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.

TV: ESPN, 7 PM CT
Radio: KVET (1300 AM)

Just nine months ago, LSU ended Texas’ season in an overtime battle at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Just hours later, I had decided to attend every game in the 2006-07 season. Just a few months later we had said goodbye to LaMarcus Aldridge, P.J. Tucker, Daniel Gibson, and Mike Williams. And that’s why tonight’s game just doesn’t feel like much of a rematch to me.

For #11 LSU (5-1), it’s the second “rematch” in only a week with a team they defeated in their Final Four run, having re-defeated A&M on Tuesday night. But while Texas (5-2) looks like a completely different team this season, the Tigers return three starters from last year’s squad and have Tack Minor back from the injury that limited him to only three games in 2005. The most notable guy coming back is Glen “Big Baby” Davis. But Big Baby isn’t quite so big this time around. He has reportedly shed over 50 pounds and is much more agile under the basket. His free throw shooting is still only in the 70-percent range, but otherwise I fully expect him to absolutely abuse the Horns all night long.

Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple also return to LSU’s starting lineup, following up on their outstanding freshman seasons. While Mitchell primarily plays on the wing, he will occassionally move down low so that Davis can move to small forward. Temple is very good for a sophomore point guard, running the game well and keeping his turnovers low. In fact, he hasn’t even turned the ball over in the last two games. He can also shoot, hitting his threes at a 36% clip.

Senior forward Darnell Lazare missed the A&M game with an injury, but is expected to start tonight against Texas. He is shooting 70% so far this year to follow up on his 49% shooting last season. If Lazare is unable to play due to his injury, we can expect to see a lot more of Magnum Rolle, who started in his place against A&M.

This is going to get old really quickly this season, but my key points are going to seem to be the exact same every time. LSU is a lot bigger than us and brings in a lot more experience. They outrebounded a very physical Aggie team by eleven in Tuesday night’s game. Although A&M’s big men were in foul trouble for much of the game, I don’t really expect the Longhorns to have much more success against LSU’s great front line. LSU will score the bulk of their points against our weak interior defense, particularly when the less-experienced Matt Hill and Connor Atchley are in the game.

Texas can shoot the three much better than LSU, although the Tigers are a hot-and-cold team so far this year from behind the arc. They have hit 42 percent of their threes on the year, but have alternated between great shooting nights (58% against Nicholls State) and abysmal ones (22% in the loss to Wichita State). Taking these last two points to heart, Coach Barnes will likely run a 2-3 zone for most of the night in an attempt to deny the entry pass to LSU’s big men. And if LSU happens to be on one of its “off” nights from behind the arc, the Longhorns should be able to maintain that defensive scheme for most of the game.

If you’re looking for a way to beat the Tigers, the Shockers used a lot of back door cuts to exploit LSU’s weakness. They certainly didn’t make them pay behind the arc, as WSU was even worse than the Tigers in that game, shooting 2-for-14 from three-point range. This isn’t to say that Texas can’t win by doing the exact opposite — that is, hitting threes and not exploiting the back door cut — but I’m not holding out much hope.

Personally, I think this is going to be an important game for our big guys down low. So far they are soft and look like they are going to be picked on all season. Hopefully getting pounded tonight will wake them up and prepare them for what they are going to see from most of the physical Big 12 teams.

Keep an eye on D.J. Augustin, to see how he will bounce back from his really rough game against Gonzaga. It’ll be important for him to keep those turnovers down and to limit the dumb fouls he is very fond of picking up. Our big men are going to be picking up their share of fouls in this contest, so we don’t need our guards adding to the team foul totals and putting LSU in the bonus before the under-sixteen TV timeout.

A.J. Abrams also had an incredibly frustrating game against the Zags, going absolutely cold from the field. I fully expect him to still come out firing tonight. If he’s shooting well and Durant is providing his usual 20-plus point night, Texas should hang in the game for a while before LSU’s inside strength and experience allow them to pull away.

Hopefully I’m wrong. Hopefully the Longhorns don’t get killed on the glass, on second-chance points, and in the paint. But hopefully you can find solace in the many shots that ESPN should show of LSU’s delicious Golden Girls. And if for some reason ESPN lets you down on that front, I leave you with a video of the Golden Girls to ease the pain. God bless you, YouTube.

It’s been a long, slow week with no Texas games to hold my attention. But considering that I’ve worked a 40-hour week in addition to the last week of classes, I don’t know that I’d have had time for any previews or post-games. Hell, I’ve still got LSU/A&M, Oklahoma State/Syracuse and — don’t laugh — even Ohio State/UNC on the Tivo to watch. You might say I’m a bit behind on things.

Tomorrow is a great day for college basketball fans. Instead of football dominating the screen all day, we have hoops from morning to night. Granted, I’ll be working again and have to miss it all. But if my Tivo doesn’t explode from overload, I might have a few more games to record.

In the interest of having content on this “dead” week, here are some of tomorrow’s match-ups, with channels and (central) tip times:

George Mason at Duke (11 AM, ESPN): I’m not sure that George Mason has a snowball’s chance in hell, considering they are being picked behind Hofstra in their own conference. But it’s nice to see GMU getting some national coverage as a result of their miracle run to the Final Four in March. No word on whether or not the Patriots will be sporting their brand new yellow Nike jerseys. Hopefully they look nothing like Oregon’s football uniforms.

Wisconsin at Marquette (1 PM, ESPN): I’ve liked Wisconsin all offseason, as they are returning a lot of experience this season. I’m not sure if they can overtake Oden and the Buckeyes for the Big 10 title, but they will certainly not be a team to take lightly come March. This weekend they get to take on the “other” good basketball team in the state. No Dwayne Wade, but it should still be a fun matchup.

Centenary at Texas Tech (1 PM, no local TV): This isn’t actually going to be worth watching. But it’s two teams that we’ll be playing in the near future, so it’s at least worth reading the box score when all is said and done. One sign that this game going to be a bore? Fox Southwest would rather air a football game between Blinn JuCo and Pearl River.

Texas A&M vs. UCLA (1:30 PM, CBS): As I still haven’t watched the A&M/LSU game, I can only gauge this year’s Aggy squad on what I’ve read about their performance. And based solely on hearsay, I’d have to say UCLA has this in the bag, particularly since this “neutral site” game is being played in Anaheim. Much like the tougher non-conference opponents Texas has scheduled, this contest offers A&M a chance to get some experience before the Big 12 slate rolls around. Which is something that Billy Gillispie’s previous non-conference slates of South Tennessee Technical State and Puerto Rico Beauty College just couldn’t provide.

Washington at Gonzaga (10 PM, Fox Pacific): Is Washington for real? This is the first true test for the Huskies as they head into very hostile territory, playing the Bulldogs in what amounts to an overcrowded high school gym. Gonzaga is looking to bounce back from a loss to Washington State, and Texas is looking for a little help in the RPI with a Zags win. For those who actually get Fox Pacific (channel 433 for TW digital subscribers in Austin), keep your eyes on the Huskies’ beanpole freshman Spencer Hawes.

Click here to open the Phoenix photo gallery in a new window.

Phoenix is an oasis in the desert, a sprawling bit of suburban excess that somehow fills one of the most uninhabitable places in the country. You’ve got Glendale, Scottsdale, Avondale, and really just about every type of “dale” you could want. And considering a “dale” is a valley, I’m surprised that the fine folks of Arizona didn’t create their own Deathdale to compete with that more-famous valley over in California. Hell, the name would even go along with the ancient population of Arizona, or at least suggest their impending fate.

This introduction isn’t my way of saying I hate Arizona. Rather, it’s a nice enough place, with lots of sun and great winter weather. But when you really think about it, it’s still a desert. Where they built a bunch of cities. And I guess that may make heatstroke a reasonable explanation for the absurd frontage-road traffic lights they have. Let’s put it this way — if I’m sober and the painted markings on the road read like Cyrillic, that’s probably not a good thing.

Like I said earlier, there’s a lot of old people in the greater Phoenix area. A lot. I used to think Florida was where retirees go to die. Apparently the annual hurricane onslaughts have moved them all to Arizona. But when you couple that with the gorgeous young co-eds of Arizona State, it’s a very weird cross-section of American life. There’s a ton of golf courses, which is a must for any retiree-friendly area. But the nightlife is also pretty respectable, not that Playboy’s “#1 Party School” needs bars to have a good time.

In my three days in the desert, I managed to catch two college basketball games and an NBA one, all in the same place. Friday night, I saw the Phoenix Suns-Milwaukee Bucks game, which only further underscored my belief that the League has absolutely nothing on the excitement of college basketball. While the Suns had the hottest strippers dance team I’d ever laid eyes on — my apologies to the Oklahoma State pom squad — the style of play and lack of fan involvement is really a drag.

After the game, we Bomar-ed an In-N-Out double-double somewhere in Annendalevilledaledale. While a general rule of thumb on my trips is to eat at places considered “local” and avoid chain restaurants, a huge exception had to be made for In-N-Out. Unless rumors of expansion into the Dallas market come true, the closest place an Austinite can find these delicious burgers is in Arizona. ..just a hop, skip, and 15-hour car ride away. So you’ll have to excuse my simplistic meal choice on this trip, not just once, but again on Sunday before I left town.

Downtown Phoenix is a really nice area in the midst of renovations, including what looks to be a trolley being built through many of the streets. I’m a huge proponent of mass transit, especially in sprawling urban areas like Phoenix and Austin. Not to get too far off on a tangent, but the thing being built in Phoenix looks a lot more useful than the light rail being thrown up in Austin. Like, for instance…it actually goes through downtown.

Breakfast was eaten at a nice little place not far from the arena called First Watch. I later found out that this is also a chain, but considering none of us had ever heard of it, the place was new to us. They had a ton of great, healthy breakfast options, including about 22,583 variations on the omelette. After a good, filling breakfast and a quick visit to an outdoor mall a few blocks away, it was time for a Saturday that was all about basketball.

The Horns opened the doubleheader with a game against Gonzaga that I’d generally like to forget. But if you’d like to revisit it for some reason, feel free to read my post-game wrapup.

That nightmare was followed by a great matchup between Illinois and Arizona in front of an absolutely deafening crowd. I’d say the arena was probably about 75% Arizona folks, 15% Illini faithful, 8% Gonzaga fans, and the small burnt orange contingent. Even though they were outnumbered, the Illini fans roared with every basket as they took a huge first-half lead. Arizona mounted a comeback and eventually won, but every single score resulted in an eruption of noise from one group or the other. And in a small NBA arena built specifically for basketball, that sound reverberated. Just a night after finding the NBA wine-and-cheese crowd a bit on the comatose side, I was reminded why college basketball is still the best thing around.

Somehow our group of four UT fans had bought seats on the 2nd row behind the basket, but right in the middle of where the U of A band was supposed to be sitting. Apparently there had been a mistake in the ticketing office, because there were only about four rows of fans who had been sold seats there, and the usher staff was prepared for our arrival. They moved all of us a section to the left, even closer to the benches, leaving space for the Wildcat band. And they were a really entertaining bunch. Seeing fans, cheerleaders, and even the band from a university that is truly a “basketball” school really makes a Longhorn fan pine for that kind of involvement in the Frank Erwin Center. I know we’ll never fully get there, but I’d love to see some huge steps taken in the near future.

Saturday night we called ahead to Richardson’s (map), what many call the best restaurant in town. It serves what they have dubbed “New Mexico cuisine” and is a very popular choice, despite its odd location in what amounts to a tiny strip mall on the north side of town. After waiting nearly two hours — and catching the triple-overtime football game between Rutgers and West Virginia on the bar TVs — we were treated to an absolutely amazing meal. I enjoyed some of the best enchiladas I’ve had, a delicious combination of blue-corn tortillas, turkey, and an incredible mushroom-cheese sauce. The only tip I give to those willing to brave the long wait for Richardson’s is to avoid the margaritas. Horribly overpriced and overrated, they tasted more like an alcohol-free limeade than anything. Perhaps we’re spoiled coming from Texas, but those margaritas eran teribles.

Sunday we spent the late morning hours touring the Desert Botanical Garden. It’s a place not far from the criss-crossing streets of suburbia, yet still quiet enough to feel removed. Considering it’s a garden in a desert, most of the plants are cacti. And evidently there’s about a million different kinds of cacti that can grow out there. Some of my favorites are in the photo gallery from this trip, although there was no way I could have captured all of the variety housed at the Desert Botanical Garden.

If you happen to go, I’d suggest doing it without kids, or at least with ones that have taken a nap earlier in the day. The paths can get to be repetitive and tiresome for the little ones, so they may lose interest and get bored. Be sure to check the guestbook on your way out, though. The comments left by field-trip kids are absolutely priceless, if not a bit harsh. My favorite? “It has been a year since I came here. I changed a lot, but this place didn’t.”

All told, it’s not a bad place to visit. And if you take away a shitty performance against the Zags, it was a pretty good weekend getaway. I’m not sure I could ever live in Phoenixdale, but I wouldn’t mind coming back if any future NCAA brackets happened to send us through the area.

It’s tough to know where to even begin after Gonzaga manhandled Texas in Phoenix on Saturday, winning by a score of 87-77. The game was much more one-sided than the final margin indicated, as the Zags failed to score in the final 5:32 of play, while the Texas backups hit seemingly every three pointer they took. But for a majority of the other 35 minutes of play, Gonzaga absolutely embarrassed the Longhorns in front of ESPN’s national audience.

Justin Mason and Dexter Pittman provided the few bright spots for Texas on an otherwise dark day. And we’ll give them their due coverage later on. But for now, let’s get all of the negative crap out of the way.

You may be shocked to learn this, but a 2-3 zone is not impossible to beat. In fact, most teams can do it. But for the Texas Longhorns, their attempts certainly seemed like a pre-schooler trying to break down Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The main “tactic” employed by the Horns involved dribbling around the three-point line, maybe passing it around the arc, and then jacking up a three-pointer. Somehow, this failed to work.

I didn’t have overly high hopes coming in to the game. In fact, I’d mentally conceded the game and hoped to just keep it within ten points. But to see a team struggle so mightily with a freakin 2-3 zone just blows my mind. Dribble penetrate. Get quick ball movement. It’s really not rocket science.

For a brief stretch in the second half, Kevin Durant seemed to get it. He called for the ball and penetrated the zone. Because Durant is a genetic freak amongst mere mortals, he didn’t even need to find the open man once the penetration caused the zone to collapse. He was able to finish shots and draw fouls. But apart from the few minutes where KD’s light bulb flicked on, there was no joy in Mudville on Saturday.

D.J. Augustin had an absolutely abysmal day. And when you can’t seem to break down the zone, having a struggling point guard certainly doesn’t help the situation. Augustin had many more turnovers than usual, giving the ball to the Zags four times, and made stupid fouls that seemed to be a result of frustration. Hopefully he’ll get things straightened out a bit before Sunday’s tilt with LSU.

Perhaps even more frustrating than the stagnant offense, though, was the defense’s inability to contain Derek Raivio. Readers of this column may have even remembered a little nugget of wisdom I shared Saturday morning:

If Gonzaga gets good ball movement or successfully draws defenders into the lane before kicking it out, Raivio should get his share of decent looks from behind the arc. For Texas, it seems that Heytvelt’s success is inevitable. The key is to make sure that they don’t also allow Raivio to go off on them as they are trying to completely shut down Heytvelt.

Please, don’t start calling me a prophet. It might go to my head. But here’s the thing. If Raivio’s outside threat was painfully obvious to someone as dumb as me, why wasn’t the team prepared for it?

The Horns did a pretty good job shutting down Heytvelt. He got some points and rebounds, as was to be expected. But Raivio was able to knock down seven three-pointers in the midst of a 27-point night, shooting 50% from behind the arc.

“We weren’t aware of where he was sometimes,” Durant said after the game. “They just made an extra pass, and he was wide open.” And that’s how you get your ass handed to you by a guy who looks like he idolizes Eminem.

A.J. Abrams had one of his toughest games as a Longhorn, and certainly his worst of the season. Gonzaga, although playing in a zone defense, was aware of his threat and compensated, shading towards him. He was unable to get clean, open looks, but that didn’t stop him from shooting. A.J. finished 1-for-11 from behind the arc, and 3-for-17 overall.

I said in my pre-game post that if Abrams went cold, it’d be a long day. But now we have to wonder if A.J.’s scoring is going to be key to every game. Much like the Raivio-Heytvelt combo of Gonzaga, I feel that teams will not be able to shut down both Abrams and Durant. Perhaps Gonzaga has shown that it’s best for teams to take their lumps with Durant and key on A.J.

The rebounding was not nearly as one-sided as I’d anticipated. The Zags only outrebounded the Horns by a 38-34 margin. And most importantly for Texas, they limited Gonzaga to very few second-chance points. I can’t find the exact stat anywhere on the web, but near the end of the game I believe that the scoreboard in the U.S. Airways Center said Gonzaga had only eight second-chance points.

Justin Mason had a breakout game offensively on Saturday. We’ve all known that he is a quality defender, and he continues to provide for Texas in that role. But against Gonzaga, Justin played almost the entire game (35 minutes) and scored 17 points, taking advantage of his speed by cutting to the hoop for easy baskets. He also was hot from behind the arc, hitting 3-of-5.

Dexter Pittman did not see much action, but looked good while he was in the game. He grabbed two rebounds and scored four points in only four minutes of play. Unfortunately, he wasn’t really cut out for the game that Barnes knew Gonzaga was going to give them, and it limited Big Dex’s time. Gonzaga likes to run the floor, and the Horns tried to match that speed for most of the first half. With the intense workout regimen Pittman is on, coupled with the fact that he’s still a big, big guy, he won’t be able to play very long in these up-and-down type contests. I do think, however, that he will be useful against teams like A&M who tend to slow things down and make it a physical battle inside.

The great thing to keep in mind is that it’s a long season and this is a young team. In fact, that’s why I’m so excited about the journey I’m undertaking this year. Without a doubt, the team that we saw against Michigan State is going to be miles away from the team we see in Oklahoma City for the Big 12 tournament. Hell, the team we saw against Michigan State was even different from the team we saw against Gonzaga. And while some things were exploited by Gonzaga, there were other aspects of our game that have improved, and players that have stepped up in the two weeks since New York City.

It’s going to be a frustrating season. But I still feel this is a tournament-caliber team and we’ll have to see how the cards fall come March. In the meantime, the team just needs to try to earn a few important non-conference wins this month, and then move on to Big 12 play. And as fans, we just need to have a little patience.