atchley played very well in the middle of the 2-3 zone’s back line. In the past, Atchley was constantly picked on by opposing teams in the past — even St. John’s — but on Sunday night he performed admirably.

Sure, the Tigers got the best of him occasionally, but the Atchley we saw last night was head and shoulders above his past performances. And I’d like to see him used more in the zone defense in the future. He has always struggled with the man-to-man defense, often getting lost on screens…or just lost, period. I feel that Barnes can get him some more practice with the man defense against Texas State, Centenary, and UT-Arlington. But the next time that the team is in its 2-3 zone, I have a strong feeling that I won’t instinctively cringe if I see Connor run to the scorer’s table.

Durant was well off of his season scoring average, providing only eleven points in his 43 minutes. But he contributed in so many other ways, including one that won’t show up on any stat sheets. Much of Augustin’s success can be attributed to the game plan that LSU coach John Brady utilized, which keyed on Durant and Abrams much of the night. In addition to the huge boost his mere presence brought to the offense, K-Smoove also ripped down ten boards and blocked four shots.

Damion James matched Durant’s double-double, scoring ten while logging thirteen boards. And the really frightening thing is that we’ve yet to see all that Damion can do. Many fans will focus on the four missed free throws in crunch time. But James is an athletic freak, and he makes a huge difference for the Horns both on defense and on the glass. He still misses some point blank shots, a problem dating back to the games in New York. But I feel that by the end of the season, the full package of Damion James will be on display for the conference and the nation to see. And with Durant, Abrams, and Augustin on the same team, that’s going to be one hell of an offense.

Justin Mason was the only Longhorn who seemed to take a significant step back from the Gonzaga game. But considering that he did much better than many of the other players, that was probably to be expected. Mason went 0-for-3 from behind the arc, including one ugly airball. Shot selection has been a problem for Texas in this young season, and I think Jay was afflicted with that disease on Sunday night. He hit some threes during that 18-0 run at the end of the Gonzaga game, so he likely felt more confident to let the shots fly. Mason also turned over the ball four times with only two assists, so he’ll need to just regroup and beat the crap out of Texas State on Saturday.

Most importantly, last night’s win goes a long way to making March a lot less nerve-wracking for Horns fans. I maintained early in the season that a 10-6 conference record would get us into the Big Dance, as long as we won two out of our five tougher non-conference games. However, the one game out of the five that I thought we had no chance in was the LSU contest. Oops.

Now, Texas has a reasonable chance to win two more of its three tough non-cons left. They draw an Arkansas team at home who was absolutely shit-stomped by an up-and-coming Mizzou squad. The road game at Tennessee could be a hell of a test, but as the Volunteers proved last year, games in front of meager Christmas crowds can easily become traps. And the road game at Villanova on January 20th has looked winnable absolutely all season. Win only one of the three, and Texas needs only a 10-6 record in the Big 12 to reach 20 wins. Win two, and they’ll have a nice handful of quality wins — yes, I’m also assuming some quality wins against the RPI top 50 in conference. Simply put, this win was huge in terms of the resumé

As for that drunken LSU fan on row one who got under the referee’s skin, I’ll save him for the picture-laden trip wrap-up. And I’d like to extend a middle-finger salute to the LSU brass for keeping the school’s band and world-class dance team at home. Finals on Monday? Pfffsssssh. That is an unacceptable excuse for the lack of purple-and-gold eye candy.

This week might be light on sports, but keep your eyes peeled here as I bring you more content and new features. I’ll have the overdue Phoenix wrap, a short bit on the one-day Houston trip, and unveil the new photo and map sections which will help bring readers along on the road.