In the first 14 years of the Rick Barnes era, the Longhorns lost just two home openers. In fact, in the last ten years, no team had started their season with a road win at the Frank Erwin Center. Friday night, a Texas squad with no scholarship upperclassmen came perilously close to ending that streak and suffering an embarrassing upset at the hands of Fresno State.

Texas never led the visiting Bulldogs by more than five points, and did not take the edge for good until less than two minutes left in the game. Poor shooting and a rash of first-half turnovers rendered the Longhorn offense ineffective, making things interesting down to the final second. Fresno State’s desperation heave from the backcourt missed the mark at the buzzer, allowing the Longhorns to survive with a 55-53 opening night victory.

Sophomore Sheldon McClellan led the way for Texas, putting in 20 points — 18 of them in the second half — to carry his team to victory. Expectations were high for McClellan coming into the season, as fans and pundits both looked for the gifted scorer to have a breakout season. With Myck Kabongo sidelined during an NCAA investigation and Jaylen Bond suffering from an ankle injury, it was even more necessary that McClellan live up to those expectations against Fresno State.

For the first twenty minutes, it didn’t look like the sophomore was going to do so. He missed a trio of three-pointers to start the game, and didn’t even crack the scoresheet until notching a pair of free throws with 5:25 to go in the first half. Another missed three-pointer and a missed layup rounded out McClellan’s first twenty minutes, as he and the Longhorns headed to the locker room in a 25-all tie.

The poor start didn’t deter McClellan, as he turned up the aggressiveness in the second half. With Texas running staggered baseline screens to free him up, the sophomore repeatedly received the ball on the wing and immediately took it at the defense. Driving baseline and slashing to the lane, he put the Bulldogs on their heels and earned trip after trip to the line. McClellan finished the game with a perfect 14-of-14 mark at the charity stripe, grinding out the points to push Texas into the win column.

While Sheldon was struggling in the first half, freshman point guard Javan Felix was making an early splash. The New Orleans native scored six of Texas’ first eight points, showing off his soft touch on runners in the lane before pulling up for a jumper from the elbow. The hot start was short-lived, though, as Felix quickly tailed off and finished the game just 5-of-15 from the field. He lost his touch on the floater, and the Fresno State defense was able to challenge and sometimes even block that free-throw line jumper.

Although Felix only finished with one assist on the night, he set up his teammates numerous times with nice feeds into the post and kickouts for wide-open threes. Unfortunately, the Longhorns simply couldn’t knock anything down and wasted some great opportunities. On many possessions, Texas was fouled down low and had to earn their points from the line, something that doesn’t show up when looking in the assist column. Although Texas had just three assists on eighteen made buckets, the team posted a solid free-throw rate of 49%, essentially earning one free throw for every two field goal attempts.

Though Felix was the one who turned heads on Friday night, the freshman who entered the game with all of the hype was McDonald’s All-American Cameron Ridley. His defensive performance was promising, as he stood tall in the paint, didn’t bite on fakes, and challenged the Fresno State bigs. Despite being limited to just 13 minutes, Ridley logged three blocks and owned the paint with the steady resolve of recent Longhorn standout Tristan Thompson.

As encouraging as Ridley’s performance was on the defensive end, his struggles on the other end of the court kept him on the bench down the stretch. The 6’9″ big man was called for a pair of offensive fouls, had trouble handling post feeds, and was very slow to react to double teams from the Bulldog defenders. His one offensive highlight came on Felix’s lone assist, when the point guard spun in the lane before dumping a jump pass to Ridley on the baseline. Cameron took one powerful step and flushed it home for an and-one opportunity, but missed the ensuing free throw.

The Longhorns were led on the boards by sophomore Jonathan Holmes, who consistently crashed the glass from the wings and high post. He snagged 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, making up for the huge hole left by Bond’s injury. While Jonathan didn’t have much success scoring inside, his ability to extend possessions was key on a night that Texas had trouble putting the ball in the hoop.

Texas’ 44.1% mark on the offensive glass kept possessions alive, but it was the Longhorn defense that kept Fresno State within reach. Texas opened both halves in a 2-3 zone that surprised the Bulldogs and led to long possessions with questionable shot selection. However, the second-teamers let the Fresno State guards find cracks to exploit with dribble penetration, leading to some easy buckets in the first half.

For the game, Texas limited Fresno State to just .914 points per possession. Getting that many freshmen to buy into a defense-first concept is certainly a big deal, but exuberance should be tempered by looking back at the FSU offense from a year ago. The Bulldogs were in the bottom half of D-I hoops according to Ken Pomeroy, whose adjusted offensive efficiency rating gave them just .989 points per possession. Their effective field-goal percentage was one of the 100 worst in Division I, checking in at only 46%. Texas’ defensive performance was definitely stout on Friday night, but fans should limit their excitement until after the Horns face tougher competition in the second and third days of the Maui Invitational.

While the bad shooting was certainly a big culprit, the Longhorns also had issues running their sets early in this one. The Longhorns worked hard in the first half to get their scorers open with baseline screens, but the Texas bigs repeatedly allowed the sets to get too stretched out. On different possessions, Holmes, Connor Lammert, and Ioannis Papapetrou all found themselves holding the ball four or five feet beyond the perimeter, hoping to make an entry pass against tight Fresno ball pressure. Even with perfect execution on the baseline, that feed would have been far too difficult and dangerous to make.

The Longhorns also struggled to make any long jumpers, hitting just one of their 13 three-point attempts. The numbers aren’t worth panicking over after just one game, but outside shooting could prove to once again be a major issue for Texas this season. Last year’s squad held the ignominious distinction of being the school’s worst three-point shooting team (32.78%) in the last 13 years, and the Horns lost the top two shooters from that team in J’Covan Brown and Sterling Gibbs. Their departures leave Coach Barnes with five rotation guys who combined for a hideous 30.7% mark from long range in 2011-12. If this young Texas team actually challenges last year’s marks for three-point futility, the Horns are going to struggle to score against a ton of packed-in defenses.

Up next: vs. Coppin State (0-1); Monday, 7 P.M. CT

For most college basketball programs, a rebuilding year consists of a losing record, numerous growing pains, and simmering discontent in the fanbase. For Rick Barnes and the Texas Longhorns, the 2011-12 campaign was certainly a rebuilding year. With just one returning starter and a whole host of freshmen on the roster, making the NCAA tournament for a 14th-straight year seemed to be a pipe dream. Somehow, Barnes and the Longhorns were not only able to avoid a losing record, but even managed to squeak into the NCAA field once more.

While Texas finished above .500, the Horns weren’t able to skip out on the growing pains and fan discontent. With a freshman-laden roster, Texas repeatedly fell short in one- and two-possession games, failing to execute at crunch time. Although the Longhorns overcame those difficulties and defied all reasonable expectations by making the NCAA tournament, fans ignored the short-term storyline and instead focused on the recent trend of post-season disappointments. Fair or not, the Texas fanbase has long been known as a “What have you done for me lately?” type of crowd, and the Longhorns have not advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2008. Although Barnes has built Texas into a nationally-relevant program and recruits at the highest levels, critics point to the lack of trophies inside Denton Cooley Pavilion.

That attitude puts additional pressure on this season, especially when combined with the struggles of the football team. It’s no secret that Texas is a pigskin state, and when Mack Brown was having success on the gridiron in the late 2000’s, the corresponding success on the hardwood was just an added bonus for the school’s fans. With message boards and radio shows already filled with negativity over the current football season, Coach Barnes and the Longhorns will be under the microscope of an already-irritated fanbase.

As if those pressures weren’t enough on their own, the Horns will have to start this season without sophomore point guard Myck Kabongo. Last month, Yahoo! Sports was the first to report on an NCAA investigation into Kabongo’s relationship with agent Rich Paul and whether or not he received improper benefits on a trip to workout with former Longhorn Tristan Thompson in Akron, Ohio. The NCAA has still not ruled on the matter, and Texas will not play Kabongo until the governing body hands down its decision.

Starting in his place will be 5’10” point guard Javan Felix, an ESPN Top 100 recruit from St. Augustine in New Orleans. While it would be unreasonable to expect immediate greatness from the freshman, the early buzz on Felix is exciting. The length of Kabongo’s absence is still up in the air at this point, so getting major minutes for Felix in low-risk games against Fresno State, Coppin State, and Chaminade will be huge for his development. If Kabongo is still unavailable when the Longhorns start facing foes from BCS conferences, the freshman point guard — and Texas — will truly be tested.

The Horns will also hit the floor tonight without sophomore Jaylen Bond, the team’s most tenacious rebounder. The Pennsylvania native injured his ankle in practice this week and will not be available against the Bulldogs. As a freshman, Bond led the team with offensive and defensive rebounding rates of 13.3% and 21.4%, respectively, but did not play enough minutes to qualify for the national rankings.

Texas hopes that freshman Cameron Ridley is able to make up for that presence on the glass. A 6’9″ center, Ridley was a McDonald’s All-American and consensus top-twenty recruit, so he’s expected to immediately make a mark on the 40 Acres. He’s got the size and the physical tools to make a splash, so fans are hopeful that he can quickly adjust to the more competitive college game.

Ridley and Felix are just two of seven freshman joining the Longhorns this season, once again making them one of the youngest teams in the country. Big man Prince Ibeh brings quickness and athleticism to the table, giving the Horns a defensive presence that can alter the game inside. Greek import Ioannis Papapetrou, already nicknamed “Papi” by Kabongo and his teammates, should help to stretch the floor with his European background. There’s not much known about his skills at this point, so it will be interesting to watch his role develop throughout the course of the season.

Connor Lammert and Demarcus Holland are two freshmen who aren’t expected to make major contributions in their first year. Lammert is a the younger brother of Texas Tech’s Clark Lammert, and he’s another skilled-shooting forward who can help stretch the defense. Holland is a combo guard who can put it on the floor to generate points, but he struggled from outside in high school. If Kabongo is out for an extended stretch or misses the season entirely, Holland will provide some extra depth in the backcourt, although he is much more useful at the two.

The seventh member of this year’s freshman class is Danny Newsome, a walk-on from Langham Creek outside the Beltway in Houston. While he’s not going to provide meaningful minutes this season, he could perhaps develop into a new sidekick for the always-entertaining Melchionni Report.

With so many fresh faces on the roster, the success of this year’s team will likely ride on the development of the five-man sophomore class. Although Kabongo and Bond won’t be taking part in tonight’s game, all eyes will be on Julien Lewis, Jonathan Holmes, and Sheldon McClellan to see how much progress they made in the offseason.

Lewis was a very streaky shooter as a sophomore, so much so that you could generally tell what type of night he was going to have after just one or two shots. While it’d certainly be nice if he developed into a dead-eye over the summer, it’s much more reasonable to hope that he will make better decisions this year on nights when he is struggling. If he can defer to teammates on his off nights, perhaps the Longhorns can avoid some of the 1-for-10 performances like he delivered at Missouri last year.

Holmes quietly provided a lot of good minutes last season, and his rebounding really improved down the stretch of Big 12 play. If he can continue to clean up the offensive misses and perhaps improve the three-point shot he liked to test out last year, Holmes could be a key leader on this young squad.

The most important sophomore on the roster, though, is McClellan. Fans saw flashes of his brilliance last year, when he would take over a game for just a few possessions at a time. Conventional wisdom holds that players make their greatest leap in the summer following their freshmen season, so Texas fans have high hopes that McClellan is going to be an unstoppable scorer this year. If he has the confidence and killer instinct that Coach Barnes has been trying to instill in him from Day One, Sheldon could be a difference-maker in the Big 12.

Coach-speak aside, the numbers seem to paint an excellent picture for McClellan, as well. John Pudner is a political professional who imported the Sabermetrics WAR (Wins Above Replacement player) formula to college basketball and named his new measurement “Value Add.” His entire player database is available online, and it offers my fellow stat-nerds hours of enjoyment.

The most interesting aspect of Pudner’s analysis, as it pertains to Texas, is the massive benefit he projects the Longhorns will receive from McClellan this season. Based on minutes, usage rate, and efficiency numbers from last season, Sheldon is ranked as the 37th most-valuable player this year. That’s the third-highest ranking in the entire Big 12, checking in just behind Jeff Withey of Kansas and Rodney McGruder of Kansas State. If McClellan can come anywhere close to making that kind of an impact this season, the Longhorns will surprise a lot of folks across the nation.

Last week, ESPN unveiled the bracket of the 2012 EA Sports Maui Invitational, setting the table for three exciting days of November hoops. The Texas Longhorns will open play in Lahaina against host Chaminade before moving on to tackle Illinois or Southern Cal. LRT took an early look at those three teams in part one of our tournament preview.

Today, we look at the other half of the bracket, which includes two teams from last year’s Sweet 16, a program that reached the national title game in both 2010 and 2011, and one team that will be starting from scratch. In late July, there’s no way to know exactly who Texas will face on the last day of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, but we do know it will be one of the teams below.

Butler

After back-to-back appearances in the national championship game, 2011-12 was a complete rebuilding year for Brad Stevens and Butler. Senior Ronald Nored was one of just three seniors, forcing the Bulldogs to rely on young, unproven talent to eat up a lot of the minutes.

The team was as stingy on defense as you would expect for a Stevens-coached squad, but a painfully inept offense made for a very bumpy ride. The Bulldogs were the fifth-worst three-point shooting team in all of D-I hoops, knocking down just 27.2% of their long-range attempts. With opponents able to sag off the perimeter, inside scoring was also difficult for Butler. For much of the season, it seemed like the best offense for the Bulldogs was just crashing the glass, where they reclaimed 35% of their misses.

This season, immediate help on the perimeter comes in the form of Rotnei Clarke, the former Arkansas sharpshooter who transferred when Mike Anderson arrived in Fayetteville. In his three years as a Razorback, Clarke hit 42% of his threes and averaged just over one foul per 40 minutes. For a defensive-minded basketball team with perimeter issues, Clarke is a godsend.

Incoming freshman Kellen Dunham will also bring relief in the backcourt. A four-star recruit from Indiana, the 6’5″ guard is a long-range gunner with a reputation for constantly working to get free off the ball. His presence will hopefully open up the floor a bit for a Butler team that really struggled to find open looks last season.

The one Bulldog who could create his own looks was Chrishawn Hopkins. Now a junior, Hopkins can consistently put the ball on the floor and get points. Although he’s just 6’1″, he’s a very athletic guard who can light it up in a hurry and he seems primed for a breakout season.

If the Bulldogs want to keep everyone in their familiar positions from last season, the growth of Australian Jackson Aldridge is key. A lightning-quick point guard, Aldridge played only about 14 minutes per game in relief of Nored last season. If he can make the typical leap from freshman to sophomore year, it will allow Hopkins to play more off the ball and focus on scoring.

In the frontcourt, the Bulldogs could still be a bit undersized at times. Although center Andrew Smith is 6’11”, Butler’s best lineup in 2011-12 had 6’4″ Roosevelt Jones and 6’6″ Khyle Marshall at the three and the four. Jones is very strong for his size, and rebounds exceptionally well from his position on the wing. Marshall also outrebounded many taller opponents, thanks in large part to exceptional hops. He’s thrown down more than a few highlight-reel alley-oops, and is bound to provide even more in the future.

Off the bench, 6’9″ forwards Kameron Woods and Erik Fromm played significant minutes in 2011-12 and earned a combined 16 starts. Fromm proved to be a solid offensive rebounder, but often looked awkward and stiff in post-up situations. If either big man has developed into a serviceable power forward over the summer, Butler will be able to match up better against more traditional lineups.

Marquette

The Bulldogs will open island play in the EA Sports Maui Invitational against a talented Marquette squad looking to replace some very big contributors. Fresh off the school’s second-place finish in the deep Big East, Buzz Williams and the Golden Eagles must quickly figure out how to replace the scoring, rebounding, and leadership of Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom.

While losing two AP All-Americans is certainly a major blow, the Golden Eagles will still have the experienced backcourt of Vander Blue and Junior Cadougan. The latter is a seasoned point guard who averaged 5.4 assists per game and posted an impressive assist rate of 32.4%. Blue is an off-guard with a very quick first step, who consistently uses it to get to the rim despite not being a three-point threat.

Both of the starting guards are excellent at feeding the post, which will be huge with the return of Jamil Wilson and Davante Gardner. The pair of rising juniors combined to average 16.6 points and 9.4 boards last season, with Gardner typically coming off of the bench. Wilson proved to be a relentless shot blocker, adding another tough interior defender to a squad that will also have 6’11” Texan Chris Otule inside. With a wingspan of 7’5″, Otule blocked 55 shots as a sophomore in 2010-11, the most for a Golden Eagle in 14 years. An ACL injury limited him to just eight games last year, but he will assuredly be back in top form for his senior campaign.

Marquette could also welcome back guard Todd Mayo, younger brother of NBA player O.J. Mayo. He hasn’t been taking part in any of the team’s summer activities, and Coach Williams confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in late June that Mayo was serving an indefinite suspension.

Very quick and crafty, Mayo would sometimes get himself into trouble last season by playing a bit out of control. He posted more turnovers than assists on the year, but was showing steady improvement throughout the season. If he can work his way back from this latest off-the-court setback, Mayo should be able to take on a bigger role as a sophomore.

The Golden Eagles also added Arizona State star Trent Lockett, who transferred to Marquette to be closer to his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. Lockett graduated from ASU in three years and will be immediately available for Marquette, giving Coach Williams an incredibly talented senior wing to add to an already very solid backcourt. With the Sun Devils, Lockett often had to do everything, even having to pick up point guard duties when Keala King was dismissed in the middle of the season. On a much deeper Marquette squad, Lockett won’t be the focus of opposing defenses, and he should have a very impressive senior year.

The Golden Eagles will also bring in a two-man freshman class, highlighted by four-star prospect Steve Taylor. The 6’7″ small forward won three state titles in high school and possesses both a strong perimeter game and good rebounding skills. While much less heralded, Jamal Ferguson is a 6’4″ slashing wing with a lot of length. On a Marquette team that uses defense to fuel offense, that length on the perimeter should lead to some quality minutes off the bench.

Mississippi State

Most new coaches inherit rebuilding projects when they sign on the dotted line. Mississippi State’s Rick Ray hardly even inherited anything.

Gone from last year’s Bulldog squad are point guard Dee Bost, big man Arnett Moultrie, and the oft-maligned and often-fed Renardo Sidney. Reserve point guard DeVille Smith and athletic wingman Rodney Hood both also hit the road, in search of greener pastures at other schools. Smith landed at Southwest CC in Mississippi, while Hood will sit out a year before playing for Duke.

With the mass exodus, that leaves just two players who saw meaningful minutes in the 2011-12 season: junior guard Jalen Steele and senior center Wendell Lewis. The pair combined to average 44.7 minutes, 12.5 points, and 5.8 boards and saw the court in all 33 of Mississippi State’s games.

As a result, there’s an immediate infusion of new blood in Starkville. The Bulldogs have five incoming freshmen, highlighted by 6’4″ shooting guard Fred Thomas, a Mississippi product. Coach Ray also welcomes a pair of juco transfers in forward Colin Borchert and point guard Trivante Bloodman, both of whom will be called on to make a quick impact.

Unfortunately, the first class of the Rick Ray era is off to a very rough start. Freshman shooting guard Craig Sword was arrested last Sunday for having a BB gun in his dorm room, which is a misdemeanor. Coach Ray has said that punishment will be handled in-house, before the start of the season.

While Sword won’t miss any playing time, freshman point guard Jacoby Davis is expected to miss the entire 2012-13 campaign after tearing his ACL in an individual workout last Monday. The loss of Davis puts even more pressure on Bloodman, and further depletes a young backcourt filled with questions.

It’s going to be a long first season for Coach Ray and the Bulldog faithful. With North Carolina up first for Mississippi State, the Maui Invitational will likely be a rude welcome to college hoops for this very young team.

North Carolina

Although the Tar Heels lost Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Kendall Marshall, and Tyler Zeller to the NBA, don’t think that hard times are ahead in Chapel Hill. Instead, Roy Williams has reloaded with a consensus top-five recruiting class and welcomes back future NBA star James Michael McAdoo, P.J. Hairston, Dexter Strickland, Reggie Bullock and Leslie McDonald. You’ll have to forgive the rest of the ACC if they aren’t feeling any sympathy for fans of the powder blue.

McAdoo flirted with the idea of going pro after his freshman season, but the stout 6’9″ sophomore decided to build off of his success in the NCAA tournament and return to another elite North Carolina team in 2012-13. McAdoo is a strong, stout guy who is fearless on the glass, yet still has handles and agility that seem unfair for someone his size. There were times that he seemed to be tentative on last year’s team, but with the Big Four now off to the NBA, his role is clearly defined. If he plays up to potential, McAdoo could be a household name before conference play even tips off.

Like McAdoo, Hairston is another talented player who came off the bench last season. While he could have been a starter at most schools, the 6’6″ wing waited his turn and should be a star in his sophomore campaign. He made an early impact for UNC by knocking down 8-of-16 from behind the arc in the two-game Las Vegas Invitational. His shot was very streaky throughout the season, however, and he finished with just a 27% mark from long range. If he can get more consistent results as a sophomore, the Heels will be tough to defend.

Shooting guard Bullock has already found that consistency on his three-point looks, knocking down 38.2% of his attempts last year. He stepped up following Strickland’s ACL tear in January, and was a huge reason why the Tar Heels didn’t miss a beat.

If Strickland is back to full strength, opponents will once again be hounded by his hard-nosed, lockdown defense on the perimeter. Even though he averaged just over 24 minutes per game, Strickland led the team in steals per game and was typically assigned to shut down the opponent’s best perimeter player.

Strickland isn’t the only Tar Heel guard to be returning from injury in 2012-13, as McDonald will also be ready to play after missing all of last season to rehab from knee surgery. With McDonald bringing yet another three-point threat to the table, the Heels will force opponents to extend the defense, hopefully opening things up for a less-experienced frontcourt.

With so many returning guards and wings, the only real concern in the UNC backcourt is at the point. Marshall was a rare talent, one whose court vision and smart passes made the Tar Heel offense click even on those nights that their jump shots weren’t falling. Strickland has also played the one in the past for Carolina, but incoming freshman Marcus Paige is the top-ranked point guard in the 2012 class. There are always growing pains for freshmen, but having a talented cast surrounding Paige — not to mention an upperclassman mentor in Strickland — should ease the transition. He’s spent the summer rehabbing from a stress fracture, but should be fully healed and ready to go before Midnight Madness.

The much bigger questions loom in the frontcourt, where Carolina will have to get immediate results from some highly-ranked freshmen. Brice Johnson and Joel James are both four-star prospects who should see some major minutes alongside McAdoo. James has already made headlines on Tobacco Road by dropping more than 50 pounds over the last 18 months, molding himself into a 260-pound monster described by Coach Williams as “a big rascal who’s gotten less big.” In Carolina’s transition attack, he’ll be required to run the floor, a skill that made Zeller so deadly for the Heels. With enough conditioning, he could make headlines as a freshman.

Although it’s still far too early to tell how the eight Maui teams will look by November, Carolina looks to be the favorite. If Texas can take care of business on its half of the bracket, the Longhorns and Tar Heels could tangle for EA Sports Maui Invitational title just a few weeks before their scheduled meeting at the Erwin Center.

Thursday morning, ESPN’s College Basketball Nation gave college hoops fans a brief drink in the vast offseason desert, revealing the brackets of the November and December tournaments that will air on the Worldwide Leader. Now in its 29th season, the EA Sports Maui Invitational is the most well-known of these early-season events, and once again Rick Barnes and his Longhorn squad will take part in the famous tournament this November.

The opportunity to discuss and analyze brackets — even those that aren’t played out in March — is a great distraction from the fact that there are still 102 days until the 2012-13 regular season tips off. With that in mind, we’re stretching our breakdown of this year’s Maui field over two days. It’s up to our dear readers to find ways to occupy the other 100.

Chaminade Silverswords

The Longhorns will open play on the island of Maui with on November 19th against host Chaminade. The Silverswords are just 6-76 all-time in the tournament, with their most recent win coming in 2010 against another Big 12 school, Oklahoma. Chaminade escaped with a narrow 68-64 win over the Sooners, locking up 7th-place in that 2010 tourney. While they are best known for the monumental upset of top-ranked Virginia in 1982, the Silverswords also boast a pair of Maui wins over Louisville and victories against Villanova and Princeton.

This year’s Chaminade squad has nowhere to go but up, as they wrapped up their 2011-12 campaign by losing eight of their last ten and sputtering to a disappointing 11-14 finish. It was destined to be a rough year for the Silverswords, as they were blasted in their three EA Sports Maui Invitational games last November, losing to UCLA, Georgetown, and Tennessee by an average of 28.3 points.

Although Chaminade lost leading scorer and rebounder Matt Cousins to graduation, the squad will be very experienced and eager to return to the NCAA Division II tournament after a one-year absence. Four of last year’s starters are back on campus, including three seniors. All told, the returning nucleus of Bennie Murray, Lee Bailey, Dominique Cooks, and Waly Coulibaly accounted for 65% of last season’s minutes and nearly 63% of the team’s points.

As is to be expected with a D-II squad, the Silverswords will be very undersized when compared to their mainland opponents. Sophomore Casey Oldemoppen and juco transfer Tyree Harrison are the team’s biggest bodies, with both checking in at just 6’8″. Although the experienced backcourt should improve on the ugly 0.91 assist-to-turnover ratio they posted last year, that height disparity will still lead to a lot of second-chance points for the Longhorns and the other D-I teams.

After taking on Chaminade in opening round action of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, the Longhorns will face either Illinois or Southern Cal on November 20th.

Illinois

The 2011-12 campaign was a brutal one for the Illini faithful. Longtime coach Bruce Webber watched his team lose 12 of their last 14 games, ultimately finishing 6-12 in the Big 10. The slow meltdown of a once-proud program spelled the end for Coach Webber in Champaign, but he found a new home at Kansas State before Kentucky had even cut down the nets in New Orleans.

The biggest challenge for the Illini was simply trying to put the ball in the basket. Illinois had a putrid offense that was more efficient than only Nebraska’s in league play. They were one of the 50 worst teams in all of Division I basketball in both three-point percentage and free-throw rate, meaning not only that they couldn’t hit from outside, but that they also weren’t being aggressive inside. If not for a stifling defense that allowed just 0.933 adjusted points per possession, Illinois wouldn’t have even been competitive in the six league games it did manage to win.

So with the entire Illinois roster back, except for lottery pick Meyers Leonard, why is there optimism surrounding the 2012-13 season? There isn’t an influx of new talent headed towards Assembly Hall. In fact, there’s only one new player who will see the court this year, Coastal Carolina transfer Sam McLaurin. A graudate student who is eligible to play right away, McLaurin was so flippant about his move that he announced his transfer destination with the tweet, “Fuck it im going to Illinois. #illinination”

With that hope not being a result of new faces on the court, perhaps the optimism comes courtesy of the new man at the reins, former Ohio coach John Groce. Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance and a near-upset of North Carolina in the NCAA regional semis, Groce inherits a team full of talent that has yet to live up to expectations. Fans can only hope that he is able to reach a group of players that seemed completely checked out at the end of Webber’s reign.

D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul are returning, and will make the Illini backcourt one of the most experienced in the nation. Joining them on the perimeter is junior wingman Joseph Bertrand, who showed flashes of brilliance throughout the season, especially in a January upset of Ohio State. He earned starts in 14 of the team’s 18 league games, and fans are hopeful he’ll truly break out in 2012-13.

The biggest hole was left by Leonard, who went pro after just two years at Illinois. That means there are a lot of expectations weighing on sophomore Nnanna Egwu, a raw 6’10” Nigerian center who appeared in every game last year. With Leonard chewing up the bulk of the post minutes in Webber’s four-guard look, Egwu averaged just under 10 minutes per game. He will have to make a big leap to be competitive in a physical Big 10, but will still likely be going through some growing pains when the team is in Hawaii.

Southern Cal

USC had an even more disappointing season than Illinois, but Coach Kevin O’Neill and the Trojans should bounce back quickly. Unlike the Illini, the abysmal season in L.A. wasn’t a result of inexplicable chemistry issues. Rather, the Trojans were a walking MASH unit, playing in some late-season Pac-12 games with only six scholarship players. Pro prospect Dewayne Dedmon and forward Aaron Fuller both missed significant chunks of the year, while point guard Jio Fontan sat out the entire season following knee surgery.

This year, the Trojans are back at full force, and welcome some much-heralded new faces to the locker room. Ari Stewart and Eric Wise are eligible to join the team in 2012-13, having sat out last season after transferring from Wake Forest and UC-Irvine, while former Tennessee Volunteer and hip-hop artist Renaldo Woolridge can immediately play thanks to the graduate transfer rule.

The Trojans also welcome 6’3″ guard J.T. Terrell, who averaged more than 11 points per game for Wake Forest in 2010-11. Following an arrest just two months before the 2011-12 season, Terrell left Wake and played at Peninsula College, where he led the team to an NWAACC playoff berth while averaging over 24 points per game.

Even with a depleted roster, Coach O’Neill was able to make his Trojan squad one of the toughest defensive units in the country. USC allowed just 0.944 adjusted points per possession, 47th-best in D-I hoops. They forced turnovers on nearly a quarter of their opponents’ possessions, one of the ten best marks in the country last year.

Where USC struggled was on the offensive end, and that struggle was a mighty one. The team’s adjusted offensive efficiency was 326th out of 345 Division I teams, thanks in large part to the third-worst three-point percentage in the country. USC also was one of the ten worst teams in offensive rebounding percentage, free-throw rate, and effective field goal percentage. It would be practically impossible for the healthy, reloaded Trojans cannot to do worse on the offensive end this year.

The EA Sports Maui Invitational will be an early indication of just how well this team can perform in 2012-13. O’Neill has been an outstanding defensive coach in his four years as head coach at USC and Arizona, so there’s no question they will remain competitive. The pieces are there for the Trojans to make a remarkable turnaround, but the offense has to at least reach serviceable levels to take advantage of that stingy D.

For a look at the other half of the EA Sports Maui Invitational bracket, check out Part Two of our preview.

Fittingly, the final game of the 2011-12 Texas basketball season played out the same way that the entire season had unfolded. The Longhorns dug themselves a big hole, missed numerous chances within spitting distance of the rim, fought back with suffocating defense, and ultimately failed to execute in the final minutes. For fans who hadn’t had a chance to really get to know this young Longhorn team, the NCAA Second Round loss to Cincinnati was a perfect microcosm of a season filled with growing pains and gut-wrenching losses.

For most of the Texas fanbase, the defeat closed the book on something of a lost season. Nine of the team’s 13 non-conference games were on the Longhorn Network, a channel with practically non-existent distribution in the school’s own city of Austin. The first year of a new sports channel is certainly filled with roadblocks, as evidenced by the well-told history of the Big Ten Network. But the timing couldn’t have been worse for fans of Texas basketball, as the Horns returned just three scholarship players and welcomed six freshmen. Without exposure in the non-conference months of the schedule, most fans had their first good look at a brand new roster when Big 12 play opened in January.

The first month of conference play was rough, to say the least. The Longhorns opened things up with a road loss to Iowa State — a defeat that looked terrible at the time, but eventually proved to be just one of many big wins at Hilton for the Cyclones. Texas was able to right the ship with a pair of victories at home over Oklahoma State and A&M, but then had to march directly into a brutal six game stretch against the Big 12’s top teams. By the end of January, the Horns were just 3-6 in league play, and those fans who were forced to miss the first half of the season were quickly getting restless.

A recurring theme throughout the year was Texas’ inability to execute late in close games. Five of the Longhorns’ first six conference losses came by six points or less, and the team would finish the season with a dismal 3-9 record in two-possession games, including the 65-59 loss to Cincinnati to cap the year. In almost every late-game situation, Texas would spread the floor and lose all semblance of off-the-ball movement. Against the Bearcats, they did that exact thing on each of the three possessions following the under-four media timeout. Combine those wasted possessions with three fruitful ones for the Cincinnati offense, and you had the recipe for yet another last-minute defeat.

The repetition of the same mistakes and problems made much of the 2011-12 campaign feel like Damon Lindelof and Calton Cuse had FedExed a late-season LOST script to the Texas basketball offices. For the fans, watching Texas basketball was just as frustrating as some of the final episodes of that confounding TV show. If you looked at the big picture for Texas basketball, it seemed like the building blocks were being established for something greater down the road. In the meantime, though, the team seemed to simply be spinning its wheels.

Loyal readers of this website were probably tired of the “counting wins for an NCAA bid” and “unable to execute in the clutch” storylines by mid-January. But the fact of the matter is that when the team or a player made strides in one area, another part of the boat sprung a leak. One game we would be excited over the flashes of brilliance from Sheldon McClellan or the improvements of Clint Chapman. By the next game, McClellan would be struggling once more and Chapman would get himself into early foul trouble. The same storylines carried throughout the year, because the Longhorns couldn’t find a way to turn the page. Narratively, they were stuck somewhere in the second act.

The one positive in having such clearly defined, repetitive issues is that it makes those areas for improvement a top priority in the offseason. This year, the NCAA will allow coaches to work with their team over the summer, something that will be very important for the five returning Longhorn freshman and the stellar incoming class of recruits. Texas fans, coaches, and players know what problems need to be addressed heading into 2012-13. Now the only question is whether or not the Longhorns can make the necessary changes.

The feeling that this season was simply a table-setter for the future wasn’t limited to just the product on the court. There was never a moment during this long and difficult season where I doubted that Longhorn Road Trip would continue into a seventh season. While Rick Barnes and his big freshman class were building the foundation for future glory, I was carefully laying the plans to bring LRT and this incredible journey to a fitting end.

Longhorn Road Trip started six years ago as a crazy idea to attend every game for one season. Every year, there seemed to be another reason to keep it going. The unbalanced Big 12 schedule meant I didn’t travel to Hilton Coliseum, Mizzou Arena, or Bramlage Coliseum during the first year, so the second season seemed only natural. The Maui Invitational and the goal of 100 games brought me back for a third year, while Season Four offered a chance to see the college careers of Damion James, Justin Mason, and Dexter Pittman from start to finish. Road games in Greensboro, East Lansing, and L.A. made Season Five appealing, and the quest for 200 consecutive games meant there was no way I was missing a sixth year of trips.

But even after reaching that 200-game milestone in the road loss to Iowa State, I knew that Season Seven was on the agenda — and that it would be the last for Longhorn Road Trip in its current form. The storyline for 2011-12 was simply whether or not this young, untested team could reach the NCAA tournament and extend Texas’ streak to 14-consecutive appearances. While I was enjoying the opportunity to cover the team’s pursuit of that goal, even bigger goals and richer story arcs were just a year away.

When you throw in another trip to the Maui Invitational, a showdown with a Big East power in New York City, another excellent Big 10 road trip, return games with UCLA and North Carolina, and the first road games against West Virginia and TCU, Season Seven is going to be full of exciting trips and thrilling games. My better half — who has stuck with me through the last four years of this crazy journey — even wants to join in on XLRT2013, and I’m exploring options to hit every round of the NCAA tourney, from the First Four to the Final Four. It’s safe to say that we’ll be going out with a bang in the final full season of LRT, one that will include my 250th-consecutive game sometime in late February or early March.

With those big plans on the horizon, the icing on the cake came in the form of Myck Kabongo’s return and the signing of incoming freshman Cameron Ridley. Texas fans have been burned by numerous early entries in recent years, leading to their pessimistic view that both Kabongo and J’Covan Brown would be leaving the program at season’s end. Although Brown did elect to pursue his NBA dreams, Kabongo chose to remain on the 40 Acres, leaving the Horns with a prescient point guard that has only scratched the surface of his potential.

The signing of Ridley and big man Prince Ibeh will help to replace seniors forwards Chapman and Alexis Wangmene, although the freshmen will likely take time to adjust to the physical nature of frontcourt play in the Big 12. Sophomores Jonathan Holmes and Jaylen Bond will have to step up in a big way, as once again the interior will be the biggest question mark for UT at the start of the season.

But even with those concerns, fans will finally be greeted with a fairly familiar roster when the season tips off in early November. If the sophomore quintet can make strides during this crucial offseason, the outlook is rosy for a much more successful campaign in 2012-13. And, for the seventh-straight year, LRT will be there to cover it for you, every step of the way.