After a quick weekend in the greater NYC area, here’s your jet-lagged, turkey-stuffed, bargain-priced NBA update…

Friday

Maurice Evans again rode the pine with his new squad as Orlando took out the Bobcats, 105-92.

The two most storied NBA franchises met once again, and the Celtics bested the Lakers, 107-94. Chris Mihm missed all four of his shots in his fourteen minutes of action, but grabbed five boards and dished out two dimes.

LaMarcus Aldridge dominated in Portland, and the Trailblazers knocked off the Kings, 87-84. L.A. had another double-double — this time with a 28/12 line — and blocked three shots in the contest.

It was a quiet night by Kevin Durant standards, as the rookie finished with twelve points and five boards in a 98-93 home loss to the Nets.

Saturday

It should’ve been another battle of UT guards, but T.J. Ford was forced to miss the Raps/Cavs tussle thanks to the stinger that took him out of Tuesday night’s game against the Mavs. Cleveland finished on top, 111-108, as Daniel Gibson scored 17 points to go with three boards, three assists, and a steal in over 43 minutes of play.

He does exist! The Magic found Maurice Evans on their roster and played him for eleven-and-a-half minutes in a 120-99 pasting of the in-state rival Heat. Mo finished with six points on 3-of-7 shooting and left the rest of his line blank.

The Bucks edged the Mavs in Milwaukee, 97-95. Royal Ivey played an even ten minutes and knocked down two free throws to go with an assist.

Sunday

T.J Ford missed another game with a lingering neck injury, but the Raptors were victorious at home, downing Chicago 93-78.

Daniel Gibson earned the rare seventh foul when he was assessed a technical after fouling out of a 111-106 Cavs win over the Pacers. D-Gib’s foul trouble limited him to only 15 minutes, in which he scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds.

The Spurs knocked off the Supersonics in Seattle, 116-101, but they had difficulty shutting down Kevin Durant. K-Smoove had 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting and added six boards and four assists on the night.

Chris Mihm hardly saw the floor as the Lakers lost 102-100 to the Nets, but finished the night with four points and four rebounds in his three minutes of action.

Tonight

Maurice Evans and the Magic head west to face the Portland Aldridges. (9 PM CST, NBA League Pass)

I survived the crush of annoying families at the airports and am back in Austin, running on fumes, so let’s get to the daily look around the NCAA…

It’s only November, but the game at Allen Fieldhouse last night sure as hell felt like a late February matchup. In reality, it wasn’t a conference game, but rather the opening round of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. And after a Brandon Rush half-court shot nearly won the game in regulation, the Jayhawks finally downed Arizona, 76-72, in overtime. Rush looked incredibly good in his first game back after an ACL implosion, and the Jayhawks are still my team to beat come March. But between now and then, they’ll have to play a lot smarter than they did in allowing the Wildcats to nearly win a game despite turning it over 25 times.

Out west, the Trojans decimated the Salukis, 70-45 in the championship of the Anaheim Classic. (As an aside, can we stop naming tournaments “classics” when they are brand new? It’s a bit contrived, no?) The real story here wasn’t the fact that USC shot 60% while holding SIU to 33% from the field. Instead, it was that Tim Floyd kept Taj Gibson and O.J. Mayo on the bench for the first six-plus minutes of the game, with the USC SID giving out an excuse about “matchups.” Steve “the Roach” Lavin didn’t buy it on-air for ESPN last night, and I’m not buying it either. Here’s to hoping we hear more info leaked later this week…

New polls are due out today, and there’s bound to be some movement for the Horns and Aggies. Both were impressive in winning their tournaments last weekend, and quite a few teams ahead of them slipped over the past seven days. With Louisville, Tennessee, Indiana, and Oregon all losing to unranked opponents, plus Michigan State and Marquette dropping games to ranked ones, there’s going to be some seismic-level shifting in the middle of the poll.

Speaking of the Horns and Aggies, Andy Katz was spotted in New York and then again in Newark over the weekend. And as a result, we get a pair of nice articles from the Katzmeister on the two teams. Mark Turgeon is picking up where Billy Gillispie left off, Katz writes, while also wondering if Texas is actually better without Durant.

NBA updates at midday, plus more Texas basketball coverage later tonight.

The site’s going to be dead for much of the day as I fight the holiday travel crowds and make the trip back to Austin from chilly Newark. In the meantime, I recommend Kansas hosting Arizona in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series (7 PM CST, ESPN) and USC against the Salukis of Southern Illinois (10 PM, ESPN2). If you really like your mid-major flavor, check out George Mason showing up the SEC’s Gamecocks (3:30, ESPN2).

Those of you who saw the game will likely agree with me when I label last night’s championship victory over Tennessee as one of the most impressive offensive performances of the Rick Barnes era. Absolutely everybody was involved, and the feeds in transition were a thing of beauty. I’ll get to it all in more depth later tonight, but it was certainly an incredibly satisfying win.

After sweeping through the opening round games and the semifinal of the Legends Classic, Tennessee and Texas finally meet in the championship game that many pundits had penciled them into months earlier. This marks the fourth-consecutive year with a battle of the UTs, with the Vols on a two-game winning streak against the Horns after sweeping the home-and-home in 2006 and 2007. Texas last claimed a victory against Tennessee with a 95-70 rout in the 2005 Maui Invitational.

The Vols are a quality team that can beat you inside and out. Everybody knows the dangers of leaving Chris Lofton unguarded outside, especially after he torched the Horns for 35 in last year’s overtime thriller from Knoxville. But this season, he’s started cold, hitting only 31% of his threes so far this season. He’s still the penultimate flopper, as anyone who watched last night’s semifinal with West Virginia can attest. We can only hope the refs don’t blow the whistle every time he flails on the ground following a three.

JaJuan Smith can also hit from outside, and is leading the Vols in scoring so far this year with almost 17 points per game. He’s a quick guard with even quicker hands on defense, and it’ll be exciting to see him match up against this Texas backcourt. Forward Tyler Smith has stepped up in his sophomore year, scoring over eleven points per game so far this year. Senior guard Jordan Howell gives about 20 minutes per game off the bench, but was incredibly unimpressive against the Mountaineers last night.

Wayne Chism is a tough player to defend, as the 6’9″ sophomore can abuse you inside or stroke a three if you leave him alone. He’s also going to be the toughest assignment on the glass today, which is still an area of concern for the Horns. Occasional LRT co-traveler Jon Rasul feels that this Tennessee team won’t be as much of a problem for Texas because they graduated big man Dane Bradshaw, who he dubbed the “Mark Madsen of the NCAA.” While I certainly agree that losing Bradshaw will hurt the Vols, sophomore Duke Crews is a pretty solid post player as well. Freshman Brian Williams also provides some minutes off the bench last night, but his game still looked pretty raw against West Virginia last night.

Tennessee loves to pressure the ball, and that intense defense helped bring the Vols back in the second half of last year’s crazy matchup. But the Horns only turned it over 10 times in that game, which is far below the average that Tennessee usually forces. If the Longhorns can once again maintain good ball control, I like their odds against the Vols. With Texas only turning it over ten times per game to start the year, I think that’s a very strong possibility.

The Mountaineers kept things close last night with a physical defensive game that disrupted the Volunteer offense. I don’t expect the Longhorns to use this same strategy, so look for another high scoring game from these two teams. Texas will need to once again shoot well in order to keep up with the high-powered Vols, but the real keys to this one are ball control and rebounding. The Horns can’t afford to give Tennessee extra possessions, so they can’t turn it over or give up a ton of offensive rebounds.

All told, this should be a fun one to watch. It’s the biggest test thus far for both programs, and will certainly be a resumé-padding victory for whoever pulls it out. Tune in to Versus for all of tonight’s action, which should start at 6 P.M. Central, or roughly 30 minutes after the finish of the consolation game between NMSU and West Virginia.

The Longhorns allowed New Mexico State to shoot 50% from the field last night, with the Aggies hitting thirteen three-pointers on the night. Thanks to A.J. Abrams, it didn’t even matter. Texas cracked the century mark for the second straight game and dispatched New Mexico State 102-87 in the semifinals of the Legends Classic in Newark, New Jersey.

Abrams scored 31 points on the night, shooting a ridiculous 9-of-12 from behind the arc. If not for cramps that suddenly sidelined him in the second half, the junior guard might have tied or broken the school record for three-pointers in a game (10). As it was, Abrams still had his second consecutive night with 30 points or more, and pushed his season average to 23.3 points per game.

The game was a track meet, with Texas pushing the tempo from the start. The Longhorns forced 19 turnovers on the night, and their pressure defense led to a ton of early fast break points that staked them to a 30-11 lead less than eight minutes into it. The Aggies hung around with 60% shooting in the first half, but could never fight their way back into it. They could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way as the two teams ran up the score throughout the second twenty minutes.

While it’s easy to get drunk on the burnt orange kool-aid after two 100-plus point games, there are certainly still some issues worth noting. We knew heading in that NMSU would likely control the glass, but seeing them dominate with a +14 on the night is still a little unsettling. Perhaps most unsettling, though, is the fact that half of the 34 Aggie rebounds came on the offensive glass. On a night where the Texas offense isn’t hitting on all cylinders, a good team will make the Longhorns pay for allowing so many second chances.

Don’t let that get you down, though. The positives to be gleaned from this one are certainly much more numerous. Connor Atchley continued to showcase the progress he made during the offseason, demonstrating his newfound confidence in that sweet three-point stroke. Atch hustled all over the floor, blocking three shots and grabbing three rebounds while dropping in 15 points. While we’d love to see him more active on the glass, his defense has improved and he’s given Coach Barnes three consecutive ten-point games. That’s the kind of reliability fans were looking for last season.

The move to the 3 for Damion James continues to work out well for the Horns, as DaMo hit some outside jumpers en route to a twelve-point night. He fought for six rebounds and generally looked comfortable in the position he played back in high school. But Damion did pick up four personal fouls, which was often a problem for him last season. We’ll give him a pass in this game, as the Aggies had a bunch of trees disguised as players, but it’s definitely something that James will need to control this season, particularly with the thin bench.

As for D.J. Augustin, it was just another day at the office. Twenty-five points and ten assists? Ho hum. It’s quite a luxury for Barnes and Horn fans that D.J. has raised his game to the level that we just expect these kinds of numbers from him every night. He had a couple of sick plays where he attacked the rim and finished the play with typical Augustin flair, and knocked down a pair of nice threes as well. A ton of the credit for A.J.’s great shooting night also has to go to D.J., who found the hot hand repeatedly.

Justin Mason is still a scrappy defender who seems to be rediscovering the offense that we saw early in his freshman year. Discussing the game last night, we couldn’t recall a definitive offensive game for Mason since his game-winner against Arkansas last December. Perhaps last night’s eleven point performance — including 2-of-5 from long range — is a step in the right direction.

The rest of the squad was generally unremarkable last night. There were short spurts of brilliance from Alexis Wangmene, who once again managed to get to the line repeatedly. He only grabbed two rebounds in his thirteen minutes, and is definitely one of the players that must step up his game on the glass if the Longhorns are going to improve. Dexter Pittman and Clint Chapman played two and nine minutes, respectively, while J.D. Lewis chipped in with three. None scored, and had marginal impact on the stat sheet.

Texas now advances to play #7 Tennessee in the Legends Classic championship tonight at 6 P.M. An abbreviated game preview is on the way shortly.