“Real life” has stepped completely in the way of any productivity since departing Kansas City last Tuesday night, and you can clearly see the results on the website. With only the Rice preview in the way of content over the last nine days, things have been a bit……slow. Unfortunately, that real-life nuisance has continued its annoying creep and cost us a game preview tonight.

Fortunately, the USC team that comes to the Drum tonight should not be much of a challenge, and perhaps would have been a waste of words. The Trojans already have two losses, including an eight-point home embarrassment against Loyola Marymount and a narrow defeat on the road against the Cornhuskers. Unfortunately, that will make the taste of tonight’s revenge beating a little less satisfying for Longhorns fans hoping to wash out the bitter taste of the 87-68 NCAA Second Round loss to the Trojans back in 2007.

To get your pre-game fix, be sure to check out these great previews from our Longhorn friends on the web:

TexasSports.com
Burnt Orange Nation

For the first time in 13 years, the Texas Longhorns will face the Rice Owls in a true road game. During that time, the two teams have played a handful of times in Austin and at Houston’s Toyota Center, but have not played on the Rice campus since the final season of the Southwest Conference. This time, the Owls are playing in the sparkling new Tudor Fieldhouse, a 5,208 seat gym that head coach Ben Braun hopes will lure more recruits to the perennially-weak program.

Rice is off to its best start in years, grabbing victories in four of the first five games. While the wins have come against sub-par competition, they are an important part of instilling a new attitude at a program that was winless in Conference USA just two years ago. Braun led the Owls to four conference wins last year, and hopes to build upon that success in the first season with his own recruiting class.

By the numbers

Rice is a very average team statistically so far this year. Despite the fact that they have four wins, the efficiency stats actually show that they give up 0.021 points per possession more than they score. While that number might seem small, posting a negative differential of any size is incredibly troubling for a team that has four wins, and even more so when those wins have come against teams such as Sacramento State and Houston Baptist. If Rice is less efficient than these weak teams when beating them, what are they going to do in conference play?

The Owls are not shooting the ball exceptionally well, but are making up for it on the offensive glass. They are grabbing 36% of their misses, which is a great help for a team shooting just 40% from the floor. For a comparison, the Longhorns are currently making 54.6% of their shots. Today it is very likely that Rice will shoot an even lower percentage and have an even tougher time grabbing offensive boards against the bigger Texas frontcourt. That combination means that things could likely get ugly in a hurry.

Defensively, the Owls are forcing turnovers and bad shots by their opponents. This season, they have a +12 turnover differential, and are holding opponents to 30% shooting on the season. When you consider that Rice’s lone loss came against the Arizona Wildcats, you realize that their defensive shooting percentage is even more dominant in those early-season wins. If the Owls can continue their success at forcing turnovers, it could keep today’s contest a little bit closer, but will not make much of a difference in the long run.

The starting five

Rice is led by sophomore guard Connor Frizzelle, who is averaging twelve points per game this year. He is coming off a freshman campaign in which he started 21 games and scored 8.7 points per contest, and hopes to improve his defense in his second season. He also needs to work on ball control, as he has logged just one more assist than turnover so far this year. One area in which he needs no improvement is three-point shooting, where he is 12-of-22 on the season.

At forward, 6’8″ Lucas Kuipers is hoping to bounce back after missing the second half of last season with a broken wrist he suffered in January. Kuipers has 5.6 rebounds per game so far this year, and is chipping in 7.8 points as well. Although he’s doing well on the glass, he’s not afraid to step out and knock down mid-range shots, something Rice will have to do today.

Joining Kuipers in the frontcourt is Suleiman Braimoh, a junior who plays just 15 minutes per contest despite starting in each game. A Nigerian-born player from New York, Braimoh is not a long-term answer for the Rice frontcourt, but is doing a serviceable job providing leadership and experience for the more talented, younger players that Braun is developing. This year, he’s posting averages of 6.4 points and 4.6 boards per game.

Tamir Jackson is one of those talented newcomers, a freshman guard from New Jersey who was pursued by a handful of Big East schools before he signed with Rice. While he’s a combo guard, so far he has struggled with the basketball. Jackson has 19 turnovers on the year with just thirteen assists, but is still contributing to the tune of 10.4 points per game. While he needs quite a bit of seasoning, Braun believes that Jackson will be a solid anchor for future Rice backcourts.

Thanks to Jackson’s troubles handling the basketball, senior Lawrence Ghoram has had to hold down the role of floor general. Much like Braimoh, Ghoram is a player that Braun is looking to for leadership during these transition years. He has a solid assist-to-TO ratio of 2.5 this season, and improved his three-point shooting over the summer. He has hit 4-of-7 from behind the arc so far and has logged 8.6 points per game.

Off the bench

While Coach Braun was hoping to run deeper than the eight men he used last season, his rotation has been just eight men again this year. Texas A&M transfer Bryan Beasley may become the ninth man in the rotation later this year, but so far is playing less than nine minutes per game.

The key man off the bench is 6’10” center Trey Stanton, a transfer from Navy. Although he’s the sixth man, his 21.6 minutes per game is good for fourth on the team, and his 23-point, nine-rebound performance against Furman led the team to victory. Stanton is the biggest man on a small Rice team, so he will likely see a ton of minutes against the deep Texas frontcourt. If he picks up fouls early, the Owls will be absolutely abused inside for most of the afternoon.

Arsalan Kazemi is a freshman from Iran, and is the first D-I basketball player from that country. Rice is expecting great things from the 6’7″ forward, and so far his freshman campaign seems to indicate those expectations will be met. He’s leading the team with six boards per game, even though he’s only on the court for 18 minutes per contest. As he becomes more experienced and demands more time on the floor, Kazemi is going to be a force in C-USA.

Another freshman seeing solid minutes is guard A.J. Holland. His father was a longtime assistant coach in the SEC, and that basketball pedigree should mean that Holland will be a solid leader on the floor. He’s seeing just twelve minutes per game so far, but looks to be a much bigger presence next season, after Ghoram’s graduation.

Keys to the game

This one should be an easy win for the Texas Longhorns, as they have advantages in practically every category. They are bigger, deeper, and more talented than the Rice Owls. Even the crowd may end up being decidedly pro-Longhorn, negating the one edge the Owls should enjoy this afternoon.

With that being said, today’s keys to the game aren’t really necessary to win. But based on what we’ve seen from Texas’ first four performances, they will be interesting factors to watch and use as a benchmark for the team’s progress.

So far, Texas has not been great at controlling the basketball. One thing that Rice does well is forcing turnovers, so this should provide a good test of how far the Longhorn ballhandlers have come since Tuesday’s win over Pitt.

The biggest problem for Texas continues to be free throw shooting. While J’Covan Brown and Gary Johnson have proven reliable at the line and Damion James is making 73% of his free throws, there is not another Longhorn making more than 60% of their attempts. If Texas hopes to be a championship team, that will have to change. Just ask the 2008 Memphis Tigers.

Finally, we will be keeping an eye on whether the Texas guards attack the lane. Without Varez Ward, the only Longhorn who showed any inclination to drive to the basket on Tuesday night was Dogus Balbay. As a result, the Texas offense bogged down when he wasn’t in the game and the Pitt defense collapsed into the lane to negate the Longhorns’ inside game. Brown, Justin Mason, and Avery Bradley will need to start penetrating more often, or else teams will simply force Texas to beat them from outside.

This afternoon’s game might be hard for a lot of folks to see, as CBS College Sports is not available on AT&T U-verse, and is part of an add-on package for Time Warner customers. As always, you can enjoy Craig Way’s radio call from Tudor Fieldhouse, but if you want to see the action, you may have to hit up the local sports bar.

We did, in fact, make it back safely from Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon. Since then, we’ve been a bit caught up in all the familial business and football overload, but will be back in the saddle later today.

Look for our Pitt wrap-up later tonight, a Rice preview early Sunday, and notes and photos from the KC trip sometime next week. In the meantime, enjoy the last round of holiday hoops tournaments and the last regular season Saturday for college football!

Texas and Pittsburgh are two of the most productive teams of the current decade. The two programs have combined to make ten appearances in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen over the last eight seasons. Over that same stretch, they have five seasons of at least 27 wins. For two programs with so much recent success, it’s a shame they have only played once, 18 years ago.

Unfortunately, tonight’s Pitt team won’t be as polished as the previous squads Coach Jamie Dixon has led during his six-plus years at the helm. The Panthers are but a shell of their former selves, as six members of last year’s Elite Eight team won’t be on the court tonight. They lost 52 points per game from last year’s lineup thanks to the departures of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, Levance Fields, and Tyrell Biggs. Jermaine Dixon, the team’s only returning starter and senior, will be unavailable after breaking his foot in September. Add in the fact that junior forward Gilbert Brown is academically ineligible this semester, and many fans won’t even be able to recognize the remaining Pitt roster.

Don’t let the new look fool you, however. Coach Dixon has always done less with more, having achieved his impressive results without the benefit of a single McDonald’s All-American recruit in his first six seasons. Just two years ago, he led the Panthers to 27 wins and an NCAA second-round appearance without Fields or Mike Cook, who both were injured. You can be sure that Pittsburgh will be well-disciplined and well-coached on the fundamentals, and should give Texas a run for their money tonight.

By the numbers

As a disciple of UCLA’s Ben Howland, Dixon is a defense-first coach whose team will get in your face and force mistakes. They love to quickly double down on the wings and the blocks, causing bad passes, charges, and travels.

This season, however, the Panthers have flipped the script. Through their first four games, it’s the offense that is leading the charge. Ranked by efficiency, the Panther attack is 14th in the country, while the defense is just 141st-best in the land. As usual, the Panther tempo stats are near the bottom of the barrel, with their 64.9 possessions per game checking in at 286th nationally.

Pitt’s biggest problem is — just like the Longhorns — at the free throw line. The Panthers have made just 62.4% of their attempts so far this year, slightly behind Texas’ 63.2% mark. If this game turns into a physical hackfest, the ensuing free throw display could very well be a crime against humanity.

Meet the Panthers

The new-look Pittsburgh team is led by sophomore combo guard Ashton Gibbs. Although he’s just in his second year, he gained valuable experience this summer on the gold-medal winning U.S. U-19 team coached by Dixon. Gibbs played so well on that squad, he worked his way up to a starting role by the end of the summer. While Gibbs is a heady floor general, he’s also a very dangerous shooter. Last year, he led the Big East in three-point percentage, and is off to another quick start this year, knocking down 42.9% of his looks.

Travon Woodall is just 5’11”, but has lightning-quick speed that more than makes up for his short stature. Starting alongside Gibbs, Woodall is the primary distributor, dishing out 28 assists through the first four games. The tiny guard has incredible court vision and is often lasering passes through tiny windows that no one else can see. He’s also fantastic on the fast break, able to dart in and out of traffic like a waterbug.

Perhaps the biggest impact player to return from last year’s team is junior Brad Wanamaker, a stocky 6’4″ guard who embodies Dixon’s intense defensive mindset. He’s not solely a one-trick pony, though, as he knows how to get to the rack and finish, to the tune of ten points per game this season. With so much talent missing from last year’s team, Wanamaker is being looked at to lead this young bunch through the tough Big East slate.

Nasir Robinson is a 6’5″ sophomore forward who can also fill the center role when Dixon wants to go with a smaller lineup. He wasn’t much of a contributor in his freshman season, but has started all four games this year. He’s responded well, posting ten points and five boards per game so far.

The key to this year’s team, though, will likely be the development of center Gary McGhee. He spent last season backing up Blair, playing less than seven minutes per game. This year, he’s being thrust into the spotlight as the team’s sole post option, and the team’s success could very well ride on how well he responds.

So far, McGhee is averaging 6.3 rebounds per game and 7.5 points. He’s not an incredibly quick guy, and his footwork still needs some improvement. Tonight should be a good test for him against the slimmed-down, more explosive Dexter Pittman.

Off the bench, the Panthers really only run three deep. Chase Adams is the first guard off the pine, and he has a history with the Longhorns. Adams is a new arrival in Pittsburgh, having transferred from Centenary, where he once faced Kevin Durant and the Horns in the Erwin Center. Back on December 28th, 2006, then-freshman Adams provided fourteen points and six assists in a losing effort against Texas. Since then, he’s improved his assist-to-TO numbers and even was named defensive player of the year in the Summit League last season thanks to 83 steals.

Freshman Dante Taylor is Dixon’s first McDonald’s All-American recruit, and his undeniable talent has earned him a bunch of early playing time. Coming out of Houston, Taylor is still working his way back from a foot injury, and will likely be even more of a force by conference play. He’s already quite impressive, though, grabbing six boards per contest in just 18 minutes per game.

Lamar Patterson rounds out the core rotation for Coach Dixon. Just a freshman, he already has an excellent basketball body at 6’5″, 220 pounds. While he’s playing just over twelve minutes a game, this swingman is already showing brief flashes of his potential. While he likely won’t make a huge impact on tonight’s game, he has a bright future ahead of him.

Keys to the game

Just like Iowa, the Panthers move the ball around very, very well. They play unselfish basketball and wear out opponents with crisp passing and great floor spacing. In a dominating 71-46 win over Binghamton, the Panthers had a ridiculous 24 assists on 27 field goals. Texas will once again have to play great team defense, communicating, rotating, and helping each other out against the precision Panther offense.

Texas will also need to earn extra possessions against a Pitt team that is ninth-best in the country when it comes to keeping opponents off the offensive glass. The Panthers can score in bunches, so the Longhorns need to get second and third chances when they fail to score.

Playing in front of a crowd that is decidedly anti-Texas also means that the Longhorns need to get ahead early. While this is technically a neutral-site game, last night’s crowd made it clear that the Sprint Center is going to be a road arena for Texas. If the Horns can take them out of it early — and not give the lead away like last night — the freshmen won’t have to deal with a hostile crowd in the waning moments of a close game.

Tonight’s tip is set for 9:15 P.M. Central, but once again it will be affected by the earlier game. Iowa and Wichita State tip off in the consolation game at 6:45, and there will be a 30 minute window between the two contests. If you’re out and about tonight, be sure to add time to the end of those DVR settings.

We’ll be hitting the road back to Austin immediately following tonight’s game, so look for a delayed post-game sometime Wednesday evening.

Texas played 30 minutes of solid basketball on Monday night in Kansas City, notching a 25-point victory to move to 3-0 on the year. Unfortunately for the Longhorns, it was the other 10 minutes that made things much more interesting than they should have been.

Freshman Jordan Hamilton led the way early for Texas, hitting four three-pointers in the first half. The Texas defense also helped to open things up early, stifling Iowa (1-3) for the first ten minutes of the game. The Hawkeyes had trouble getting open looks, often battling the shot clock before clanging the ball off the rim. The Longhorns built a lead as big as fourteen points with 10:30 to go in the first frame. But then things got hairy.

Perhaps it was complacency due to the large lead. Or perhaps the Longhorn defenders were tired of rotating on defense as the Hawkeyes utilized screen after screen and moved the ball around the court at lightning speed. But whatever the reason, the Texas D was no longer in the face of the Iowa sharpshooters, and they quickly paid for it. The Hawkeyes finished the half by nailing 5-of-7 from behind the arc, including a desperation buzzer-beating heave sunk from the opposite three-point line by Cully Payne. The teams headed to the locker room tied with 38 points apiece.

Halftime adjustments were quickly apparent, as Texas gave Iowa a steady dose of Dexter Pittman. The big man had just four points in the first half, but immediately doubled that — and then some — by scoring three quick buckets in the first two minutes of the second stanza. The Texas defense woke up as well, holding Iowa scoreless for nearly six minutes after a Matt Gatens three coming out of the locker room.

With the defense clicking, the Horns slowly pulled away, building an insurmountable double-digit lead in front of a restless crowd who was rooting for the upset. Texas piled on the fast break points and blocked numerous shots, frustrating an Iowa offense that could only muster an 18.8% second-half success rate against the suffocating D.

If one can look past the mental lapse late in the first half, this was a very impressive win for the Longhorns. The defense played outstanding basketball when they were all keyed in and on the same page. Players were talking and rotating on defense, backup forwards Alexis Wangmene and Gary Johnson were challenging and stifling their opponents all the way out to the high post, and the active hands of the guards led to fourteen fast break points for Texas.

Offensively, Texas showcased a balanced attack. When the Horns pounded the ball inside, Pittman was practically unstoppable, even against the collapsing Iowa zone. The solid outside shooting of Hamilton kept the Texas offense afloat when they weren’t able to score in the paint. Five different Longhorns ended up in double-figures on the night, yet another example of how dangerous the Texas depth will be for opponents.

But despite all the positives, there were still issues the team will be working on. Texas turned it over 16 times in this one, which actually seems like a small victory after the 21 turnovers against Western Carolina last Wednesday. Unfortunately, many of the Longhorn miscues were the result of being fancy or sloppy — sometimes on the same play — when they were enjoying large leads. The argument could be made that Texas felt over-confident and knew they would be able to beat Iowa, fundamentals be damned. But will these bad habits resurface later against quality opponents who can make the Longhorns pay if they get lackadaisical with a big lead?

Free throws were once again a dicey proposition for Texas. The Longhorns made 70% of their attempts from the stripe, thanks in large part to the steady hand of J’Covan Brown, who made all four of his attempts. While that number was a vast improvement from the 62% they posted against UC-Irvine and the hide-your-face-in-shame 53% mark they had against Western Carolina, the struggles of guard Varez Ward were still worrisome. Ward is doing a great job attacking the rim and getting to the line, but he has only made 50% of his attempts from the stripe. His ability to drive and get defenses reacting is greatly diminished when opponents know they can hack at him and limit Texas to no more than one point that possession.

The final area of concern was another lengthy drought for the Texas offense. The Longhorns went three-and-a-half minutes late in the first half without scoring, and had another four minutes in the second where they suffered the same fate. Credit must be given to a tough Iowa defense, but fans of the Longhorns will recall the stagnant periods that plagued last year’s team and briefly reappeared against Western Carolina.

The Longhorns have a ton of weapons to kill you from anywhere on the floor, but it seems like they are content to shoot threes when they are unable to get it inside. Texas definitely has the long-range gunners to make this work, but their insistence upon constantly launching it from behind the arc is leading to long droughts. If you take Hamilton out of the equation in this game, the rest of the Longhorns went 4-of-16 from behind the arc. That’s far too many attempts when there is such a size advantage down low, and especially when the three-point shots aren’t falling.

Let’s revisit our keys to the game as we wrap this one up…

Exploit the height advantage – Texas didn’t do a great job of this in the first half, but it was clear that Coach Barnes made it a point of emphasis at halftime. Pittman and Damion James combined for 25 points, and the Longhorns enjoyed a 40-31 rebounding edge.

Strong perimeter defense – Late in the first half, it felt like this might be Texas’ undoing. But the Longhorns clamped down on defense the rest of the way, and the Hawkeyes sputtered to a 10-of-37 night behind the arc. If you take out the flurry of threes that Iowa made in the last seven minutes of the first half, they were just 5-of-30 on threes in the other 33 minutes of play.

Control the tempo – Texas scored 14 fast-break points in the game, and in the closing minutes of the contest, their ability to run completely crushed any last-ditch comeback attempts from the Hawkeyes. It was mentioned earlier that the Texas half-court offense sputtered for stretches, but there is no doubt that the Longhorns look their best when running the floor and getting easy fast-break and secondary-break points.

The Longhorns advance to face Pittsburgh in tonight’s championship game at 9:15 P.M. A pre-game look at the Panthers will be headed your way in just a few hours.