On Thursday night, Kevin Durant was named to the Western Conference All-Star team as a reserve. It’s the first time a former Longhorn has been tabbed for that honor since superstar Slater Martin’s seven-year All-Star run from 1952 to 1959. Durant is averaging 29.3 points per game through Oklahoma City’s first 45 contests, along with 7.3 boards and three assists.

The Texas road win against Arkansas looks a little better after the Hogs knocked off Mississippi State in Fayetteville last night. Courtney Fortson dropped 35 points in the victory on 53% shooting from the field. Elsewhere, the Pitt Panthers needed a second-half surge to knock off visiting St. John’s, while Long Beach State edged out Cal State-Northridge. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the good news for the Longhorn strength of schedule, as Cal-Irvine, Western Carolina, USC, and Gardner-Webb all lost last night.

Texas tumbled to 7th in Luke Winn’s latest Power Rankings, but what interests us most in his column is the conversation with NBA scouts. Winn reports that the consensus is that Damion James is a mid- to late-first rounder, and that the scouts would prefer to see Avery Bradley stay in school for another year, even though he’d be selected early in this year’s draft. Can we get extra copies of that column sent to AB in April?

We squeezed in lots and lots of work on the photo galleries tonight. Our latest update includes albums from the UNC, Rice, and Kansas State games, with the ones for Arkansas and UConn likely coming your way this weekend. Click here to browse all of the photos currently available.

When we wrote about the problems plaguing the Texas offense on Tuesday night, we addressed the fact that Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay were offensive liabilities that were crippling Dexter Pittman‘s productivity. Opponents were well-aware that the duo was averaging a combined 7.2 points per game, which allowed two extra defenders to sag into the paint and stifle Texas’ inside game. Our proposed solution was to limit the amount of time both players were on the floor simultaneously, hopefully clearing up the spacing issues for the offense.

Of course, having Mason and Balbay combine for 31 points might also solve the problem.

That’s exactly what happened in Wednesday night’s 95-83 Texas win, as the pair of offensively-challenged guards made mincemeat of the Tech defense, leading the Horns to a win on a night where Pittman didn’t even score in the first half. It was clear from the start that the two guards had the green light on offense, as Mason attacked the rim for layups almost immediately, and Balbay shot the first open mid-range jumper he was given. That particular shot clanged off the iron, but the junior kept firing, and knocked down a pair of Js later in the contest.

With all five Texas players actually a threat to score, the offense immediately opened up. Avery Bradley found himself with open looks behind the arc and he took advantage, knocking down 3-of-6 from long range. Damion James was able to secure his Big 12-record 48th double-double with a monstrous 28-point, 13-rebound night. To say the Texas offense was clicking on all cylinders would be a gross understatement. According to number crunching by stat guru Ken Pomeroy, last night’s performance was actually the 4th-most efficient one for the offense all season, and the best since the Big 12 opener against Colorado.

Unfortunately, even with all of that scoring, the game wasn’t safely in hand until the final minutes. Texas had yet another poor defensive performance, giving up dribble penetration far too easily in the first half. In response, the Longhorns peeled back the defensive pressure inside the arc to cut off the driving lanes, which left the perimeter wide open. That let Tech — a team which was averaging just thirteen three-point attempts per game — fire up thirteen attempts in just the first half and actually make eight of them!

In the second half, things improved marginally, but there is the question of how much of that defensive improvement was thanks to fatigue slowing down the Tech ballhandlers. The Longhorns were much more successful staying in front of their man for the final twenty minutes and certainly made John Roberson work much harder in the second half to score his points. But with the Red Raiders only playing seven men when they typically run nine or ten deep, it’s quite possible that tired legs just made it harder for them to blow by the Texas defense.

While Tech had lost most of its depth, Texas was choosing to work with less. The Longhorns played with a core group of seven men, and even sat Dexter Pittman for more than half the game as Coach Barnes chose to go with a smaller lineup against the speedy, undersized Red Raiders. J’Covan Brown earned most of the reserve minutes in the backcourt, playing 20 minutes in relief. Down low, Gary Johnson made the most of his 21 minutes, scrapping for six points and five boards. After the UConn loss, there was much talk in the media about downsizing the Texas rotation, and for now that approach seems to be working.

With the losing streak at an end, the Longhorns can now think about getting the season back on track. Fortunately, the UConn loss has no bearing at all on the goal of a conference championship, so Texas still sits just one game back of Kansas in the league standings. The tiebreaker will belong to the winner of the February 8th showdown at the Frank Erwin Center, so as long as the Longhorns stay within one game of the Jayhawks, they still maintain the ability to wrest control of the league with a head-to-head win.

Texas has a tough week on the road between now and then, but also cannot afford to look past a very dangerous march-up with the Baylor Bears on Saturday. Scott Drew has his team playing defense for the first time in ages, and Michigan transfer Ekpe Udoh gives the Bears an inside presence they simply haven’t had with Josh Lomers in the paint.

Check back tomorrow evening for some statistical analysis of the Texas defense, and perhaps even a few more photo galleries from this season’s road trips.

After two straight road losses and a narrow overtime victory against Texas A&M, a pair of home games is the perfect remedy for the Texas Longhorns. Fortunately, that two-game homestand starts with tonight’s tilt against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, a team that is just 2-4 on the road this year and will be playing without two of their starters in the frontcourt.

Historically, Texas has dominated this series, particularly in the Erwin Center. The Longhorns have won thirteen-straight meetings at the Drum, and are 21-3 against the Red Raiders since Rick Barnes took over as head coach. While Tech’s poor road play and battered roster will likely lead to an easy Texas victory tonight, fans should know that Coach Pat Knight has certainly improved his team since last year.

The key players

Tech’s offense is still anchored by the talented John Roberson, a lightning-quick guard from Plano who also has excellent court vision. When he’s not scoring his 13.8 points per game, he’s often threading the needle to get his teammates open looks. Roberson has more than five assists per game, and in Tech’s smooth-flowing motion offense, his ability to get the ball to his teammates at the right moment is key.

The other big-time playmaker for the Red Raiders is Mike Singletary. After being a starter two years ago, he was an on-again, off-again member of the starting five last season. Then came his signature game, a 43-point outburst against A&M in the opening round of last year’s Big 12 Tournament. At one point in his amazing performance, Singletary scored 29 consecutive points for the Red Raiders.

This year, there’s no question that Mike is the go-to guy. He’s leading the team with more than 15 points a game, and his presence down low will be even more important tonight thanks to the suspension of center Darko Cohaderavic and the injury to forward D’walyn Roberts. Texas must use their frontcourt depth to attack Singletary, as there will be a huge drop-off in talent if he is forced to the bench with foul trouble.

Thanks to the absence of Cohaderavic and Roberts, a ton of pressure now falls on the shoulders of Robert Lewandowski, a sophomore forward who has seen his production tail off after a promising freshman campaign. He’s great with his back to the basket, which gives Coach Knight the opportunity to focus a little more on an inside game instead of the typical Tech offense of constant cutting, midrange jumpers, and layups. The biggest knock on Lewandowski last season was his inability to get rebounds despite his 6’10” frame, and this year those troubles have limited him to about ten minutes per contest. Tech will need him to step up tonight, which includes making some immediate improvements on the glass.

Nick Okorie is a senior guard who is nearly as quick as Roberson, and is just as big of a threat to score. He’s only started ten games this season, but is still fourth on the team in scoring with nine points per game. He’s a very good rebounder for being just 6’1″, which is important for a team that will be giving up a lot of size against the Longhorns.

The Red Raiders don’t shoot very many threes, but if they do happen to get hot from long range tonight, it will likely be thanks to JuCo transfer David Tairu. The 6’3″ guard has only taken 36 three-pointers on the year, but is by far the most accurate long-range shooter for Tech so far. Tairu is also an in-your-face defender who loves to get in his man’s jersey well beyond the perimeter.

Brad Reese is the only other Tech player who is available tonight that has logged significant minutes. He’s another junior-college transfer, coming to Lubbock from Gulf Coast CC in Florida. He’s a versatile 6’6″ player who will likely be asked to fill a multitude of roles tonight. If Tech chooses to go small, which the roster changes may necessitate, he is able to slide down to the power forward position and actually can play some solid defense. Reese also has the handles to bring the ball up the floor and attack off the dribble, so the Red Raiders will likely be looking for some added offense from him tonight.

Keys to the game

As has already been mentioned, this thin Tech bench is going to have a hard time keeping up with the depth and size of the Texas offense. But based on the last twenty minutes of Longhorn basketball we’ve seen, it’s entirely possible that the Bad Horns could show up and tank against a well-coached team. Here, then, are our keys to getting the home win and getting back on track…

Extend the defensive pressure – The Red Raiders love to score on midrange jumpers and easy layups. They are constantly cutting across the lane, setting screens away from the ball, and forcing the defense to make decisions when their skilled ballhandlers penetrate. What Tech doesn’t like to do is shoot three-pointers. Texas needs to extend their defensive pressure out past the perimeter and make the Red Raider offense work 20 feet from the basket. They must force the cutters to catch passes out by the free throw line, instead of midway down the blocks for easy jumpers. If the Longhorns can keep their men in front of them and far from the rim, it should be very tough for Tech to cobble together much of an offense.

Get Dexter involved early – We talked about the issues leading to Dexter’s disappearance in last night’s column. While we’re not holding our breath for Barnes to make any of these changes in the near future, there has to at least be a concerted effort made tonight to work the ball inside to the big man early. Texas is going to enjoy quite the size advantage against this depleted lineup, so Pitt has to pile up some points. In addition, Big Dex also has to hold up his end of the bargain by avoiding the early fouls that have hampered his playing time in recent weeks.

Force mistakes – Statistically, the Red Raiders don’t make that many mistakes with the basketball. Their 19.2% turnover rate is 96th-best in the country, but they’ve shown a tendency to make many more mistakes on the road. In Tech’s last five road games — four of which were losses — their turnover rate was never lower than 20.9%, and it even spiked as high as 29.3% in a blowout loss to Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders coughed it up 21 times in that one, leading to 29 Cowboy points off the miscues. If Texas can take advantage of this trend and steal some possessions from a less-talented Red Raider squad, it should squash any hopes of an upset.

There’s an 800-pound gorilla in the room, and it’s actually a 290-pound center named Dexter Pittman. More accurately, it’s not the center himself that is the problem no one seems to address, but rather his role in the Texas gameplan.

Make no mistake — we won’t be bashing Pittman here today. It’s hard to fault a kid who’s drawing double-teams, triple-teams, and even the occasional quadruple-team as soon as he touches a basketball. But it’s a commonly accepted fact that the Texas offense has to run through Pittman’s big hands, and for a multitude of reasons, it’s been tough to do that the last few weeks.

In his last five games, Dexter has averaged just five points in 19.2 minutes per contest. He’s shooting just 39% over that stretch. In the 15 games prior to this slide, Big Pitt was making over 74% of his shots from the field. Take a moment to let that sink in. For two entire weeks, Dexter Pittman’s shooting percentage has been cut almost completely in half.

How could such a drastic change happen? The simple answer, of course, is that the competition is tougher and that these better opponents are game-planning for the big man. While that’s definitely one piece of the puzzle, it’s not the entire problem facing Dexter, and in the larger scheme, the entire Texas offense.

Take a look at the picture below, a side-by-side comparison from the Iowa State game that Sports Illustrated writer Luke Winn posted in his power rankings two weeks ago.

At the time, it was actually fairly hilarious to see that the Cyclones couldn’t even contain Pittman with all five men. But the picture actually underscores a glaring weakness in the Texas offfense.

Clogging the paint

Rick Barnes is a defense-first coach, and as a result, that often leads to lineups containing both Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay. Both are fine basketball players that bring different skills to the table. Balbay is a fantastic facilitator, and the second-half meltdown in Storrs on Saturday underscores how important he is to the offense. Mason is a hard-nosed defender like Balbay, and his hustle and experience cannot be understated. But the one thing the pair doesn’t bring to the table is any offensive threat beyond driving to the basket.

When the Longhorns manage to get an entry pass in to the big man — and even that has been difficult as of late — the defenses predictably collapse and Pittman must make a quick decision. Kick the ball to a teammate that has been abandoned by the defense’s trap, or make a strong move to the basket before the help arrives. With Balbay and Mason on the floor at the same time, that frees up two extra defenders to harass Pittman. Opponents know that Dogus and Justin will not immediately sink a three, so there is absolutely no risk at all when their defenders sell out to stop the big man.

Of course, this does not even address the fact that defenses are also already sagging off of Mason and Balbay when they do have the ball, further diminishing their offensive threat as it makes it more difficult for the guards to blow by and get to the rim. Most importantly, though, it makes it nearly impossible for Texas to get any sort of spacing on offense, which leads to the aforementioned issues the Horns have trying to gain post entry on a pass.

Perhaps a solution on the offensive side of the ball is to severely limit the number of minutes Mason and Balbay are together on the floor at any given time. It’s clear at this point that the only two Longhorns who can handle point guard duty are Dogus and J’Covan Brown. If Brown is handling point duty, Mason can fill in at the two to replace the defense Texas loses when Balbay leaves the floor. At the same time, the added scoring threat Brown provides means that having a “shooting” guard who really can’t shoot all that well won’t be as much of a problem.

Wasting time on the pine

Conditioning has always been an issue that has limited Pittman’s minutes on the floor. Every Texas fan and most fans of college basketball have heard about his drastic weight loss more times than they would care to count. It comes as no surprise that a slimmer Big Dex would need time for his stamina to catch up.

But lately, what has kept the center sidelined is a sudden affinity for the whistle. In these last five troubling games, Dexter has picked up 17 fouls, significantly limiting his minutes. Those foul numbers are even more worrisome when you consider the diminished playing time, as it means that Pittman has been whistled for a foul once every five minutes.

The easiest way to protect Dexter from riding the pine would be to implement more zone defenses. It’s no secret, however, that Coach Barnes loves man-to-man and shies away from zone looks, especially with younger rosters. But at some point, something has to be done to keep Pittman on the court for longer stretches of time.

Implementing more zone defenses will also give some defense-deficient Longhorns a chance to play longer and make their mark on the offensive end. Jordan Hamilton has certainly improved his D as the year has progressed, but it still leaves quite a bit to be desired. If he can also improve upon his shot selection, playing in a zone would afford him more minutes to create from the wings and draw defenses out with the his long range.

A zone defense also helps with our previously-suggested changes to the guard rotation. If Brown did in fact steal some minutes from Mason, Texas would see much less of a defensive drop-off from the senior to the freshman if they were playing less man-to-man.

Making these small changes will not instantly fix every issue the Longhorns are having. These last two games have exposed the weaknesses that Texas fans have been noting since even the beginning of non-conference play. But at this point, it seems that to run at optimum efficiency the offense must have Pittman and Balbay on the floor. Unless some changes are made soon, Dexter Pittman’s final games as a Longhorn could be completely wasted.

Texas slid to sixth in both polls this afternoon following back-to-back losses on the road. The Kentucky Wildcats ascended to the top spot as the nation’s lone undefeated team, while Kansas moved up to second in both rankings.

The K-State Wildcats took a slight dip after a home loss to Oklahoma State, even though they were the first team to knock off Texas with a Big Monday victory earlier in the week. KSU is 11th in the media poll and is ranked 13th by coaches. Baylor is the only other Big 12 representative, checking in at 24th in the Associated Press rankings, although Texas A&M, Missouri, and Oklahoma State all received votes in both polls.

The Longhorns also took a dive in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, sliding to the 2-seed line in the Salt Lake City regional. In Lunardi’s mock bracket, Texas is paired with 1-seed Syracuse, an absolute nightmare match-up for a Longhorn team that is paralyzed by zone defenses.

The Jayhawks maintained their hold on a 1-seed, but were moved to the Houston regional that the Longhorns vacated. Lunardi awarded five other bids to the Big 12, putting K-State (3-seed), Baylor (5), Missouri (8), A&M (9), and Oklahoma State (11) in the mix.