Three years ago, as I waited in the rain outside the Frank Erwin Center for a game against Oklahoma State, I saw a small group of people folding up tents at the front of the line. A few weeks later, when it came time for the game against hated OU, I decided to follow their lead and spend two nights outside in a sleeping bag. I met many of the hardiest Longhorn basketball fans, who opened up their tents and tailgates to me. These guys led me through my O-Zone indocrination, taking me on road trips to Stillwater and Atlanta. Some people join frats or rush sororities. That spring, I pledged South O-Zone.

Over the two following years, I was front and center at practically every home game. I made road trips seemingly everywhere — Norman, Waco, College Station, Lawrence, New York, even Atlanta again. Some of my friends began to notice a disturbing trend. When I left the state of Texas to see the Horns play basketball, they’d always lose. To Oklahoma State in Stillwater and Xavier in Atlanta. To OU in Norman, Kansas in Lawrence, and the Aggies in College Station. To Duke in New York City, then the Sooners and Cowboys again in Oklahoma. By the time we made it to Atlanta in March of this year, I had an 0-8 record at out-of-state UT basketball games.

As a Red Sox fan, I’m used to having the “cursed” label thrown in my direction. But as a realist, I also know that the trade of a player in the 1910’s can’t make a ball roll between a first baseman’s legs in 1986. And by the same token, my mere presence in an arena can’t make a basketball team lose. So when Kenton Paulino hit that buzzer-beating three-pointer against West Virginia to propel Texas into the Elite Eight — and erase my “curse” — I felt completely vindicated.

Two days later, we lost to LSU and waited in bitter, cold, windy weather to thank the team as they boarded the buses. And as Brad Buckman thanked us for all of our support, I realized that I had seen that class of seniors mature through their four years on the Forty Acres. And suddenly I had the crazy idea of watching the team mature throughout an entire season, in person.

At the time, I still had dreams of standing in the same place outside the Georgia Dome a year later, congratulating the team after winning their first national title. But over the coming weeks, the entries of LaMarcus Aldridge, P.J. Tucker, and Daniel Gibson into the NBA draft tempered those dreams. Add to that the transfer of one of my favorite players, Mike Williams, and things weren’t looking good. But I had already made a mental commitment to this crazy trip, and I continued ahead in my plans.

As the pieces of the schedule came together, it began to look like I couldn’t have chosen a better year for the ultimate road trip. With games in New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Knoxville, and the usual Big 12 haunts, the 2006-07 campaign offers a great package of road games. And thanks to all of those dream-shattering changes to the roster, this is actually shaping up to be a perfect season to watch a team grow from game to game. With seven young, incredibly talented kids, there is not a single person who can reasonably claim that the team I watched on Thursday night will be anywhere close to the team I see suit up in Lawrence, Kansas on March 3rd.

So that’s how the pieces fell in place. How a crazy, random thought on a cold, depressing night in Atlanta could blossom into an incredible journey. Now, eight months later, I take my first trip of ten outside of Texas. And maybe by March we can make that 1-9 out-of-state record look a little bit better for the superstitious folks out there.

I raved about A.J. Abrams’ hot shooting in the exhibition games, and I mentioned it as something to watch for on Thursday night in the opener. It turns out I was just a day premature with my little tip. Abrams shot absolutely lights out in Friday night’s quarterfinal matchup with Chicago State, dropping 28 points in a 92-66 win over the Cougars.

The game started out quickly, with Chicago State refusing to back down. The Longhorns first five or six baskets were all three-pointers, and I believe that Abrams’ first 15 points came on his first five three-point attempts. He even nailed a three while being fouled, but suffered a rare miss at the line to lose the four-point play. This game really showcased his quick release, as defenders who were sagging on him only slightly were unable to react in what seemed like a milisecond between his reception of a pass and the shot.

I’m sure that opponents next week in New York will be ready for A.J., but one of the most exciting things about this team is our number of weapons. Shut down Abrams, you get Durant and James. Shut down K-Smoove, and Abrams and James will light you up.

It wasn’t all candy and gum-drops at the Frank Erwin Center, though. Coach Barnes was visibly frustrated on the bench with the defense of some of our post players. He also got irritated with a lot of fouls our defenders were giving up fifteen and eighteen feet from the hoop on dribble penetration attempts.

One problem that stood out which I didn’t see Barnes rip into the team for — although I’m fairly sure he must have at some point — was our lack of rebounding. I mentioned here yesterday that the small Chicago State team should have been abused on the boards, and in the end we finished with a 43-37 edge on the glass. But many of those rebounds came in the late minutes when the Cougars had seemingly given up.

But if you take a peek at the box score, you’ll see that Chicago State beat us in second chance points, 19-13. And that’s where our inability to rebound really stood out. We’d make a defensive stop, but allow them second and third opportunities to score. Against the Alcorn and Chicago and Tacoola States this won’t really matter. But when we play Michigan State, LSU, Gonzaga, Kansas, and down the line of our tough schedule? It’s something that has to get drastically better. And that’s why I’m glad we have Rick Barnes running the show.

It took only two games for Kevin Durant to log his first double-double, ripping down 13 boards to go with his 21 points. Most impressive were his five blocks. He is going to be a real problem down low for other teams, especially if he manages to stay in position most of the time. Although, with that freakish wingspan he managed a few blocks from behind the play, too.

And speaking of blocks, it seems like it’s going to be a strong point for this Texas team. Chew on this: in the first two games, the Longhorns blocked a total of 22 shots. And since it’s always fun to project these things early in the year when they spit out ridiculous, record setting numbers, I have to do that here. If the team continues on its insane rate of blocking shots, they would swat away 330 in the regular season. By comparison, last year’s team — with LaMarcus Aldridge’s long arms inside — blocked 186 shots. Crazy extrapolations aside, I think we will do considerably better than that this year.

Our defense did a very solid job shutting down Chicago State’s star from the night before. David Holston scored 43 against St. Bonaventure in the opener, but was held to only seven points by the Longhorns. In fact, Holston didn’t even tally a point in the second half despite leading his team with 38 minutes played.

Damion James had another good game, scoring 14 and shooting 6-for-7 from the line. At the few times when it seemed that the team wasn’t focused on defense or rebounding inside, Damion typically took charge, holding the blocks and fighting for the ball. Everybody knew about Kevin Durant coming in, but I think James is going to be quite a popular player on the Forty Acres.

Jay Mason continues to impress me coming off the bench. He knows what is going on out there, and because of that is a very efficient interchangeable part in Barnes’ system. Jay had eight points last night, but also dished out three assists and recorded a steal. A very clean, positive stat sheet for the young man.

The team held on to the ball much better last night, save for the first two possessions of the second half. The Longhorns finished with 19 assists to 9 turnovers, but a few of those turnovers were on mishandled passes from Augustin. I prefer these types of turnovers to the out-and-out steals, because with time, teams start to sense when their teammates will give them the ball and where. And when that happens, the turnovers should definitely decrease.

Dexter Pittman and J.D. Lewis hardly saw the floor on Friday night, and Matt Hill’s time on the court was largely quiet. He played only 13 minutes off the bench, but didn’t manage to get to the line like we had seen in the opener and the two exhibitions. It’s definitely not a cause for concern, just an observation. When you have A.J. Abrams hitting 8-of-11 three-pointers, it’s only natural that some other guys seem to get lost in the shuffle.

All told, it was an enjoyable opening two weeks in Austin. The crowds were disgustingly thin, particularly in the student sections, but I give huge thanks to all who came out. Y’all are the ones who will truly enjoy how far this team has come by March, while the Johnny-Come-Latelys are still asking us who this D.J. Augustin kid is.

Four days until I head to New York for the team’s next two games. In the meantime, I’ll have some content so be sure to keep checking in. And good luck to our football and soccer teams this weekend in their games.

To the Cougars of Chicago State, Illinois doesn’t exist. And their really large city sitting along that really large lake is the 51st state. Sorry Puerto Rico, they beat you to it. And if this little fact doesn’t make a degree from this fine institution next to worthless, it should at least make the geography department a running joke. But if we can dispense with bad nomenclature humor, there’s a much bigger task at hand. Namely preparing my dear readers for tonight’s second round game.

Chicago State (1-0) somehow squeaked past St. Bonaventure last night, winning the right to get kicked in the face repeatedly by the Longhorns. They were carried largely by redshirt sophomore guard David Holston, who is listed at 5’8″, but is actually not much taller than Earl Boykins. Holston scored 43 against the Bonnies last night, which broke the school record of 40 according to some random staffer on the Chicago State bench.

But more important than Holston’s J.J. Redick impersonation was Chicago State’s absolute lack of rebounding skill. The final box score had them only outrebounded 37-30 by St. Bonaventure, but much of that defecit was made up during the Cougars’ winning push in the final eight minutes of the game. And if it weren’t for a monumental meltdown by the Bonnies at the line (the team finished 22-for-41 from the stripe), the Longhorns would have a different opponent in tonight’s ballgame.

Last season, Chicago State finished the year 11-19, yet still somehow made the championship game of the Mid-Continent Conference tournament, where they finally fell to Oral Roberts, 85-72. The Cougars return seven seniors from that team, so they should be quite experienced….at losing. Besides 7-footer Chidozie Chukwumah, the Chicago State team is a small one that will most likely be abused the same way that Alcorn State was.

So bring the family out to the Erwin Center tonight for a little doubleheader, or show up late and forget about those losers in the consolation game. The Horns are scheduled to tip at 7:30, but I’m personally banking on it being a little later than that. Come early, be loud, stay late, and wear orange…but don’t plan on drinking Dr. Pepper. Because apparently the FEC is the only place in the whole state of Texas that doesn’t sell it.

The much-hyped Kevin Durant showed up in Austin on Thursday night. Not the nervous Kevin Durant with the weight of the world and sky-high expectations resting on his wiry shoulders. No, the number two nationally-ranked freshman Kevin Durant finally came to town. And what a show it was.

In only 22 minutes, Durant dropped twenty points and barely broke a sweat. He drew extra defenders, made incredible passes, and threw down a reverse dunk that had to be seen to be believed. One thing I had not factored in to Durant’s already-high value to this team: when he makes a move to the glass, he draws extra defenders, but can still use his 379-inch wingspan to whip passes around the defenders to open men for the easy bucket. He uses those extra-long arms quite well on defense, too; he logged three steals on Thursday night, following up on his five from the final exhibition game.

When the buzzer sounded, the Horns had won by 103-44 margin. But that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story. The Horns came out sloppy, turning the ball over three times and spotting the Alcorn State Braves a 9-1 lead. But Texas closed out the final 17:32 of the first half with a 47-9 run. In the second half, things got so bad that Texas led by 69 with just under five minutes left. And right around that same time, Alcorn State was shooting an odious 9-for-55 from the field.

Connor Atchley started the game, but unfortunately looked very tenative and overwhelmed during the short-lived Alcorn State lead. Barnes benched him in favor of Hill, the team settled down, and Connor was fine for the rest of the game. If he can get a steely resolve instead of a deer-in-the-headlights look, it can only help his playing time.

Craig Winder looked much better off the bench last night, dropping in ten points in his nineteen minutes, including a nifty layup on one of the Horns’ many fast-break opportunities. It will be interesting to see how big of a role he has this year off the pine, but it looked like he maybe has himself a little more under control this year.

For the first time this season, Texas had some trouble hanging on to the basketball, turning it over fourteen times. But when they forced their opponent to lose the ball 24 times, it didn’t seem to matter much. Only time will tell if this is going to be a problem for Texas. They really protected the ball well against their overmatched exhibition opponents, but against a team that was arguably just as bad as Xavier University or Lenoir-Rhyne, they suddenly had the yips. Next week’s games in New York City should be a good indicator for this statistic. Uh, I mean, if we win tonight. Then New York could be a good indicator. Maintain focusness.

A.J. Abrams continued to shoot the ball well, going 5-for-9 from the field and scoring eleven. Damion James was again an absolute beast, and the only true physical presence on the team. He scored thirteen and blocked two shots, and showed the hard-nosed, aggressive play that we all loved from P.J. Tucker and James Thomas. I thank God for Kelvin Sampson’s telephone addiction every damned day.

Dexter Pittman fouled out of the game in only nine minutes of play, but scored seven and fought his way to the line. He can score inside, but he needs to get used to his leaner body. There are some rebounds that he let get away which I’m sure he was used to gathering with his bigger frame that pushed defenders even further out of position. And it was typically after losing these rebounds that he picked up his fouls, when he made ill-advised moves to try to win the ball back. I have faith that Big Dex is going to be a great player here. And I think his four years are going to be great fun to watch.

Back for the Chicago State preview within the hour.

Tonight the Longhorns kick off the regular season with a home game at 8:30 PM against Alcorn State in the 2K Sports College Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. With a win, the Horns move on to the quarterfinals of the tournament on Friday night at 7:30, while a loss would send them to the 5:30 consolation game.

Alcorn State finished their 2005-06 season with an 8-20 record, with all eight of their wins coming in Southwestern Conference play. Their last NCAA tournament appearance came in 2001-02, where they were one-and-done with an 81-77 loss to Siena.

The Alcorn State Braves have no notable basketball alumni, but their most famous graduates include professional quarterback Steve McNair, wide receiver Donald Driver, and Roots author Alex Haley.

And why do you need to know all of these mundane facts about a 3,000-person college from a podunk town in Mississippi? Because as G.I. Joe taught me, knowing is half the battle.

This game should not present any problems for Texas, and will hopefully allow the team a chance to iron out some more wrinkles. Some interesting storylines to follow will be A.J. Abrams hot shooting from behind the arc and the regular season debut of phenom Kevin Durant.

For those heading to the Frank Erwin Center tonight, doors open at 4:30 for the first game between Chicago State and Saint Bonaventure, with the Longhorns tipping off at 8:30, or 30 minutes after the end of the previous game if it runs long.