The first games of the 2009-10 season will finally tip off just hours from now, marking the start of the greatest five months of the year. And while most first-week games are of the snooze-fest variety, the simple thought of sneakers squeaking on hardwood and student section chants echoing in gyms already has our hearts all aflutter.

The preseason excitement surrounding this year’s Longhorn team is abnormally high in a city that typically lives and breathes Texas Football until early January. And although the hoops squad won’t take the floor for another six days, we can’t wait any longer to take our pre-season look at Rick Barnes’ latest bunch, a team that many pundits predict will be playing in Indianapolis at the Final Four.

Deeper Than Ever

If there’s one thing the 2009-2010 Longhorns will lack this season, it’s enough of those cushy, padded chairs lining the Texas bench. Rick Barnes has filled up the locker room this year, listing 16 players on his opening day roster. And while walk-ons Andrew Dick and Dean Melchionni likely won’t find many minutes on a team this loaded, there is no doubt that every one of the other fourteen Longhorns would contribute at most D-1 universities.

And not only does Barnes have a bevy of athletes to choose from, but they bring a ton of experience to the table. Dexter Pittman, Damion James, and Justin Mason provide senior leadership and a strong motivation to reach the Final Four after falling just one game short of that goal two seasons ago. In addition, Gary Johnson is set to take another step forward as he begins his junior campaign, while sophomore guard Varez Ward showed flashes of brilliance down the stretch last year.

Shoring up the backcourt

While last year’s Texas guards had their share of issues, some fresh faces will immediately improve that aspect of the team. With J’Covan Brown finally past his NCAA Clearinghouse issues and Florida transfer Jai Lucas eligible in December, the Horns have a pair of guards who can not only handle the rock, but score with ease — something that limited the effectiveness of Mason and Dogus Balbay last year.

Freshman Avery Bradley comes to campus as a McDonald’s All-American, and was pegged as the nation’s top recruit by numerous ranking services. He is an excellent shooting guard who will spread out defenses, but also has great handles and can fill in at the one. In fact, Bradley was even in attendance at the DeRon Williams Point Guard Skills Academy this summer, where he was the only freshman.

Lost in the excitement surrounding the incoming guards are the trio of returning ballhandlers — Ward, Mason, and Balbay. While none of the three provide the offensive threat that Brown, Lucas, or Bradley do, all of the returning guards are stingy defenders. And on a team coached by the defensive-minded Rick Barnes, that is sure to earn all three of them a fair share of minutes.

Length on the wings

Texas has often been outsized by opposing guards and wings, which was never more evident than in the aforementioned Elite Eight loss to Memphis in 2008. The longer, more athletic Tigers absolutely manhandled the Longhorns, exploiting their height advantage as the fluid Dribble-Drive Motion offense racked up the points for Coach Cal.

That won’t be a problem anytime soon for Texas, as a pair of freshman swingmen adds about 14 feet of wingspan to the Longhorn roster. The 6-foot, 7-inch Jordan Hamilton has been compared to Paul Pierce by a handful of pundits, and is also being tabbed as an excellent NBA prospect before even playing his first collegiate game. With Hamilton in the mix, senior leader James should be freed up to play more inside, and should prevent opponents from drawing Damion away from the defensive glass with their more-athletic wings.

Shawn Williams was the first member of the freshman class to commit, all the way back in August of 2008. But with both Hamilton and Bradley signing their LOIs later, this solid swingman has earned a lot less ink heading into the season. While Hamilton and James are certainly going to command a bulk of the minutes, we’ve been told that Williams is one of the most natural three-point gunners to step foot on the Forty Acres. That’s quite the compliment at a school that just enjoyed four years of A.J. Abrams’ long-range skills.

Power in the paint

While the Longhorns have playmakers in the backcourt and on the wings, the emergence of Dexter Pittman at the end of last season gives them a legitimate double-double threat every single night. Big Dex will have to keep himself out of foul trouble this year, something that has been a problem in the past. If Dexter is sidelined due to whistles, there is no one else on the roster who can fill his size-18 shoes.

That’s not to say that Texas doesn’t have a ton of other bigs who can clean the glass and dump in easy buckets. Gary Johnson is another consistent threat to post double-doubles, and if he can stay injury free this season, his tenacious play could earn nationwide attention. Despite his small size, Johnson is still a beast inside, and has no problem drawing slower bigs away from the basket before attacking the rim. The main thing Gary will need to avoid this season is the “black hole” mentality that led to nearly automatic shots once he touched the rock last year. On a team this talented, he can’t afford to steal looks from his teammates by wasting possessions.

Beyond the two playmakers, Barnes also has a handful of guys off the bench who will likely contribute in their short stints on the court. Alexis Wangmene is primed for a breakout season after playing excellent basketball in the Maui Invitational last November. Unfortunately, the big Cameroonian was injured for the year and never had a chance to build on his performance in Hawai’i.

Clint Chapman is also likely to see an increased role this season, with Connor Atchley departing after his senior year. Coach Barnes often talks about Clint’s basketball acumen in interviews, so perhaps this is the year Longhorn fans will see it translate from the practice court to game play. The role of the other Ivory Tower, Matt Hill, is still a huge question mark, as the junior played limited minutes in a majority of the games last season. With even more talent on the roster this year, his already-limited playing time could suffer another hit.

Gunning for Indianapolis

The mark of a Rick Barnes team is one that truly evolves from the start of November until the end of March. Not only is he constantly tinkering with rotations and minutes, but his players almost always improve over the course of a season. With three highly-touted freshmen on the roster and two new faces in the backcourt, the potential for growth is limitless. Combine that with senior leadership and the rigors of a schedule that includes Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Oklahoma, and you have a team that will be battle-tested and ready to make noise come March.

With the calendar turning to November in just 34 short hours, it’s time for our return to the keyboard, and a return to covering the sport and team we love so much.

It’s certainly been a busy off-season for both yours truly and Rick Barnes. But while I spent most of my summer months making money to pay for my travels and earning favor points with the girlfriend I practically abandon from November to March, the coach of the Longhorns had much more important tasks at hand. Most recently, Barnes added two walk-ons to his already robust roster, and has been working for the last two weeks with an incredibly stacked team that opens the season ranked third in the nation.

We’ve got quite a bit of work to do in the next two weeks to clean up around here, with the first priority being a massive uploading of photos. Unfortunately, a hard drive crash in April fried all of my pictures and videos from the last few weeks of the 2008-09 season, but with the help of folks that joined me on those trips, I’m hoping to piece together something for those pages.

For now, enjoy the football team’s big game in Stillwater and swipe a few pieces of the Halloween loot your kids bring home. We’ll be back on Monday the 9th, when we hit the ground running for what promises to be an exciting 2009-10 season!

After a seemingly interminable wait in the NCAA Clearinghouse, J’Covan Brown was deemed academically eligible on Monday. Brown’s inclusion on the roster puts the Longhorns over the limit for scholarship athletes this season, meaning that — barring a transfer — one player will have to pay his own way. Former Florida Gator Jai Lucas seems the most likely to do so, thanks to his father’s NBA past, but Spurs owner R.C. Buford is the guardian of big man Alexis Wangmene, giving Barnes and the ‘Horns even more flexibility for the roster puzzle.

Texas was already lined up to be one of the deepest teams in the nation this season, particularly in the paint. But Brown’s newfound eligibility will give the Longhorns another new option in a backcourt that struggled for much of last year. Although the season is still 80 days away, this latest bit of good news has the buzz around this Texas team is at an all-time high.

The first piece of the 2009-10 Longhorn lineup puzzle has fallen into place, as Dexter Pittman announced his decision to return for his senior season in an April Fools Day press conference. Despite joking about being courted by football coach Mack Brown at the start of the presser, Pittman was completely serious in discussing the progress he still hopes to make with strength coach Todd Wright. “This season was only me scratching the surface,” the big man told reporters.

With freshmen Jordan Hamilton, Shawn Williams, and Avery Bradley joining the team next season along with transfer Jai Lucas, one Longhorn will have to leave the team or play without a scholarship. Now that Pittman has announced his decision, that leaves only Damion James as an early-entry candidate for the NBA.

On a side note, Texas fans who want a glimpse of the future can see Bradley in tonight’s McDonald’s All-American Game at 7 P.M. CDT on ESPN2.

The Texas Longhorns and Duke Blue Devils meet for the fourth time in the history of the two programs, but tonight’s match-up comes with much more on the line. While Duke has won all three previous “neutral” site meetings between the two teams, none of those wins came in the NCAA tournament. Tonight’s winner, though, will move on to a berth in the Sweet 16 and a meeting with UCLA or Villanova.

Texas comes into this one playing some very good basketball, if you can choose to overlook the first two-and-a-half minutes of the first-round game against Minnesota. And considering the way the rest of that game turned out, I can certainly choose to do that. A.J. Abrams went absolutely bananas from behind the arc, knocking down eight three-pointers en route to a 26-point night. The reason the perimeter was so wide open for A.J. was the dominating play of big man Dexter Pittman, who logged another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and forced the Golden Gophers to switch to a zone in hopes of shutting down the post.

The play of those two men will be huge in tonight’s contest, as the Longhorns are facing a Duke team which lacks a true inside presence. The Blue Devils love to double down on bigger post players to mitigate the disadvantage, which means that A.J. must be hitting from outside. If Abrams is cold and Duke can contain Pittman with their doubling on the block, Texas will have a very rough time winning this game.

By the numbers

The Blue Devils have a very efficient offense, but what makes them scary is that they have an equally efficient defense to go along with it. Duke ranks 5th in the nation in offensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy’s number-crunching, and their defense checks in at 16th in the country. Being so strong on both sides of the ball led the Blue Devils to a menacing average margin of victory of 14.5 during regular-season play.

Those strong defensive numbers are fueled by an aggressive man-to-man defense that forces steals and pushes opponents out of their comfort zone. Duke ranked second in the ACC this season with nearly nine steals a game, and they forced opponents into just under 17 miscues per contest. While the Longhorns have actually handled pressure fairly well this season, they have had some issues with unforced turnovers. Tonight, Texas simply can’t afford to be dropping passes and rebounds or getting whistled for three-second calls and travels.

On the glass, Duke is nothing spectacular. As mentioned earlier, they lack a true post presence, so bigger teams are able to easily abuse them on the boards. But the Blue Devil players are ridiculously quick and hustle all over the floor, so they make up for it by grabbing a bunch of hustle rebounds that they have no business corralling. Their offensive rebounding numbers actually put them in the top 25 nationally, so the Longhorns can’t afford to be lazy when they box out following Duke misses. On the year, the Blue Devils posted a +3 rebounding margin per game.

Duke loves to slash to the basket, force the defense to react, and then move the ball around to find the open man. That has resulted in a lot of open three-point looks and seemingly endless runs where the Blue Devils torch their opponents from long range. But what many fans forget is that Duke has missed a lot of three-pointers as well, and their 35.2% success rate from behind the arc barely puts them in the top third of NCAA teams. Texas has had quite a problem letting teams get hot from long range, though, so they cannot afford to push their luck by giving easy looks to the Duke gunners.

The Blue Devils also love to draw the charge, so Pittman, Damion James, and Varez Ward will all need to watch their control with the ball. All three players have picked up more than their fair share of offensive fouls, and with Duke flopping all over the floor on the slightest bump, they are likely to pick up a few more tonight. These three guys will have to be careful and aware of their position on the court.

The starting five

The Duke lineup is an incredibly interesting one, as Coach K has been tinkering with rotations and starters for much of the season. Throughout the post-season, he has spread out the minutes even further, giving some of his bench players just as much time on the court as a few of the starters.

Guard Elliott Williams is one Blue Devil who is sharing a lot of the work load with other talented backcourt players off the bench. He is a speedy player who has great ups and hustles all over the floor, and he plays tough, hard-nosed defense that is incredibly popular with the Blue Devil faithful. Williams is only a freshman who averages about 15 minutes per game, but his role has expanded throughout ACC play and into the post-season. He’s going to make a few plays tonight that cause you to do a double-take, but look for Williams to become a true breakout star in the next few years.

Joining him in the backcourt is junior Jon Scheyer, a 6’5″ string bean whose length could cause some problems for the shorter Texas guards. Scheyer is a prototypical Duke player, the scrappy white guy with a deadly shot and a knack for hitting the clutch bucket every time your team is trying to make a run. The Blue Devils are at their best when he is hitting from long range, where he’s leading the team at a 38.8% clip. If the Longhorns let Scheyer heat up, they can likely kiss their upset chances goodbye.

The lanky forward Kyle Singler is Duke’s other key long-range gunner, hitting 38% of his long-range attempts. He’s another scrappy, hustling Blue Devil, and his 7.7 rebounds per game lead the team. Even though he’s often found taking jumpers from beyond the perimeter, Singler always crashes to the glass and punishes teams who are lazy at boxing out on the long J.

Junior swingman Gerald Henderson is an exciting player to watch, but he could very likely frustrate Texas fans tonight. He’s excellent at creating off the dribble and slashing to the rim, but he’s still an effective jump shooter as well. The Longhorns will find success against Henderson if they can head him off at the arc and force him to take long-range jumpers. While he can knock them down, Henderson is a much better finisher at the iron, and Texas can’t afford to give him a ton of points (and fouls) inside.

Lance Thomas is one Blue Devil who isn’t going to prove his worth on the stat sheet. Like most of his teammates, he is a hustle guy who annoys opponents by seemingly existing in eight different places on the court at once. But since Thomas only averages five points and three boards a game, so you won’t be reading about his huge role in tomorrow’s newspaper. If you watch the game, though, you’ll see him causing havoc with his pressure defense and gritty determination.

Off the bench

The real X-factor in tonight’s game is going to be big man Brian Zoubek. At 7-foot, 1-inch, he could be the best answer that the Blue Devils have to Pittman inside. Zoubek only averages about 12 minutes per game, though, so it will be interesting to see if Coach K elects to give him more minutes at the expense of a better offensive player. In addition to shutting down Pittman, Zoubek also changes the game simply with his length down low. He forces guards to take different angles and adjust their shots, so giving him more minutes could also make Dogus Balbay, Justin Mason, and Varez Ward less effective when they try to penetrate off the dribble.

Guard Greg Paulus is a selfless player who has been relegated to the bench in his senior year after being a team leader for most of his time on campus. He provides heady play when he’s on the court, and has more unbridled passion and energy in a 6’1″ frame than I think I’ve ever seen. He’s not a big-time scorer, although he’s a serviceable long-range threat, but his on-court leadership and ability to manage the game are huge.

One reason Paulus has seen a lot less playing time is the emergence of Nolan Smith, an off guard who has been asked to add point duties to his job description. He’s learning the one on the fly and is doing an impressive job of it, while averaging about five points and two assists per game. He’s an incredibly quick guard who loves to attack the rim, and when teams foul him on the layups, he makes them pay with a solid 85% success rate at the line.

David McClure is the only other Blue Devil who is likely to get a significant chunk of minutes tonight, but like Thomas, he is an intangibles guy who runs all over the court. Against Binghamton on Thursday night, McClure scored only two points in 16 minutes, but he added three rebounds, two steals, and a host of other hustle plays that don’t show up in the box score.

Keys to the game

Let Dexter dominate – As we mentioned in the lead, the Blue Devils have proven to be soft inside and big men have eaten them up this season. If Dexter is scoring a ton of points, not only does Texas reap the benefits on the scoreboard, but they also will enjoy the added benefit of more open looks for Abrams and James.

Defend the three – While we pointed out that Duke can get hot from three, it cannot be stated enough that the Longhorns love to let one opponent have the game of his life from long range. Texas cannot let Singler or Scheyer burn them for a bevy of three-pointers if they hope to pull the upset tonight.

Quality guard play – The post-season has been a stage for the emergence of Varez Ward as a consistent slasher who can create off the dribble. But the Horns will also need Balbay and Mason to continue to attack the paint and draw defenders away from Pittman and James. This attack worked wonders in the first half against Kansas, and the Longhorns should look to do the same against the smaller Blue Devils.

It should also be noted that Gary Johnson is questionable for tonight’s game thanks to back spasms, and on Saturday team reps put his chances of playing at 50/50.