Monday night showcased the run-n-gun style that the Longhorns had talked up during preseason media interviews. The Horns dropped 103 points on an overmatched Xavier University squad and forced the tempo throughout the game. Considering I was on Vicodin at the time, and was most concerned with trying not to drool on myself, here are my scatter-brained observations from the game.

A.J. Abrams continued to shoot lights out. If we can fully convert him to a 2-guard and run a lineup with both him and Augustin, it is going to be amazing. Of course, Abrams showed last year that he has the talent to spell Augustin if need be, but it’s key for the Horns to allow Abrams the freedom to shoot. On the night, he was 7-for-10, including 6-of-7 behind the arc.

D.J. not only looked incredibly comfortable at the point, but he worked his tail off on the glass as well. I remember one defensive board he snatched from between much taller opponents, and another offensive series where it seemed like he grabbed three or four of his own offensive rebounds. The contrarian may wonder why he missed that many shots, but it was really great to see him not give up on the play at any point.

Connor Atchley continued to impress me. He has taken huge strides since last year, and while he’s certainly no All-Big 12, I don’t feel nearly as nervous about him as I did prior to the exhibitions. He had a couple of great blocks, including one where he came up behind a guy going to the glass, swatted a ball into the stands, and then ate a live wolf. It may have been the drugs, but I swear it happened.

Matt Hill still looked scrappy underneath and knows how to get to the line. He was still perfect on the year, until I opened my big mouth to make that comment and he missed his first from the charity stripe. In the two exhibition games, he was 10-for-11 from the line.

Kevin Durant worried me a little bit with his performance in this game. He took quite a few lazy shots, and lost the ball on lazy crossover dribbles. I know that his talent level was so much higher than many at the high school level, and that he invariably felt like he was mailing it in at times. But in college, he’s going to have to man up and play with his nose to the grindstone. When he does that, I can’t even imagine how great he’s going to be.

Seeing the team push the tempo and put pressure on the ball was really exciting. This is a hot shooting team, and on those nights when we finally go cold, we are going to need things like turnovers and transition buckets to keep us in the games. I’m really glad to see that we can run the floor so well.

That’s about all I can remember from that hazy night, but hopefully my recollections will be better following tomorrow night’s doubleheader. Bring the family, and pack the Drum for our season opener. See y’all there!

No, it’s not those bastards who knocked us out of the NCAA tournament back in 2004 in Atlanta. You may remember the game. Brandon Mouton fouled out in the final minutes and reportedly asked referee Ted Valentine for an explanation on his foul, to which the zebra replied, “This isn’t the fucking NBA.” Oh, and Rick Barnes received two technicals and was ejected by the same ref in the stretch of about 0.009 seconds. And then of course, there was the corn-fed fatty jumping around with her “X-Men” sign just in front of our section.

But this isn’t that team. So tonight should be completely free of the venom a rematch with that particular Xavier could have brought. Instead, tonight the Longhorns take on Xavier University from New Orleans, a team that didn’t even have a 2005-06 season because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina. So while playing in the Erwin Center against an Elite Eight team from last year will certainly be a huge moment for the Xavier players, just getting to play basketball again is too.

It looks like Xavier goes by the Gold Rush, although if you were to read their circa-1995 website, you might think they are the Xavier Rush Gold Nuggets. They play in the NAIA, which as far as I can tell is a league made up of colleges that make my old high school look huge. You know, powerhouses such as Montana State-Northern and Rio Grande…..Ohio.

Last Tuesday, Xavier played Arkansas in an exhibition and fell, 82-49. As fans, we should obviously avoid the “transitive analysis” of who-beat-whom and by how much. Tonight is a good opportunity to see if the guys are going to get better position for rebounds, and if it’s possible for a team to hit 75 three-pointers.

It ought to be another fun one. See y’all at the Drum.

The Horns cruised easily on Tuesday night, as was to be expected. But what was more important for many fans at the game was getting an idea of what the new kids could do and how the team would gel.

But before we get into the analysis, a quick aside about the requisite Halloween costumes. I had planned on wearing a Satan outfit with a blue t-shirt, and adding “KANSAS” and Darrell Arthur’s number to the front of it in white paint. I needed it to be cheap, so that unfortunately meant a trip to Wal-Mart on the morning of the game.

I have a problem with Wal-Mart. I understand that they have low prices. And the little old people who greet you are so friendly that you can’t help but smile back at them. But once you enter the store, it feels like you have to lower your IQ to 37 to fit in with many of the customers.

I experienced one example of the apparent retardation of Wal-Mart customers in the restroom. I walked past a giant framed reprint of Vince Young on the cover of SI after the Rose Bowl (a nice touch) and then was greeted by the worst stench of shit I’d ever experienced in my life. Not “somebody forgot to wipe.” Not “Grandma forgot her Depends today.” No, this was more along the lines of “somebody just wiped a shit-filled diaper across every single air vent.” I think I still have residual poop smell hanging on me two days later.

In the end, my foray into the College Station of stores turned out to be worthless, as they did not have a single plain blue t-shirt for sale. But thankfully, the costumes in the O-Zone easily made up for it. A rundown of the top five:

5: Goose from “Top Gun”
4: An odd combination of a cowsuit, a fedora, and a blue Wal-Mart vest.
3: A keg
2: The crying Sooner kid
1: Goo as a typical UT sorostitute at a football game, complete with boots, jean skirt, and cowboy hat. But more disturbing than Goo’s outfit was the fact that he actually shaved his legs for it.

As for the game, there was a lot to be excited about, and a few things to be concerned with. Fortunately, concerns can be addressed and fixed, and in this case the season hasn’t even started yet.

Kevin Durant started the game off really tight. His shots weren’t falling and you could tell he was just pushing too much from the nerves. He is certainly a freak of nature, and his long arms make it painfully easy for him to get his shot from anywhere on the floor. He finished with 16 points in barely over a half of play. When his shot is on from the start, it’s going to be bad news for our opponents.

Damion James also really impressed me. On a night where the team looked like it didn’t want to rebound a single ball, James led the way with 12 boards. He also was the only player with a double-double. I wouldn’t call him the next P.J. Tucker but compared to the rest of the team, he is clearly going to be our physical man.

Offensively, the Horns liked to dribble penetrate and kick the ball outside the arc. And as well as some of our players were shooting the three, it was a great gameplan. A.J. Abrams was 4-for-8 from 3-point range and looks to be a scoring threat again this year. The kid shoots the ball faster than anybody I’ve seen, yet he still has the form and the touch.

I was impressed by the strides Connor Atchley made on the offensive side of the ball. He no longer looks scared to take a shot, and in fact ended up shooting 3-of-6 from behind the arc. He still needs work defensively (and DJ Augustin had to tell him to move on offense a few times) but with Atchley getting more substantial minutes this year I have to think he will only get better in these areas.

Matt Hill looks like he’s going to be a real hard-nosed player. He fought for rebounds underneath, corralling five in only fourteen minutes. He also was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line, with many of his FT opportunities coming after he’d shown a ton of hustle in the lane. I’m looking forward to good things from this guy.

D.J. Augustin looks like he’s going to be a great floor general for this team. He ended the night with seven assists and only one turnover. In fact, the team as a whole only had five turnovers all night. After the problems we had protecting the ball at times last season — the nightmarish Tennessee game comes to mind immediately — I am incredibly happy to have Augustin running the show.

Dexter Pittman and Harrison Smith hardly saw the floor, and Big Dex picked up fouls quickly. He had three of them in only six minutes, and I think I remember two of them coming within forty-five seconds of each other. One really great note on Big Dex is that he’s lost a ton of weight. He’s still a big boy, but the difference is incredible. I believe reports have him dropping between 60 and 70 pounds since the team started him on a weight-loss plan.

Watching Craig Winder play defense reminded me of Royal Ivey at times, but I quickly discarded those thoughts. Other than a similar stance and wingspan, they are quite different, most notably in talent level. Winder still hustles all over the place, but sometimes it just reminds me of 4- and 5-year old soccer teams; he gets too into the moment and the ball rather than thinking about the team aspect of the game. I’m glad to have his athleticism on our bench, but I’m not sure what role he’s really going to fill on this squad.

The box score tells me that J.D. Lewis played nine minutes, but I’ll be damned if I can remember him doing anything. He’s listed with eight points, so I must’ve been napping. Or eating candy.

All told, I’m happy with what I saw on Tuesday night. We still need to work on establishing rebounding position, and Lenoir-Rhyne’s quick ball movement on the wings seemed to present a problem for our defenders flashing out. But the best thing about exhibitions is that they are two months before conference play. And I have this odd hunch that Coach Barnes might look at those issues well before January.

We’re less than 24 hours from the tip-off of the 2006-07 season, and I’m feeling like absolute shit. Nothing like a well-timed illness to take some of the luster out of the new basketball year.

Tonight we get our first look at the seven newest faces on the Longhorn roster. Or eight, if you feel like counting Ian Mooney as “new.” We have so much talent coming in that it’s hard not to have pie-in-the-sky dreams. But a quick reminder of how young our team is should temper any of those feelings.

Fans won’t really learn a whole lot from tonight’s exhibition against Lenoir-Rhyne, the alma mater of coach Rick Barnes. But it ought to be fun to see our highly-touted recruits beating up on incredibly overmatched competition. In particular, the play of Kevin “K-Smoove” Durant should blow away the crowd. Our other most exciting recruit is Damion James, a late signee after OU coach Kelvin Sampson made more (illegal) phone calls than a 15-year-old girl. James should also put up solid numbers, although he will not look at good as Durant. But in all honestly, who will?

For those thinking of attending the game, it’s free admission to all with general admission seating throughout the arena. If you’ve got little ones, arrive at 5:30 and race down to the front rows, courtside. It’ll be something they remember forever.

And of course, don’t forget your costumes. It’s Halloween, after all.

The ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll came out for the first time today and, as always, gives us a lot to argue over and bitch about for the last few weeks leading up to the season.

Texas debuts at #19, which sits well with me. Our team is a young, unproven commodity and we honestly won’t know our club very well until mid-December. The Coaches vs. Cancer tournament offers a chance to play some solid talent early at a neutral site, which will test our kids and give them experience with the format of the NCAAs. Games in December against Gonzaga and LSU will acclimate the players to the college game and hopefully show us what we’re dealing with.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, Kansas checks in at #3 and Texas A&M is #13 to start the year. Billy Gillispie’s team played well last season by deflating the ball and playing some rough, low-scoring ballgames. It reminded me a lot of certain Big East teams, and it proved effective. Time will tell if they deserve to be ranked this high, as they play both LSU and UCLA in a one-week span, away from the rowdy home crowds of Reed Arena.

According to the early poll, Coach Barnes has done a solid job of scheduling quality talent to season our club. Outside of conference play, we have the aforementioned game with #7 LSU, and a game in Knoxville over the holidays against #24 Tennessee. Other opponents on the schedule who received votes are Gonzaga, Villanova, Oklahoma State, and — depending on how the Horns play in the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament — Michigan State and Maryland.