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.

Thursday night’s game at Madison Square Garden provided a good preview for what fans of the 2006-07 Longhorns will be going through this year — ulcers and antacids. Texas fell to Michigan State in a nervewracking Coaches vs. Cancer semifinal on a last second shot, 63-61.

There were some definite bright spots for the Longhorns, most notably the coming out party of freshman point guard D.J. Augustin. But when a team shoots 20.6% from the field in the second half, things are going to get tough.

The young Texas players showed poise, refusing to panic when down ten to the Spartans midway through the first half. The Longhorns fought back and managed to take a four point lead to the locker room. But once the horn sounded for the final twenty minutes of play, the shots stopped falling.

Augustin changed his modus operandi a bit in the contest, finishing more of his drives to the basket with smooth layups. He still utilized the penetrate-and-dish style that we had seen from him last week, most notably on a play near the end of the first half where he passed up an open layup to drop it off to Jay Mason for the basket and the foul.

One great exchange came when a Spartan player embarrassed our defense for a nifty reverse layup. Seconds later, Augustin went to the rack on the other end of the court and one-upped him with a sick layup of his own. For a brief thirty-second span, Madison Square Garden felt like the site of an And-1 Mix Tape exhibition.

A.J. Abrams and Kevin Durant provided their usual offensive sparks for Texas, combining for 43 points — even with Durant shooting only 1-for-9 in a rough second half. Abrams struggled a little to get it started and finished only six-of-thirteen from behind the arc, putting him at a .566 three-point percentage for the young season.

Besides his four blocks — some coming from behind the play — Durant looked a bit sluggish on the defensive end. But with a coach as defensive-minded as Rick Barnes, one can only assume that he will improve noticeably in that department throughout the year.

Michigan State exploited our man-to-man defense early in the first half for easy buckets on back-door cuts. But a few personnel changes and a switch to a 2-3 zone seemed to steady the ship. The intensity went up on the defensive end, and Michigan State’s offense became stagnant.

An interesting note on the 2-3 zone is the make-up of its back line when the Horns run a small lineup. With Augustin and Abrams assigned to the top of the key, the back line consisted of Durant, James, and Jay Mason on the wing. Looking at the height difference across the court was almost as funny as an episode of Freddie. But not quite.

Damion James struggled offensively, missing a ton of point blank looks. It became very apparent from his expression just how frustrated he was. But the great thing about this kid is that he insists upon staying in the game, and he manages to influence the game in other ways. He officially blocked three shots, but also managed to disrupt the flow of the Michigan State offense time and again just by sticking a big paw in the passing lane or the face of a shooter.

Connor Atchley — God bless the kid — struggled like a deaf-mute at open mic night. He picked up quick fouls and it appeared to get into his head. His usually smooth three-point stroke was off, and the foul trouble seemed to lead to tentative defensive play. Of course, once beaten while playing tentatively, he would typically then pick up another foul trying to make up for his mistake on the play. Fortunately, the season is young and Connor is naturally going to take a little while to adjust to his increased role on this team. I have faith in the guy.

Shot selection in the transition game left a lot to be desired. The Horns would go on a break, only to jack up a quick three-pointer with no one in position underneath. I’m glad that we have forced so many turnovers and are going to push the ball. Now we just need to know when to pull it out and run the half-court set.

As predicted, the rebounding was a big part of the team’s downfall last night. With the shots not falling, the lack of second-chance opportunities really hurt, especially when Michigan State managed to get so many down the stretch. There were even a few times where the shooter himself managed to go unaccounted for and snag his own board.

Most surprising to me, however, was that Drew Naymick turned out to be huge for the Spartans in the final minutes. He was a machine on the offensive glass and got MSU the extra shots they needed to stay in the game and win it. The Spartans outrebounded the Horns 26-18 in the second half.

As for the Neitzel layup that ended the game, I’m barely going to touch it. A player slipped, and after that the team seemed unaware of what good help defense is. If you saw it, you know what happened, and if you didn’t, you don’t want to. We shouldn’t have even allowed Michigan State to be in that position, so I’m not going to dwell on a single play.

Texas will now play in the consolation game against St. John’s tonight at 6 P.M. central, televised on ESPN2. Preview is on the way.

Tonight the Longhorns (2-0) face their first “real” team of the season in Michigan State (3-0) as they play in the semifinals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. Both teams advanced to tonight’s game in Madison Square Garden after beating horribly overmatched opponents in four-team home “pod” brackets.

Michigan State struggled in their opener, beating the Ivy League’s Brown Bears 45-34. Their second round game proved much easier, as they coasted to an 86-61 victory over the Youngstown State Penguins. Not even the approaching release of Happy Feet could give YSU a boost against their Big 10 opponents. The Spartans also played The Citadel between rounds of the College Hoops Classic, crushing them 73-41 on Sunday.

Interestingly enough, the Spartans did not only struggle with Brown. In their first exhibition game, Michigan State trailed Grand Valley State for nearly the entire contest, finally taking their first lead of the game with four minutes to play. If not for the great play of guard Drew Neitzel, the Spartans may have been victims of a gargantuan letdown.

This year’s Michigan State team will look incredibly different to college basketball fans familiar with the likes of Mateen Cleeves. Besides the aforementioned Neitzel, the current Spartans roster lacks names that are recognizable outside of East Lansing. While Texas reloaded this year with a great freshman class, Michigan State sports a mix of new, young guys and returning role players who are being asked to step up.

In this space last week, I predicted that Texas would be able to rebound against a much smaller Chicago State team. That did not happen. Tonight they face a much larger squad in MSU, and will most likely get destroyed on the glass. In particular, freshman forward Raymar Morgan and 6-foot, 10-inch center Goran “G” Suton should pose problems for a Texas team that has yet to show good rebounding fundamentals.

Against Sisters of the Poor University and Kentucky Medical Tech Seminary, Texas was able to push the tempo and create transition buckets. It will be interesting to see if they can continue this trend against more able competition. In addition, you should keep your eyes on our young players. Will they be able to handle the spotlight of Madison Square Garden and a nationally televised game in only their third contest at the NCAA level?

For those Longhorns in Austin and across the country, tune in at 8 PM (central) on ESPN2 to catch the game. Or if you’re in the New York area, swing by MSG and catch it live; tickets are still available.

I’m about four hours from boarding a plane with the ultimate destination of New York City. And after last year’s debacle in the Big Apple, this year can only be better. There’s not much worse than seeing Duke stomp your team’s face in while their football-retarded fans chant “USC” at Vince Young, then doping yourself up on Nyquil and watching Reggie Bush steal the Heisman…and apparently a house.

So regardless of results, I have a feeling that NYC 2006 will be a much better trip. Even if we somehow lose both games, I highly doubt that either one will be by 30-plus points. And since the game is at Madison Square Garden instead of Continental Airlines Arena, I won’t have to endure an interminable bus ride back with some Duke sorority girl behind me going on and on and on to her cell phone friend about how “Oh my god, Paulus had like, 10 points, and Sheldon Williams had, like, 5 blocks, and we just looked sooooo good!”

I’ll have four days in the city, and now really have no intentions of watching the big Ohio State/Michigan tilt on Saturday (thank you, K-State) which leaves me with a lot of time to explore. If any of you have suggestions for places to eat or things to do and see, feel free to leave me a note by clicking on the “Comments” link below. It’s right next to that sexy speech bubble.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions, and I’ll be back tomorrow with the Micigan State preview straight from Queens.