Tip: 5 PM
TV: ESPN2

It’s a gorgeous Saturday here in Central Texas, but I’m imploring you to stay inside. Inside the Frank Erwin Center, to be specific. Baylor is coming to town this evening, and is looking to end a 17-game losing streak to the Longhorns. Fortunately, this Bear squad is young and can’t buy a win on the road — they have lost 20 straight true road games heading into today’s matchup.

Baylor (11-8 overall, 1-5 Big 12) started out the year hot against a schedule that doesn’t do the word “soft” any justice. The Bears opened the year with a win over D-2 Angelo State and then scored another nine wins in non-conference play. The truth is hidden behind the scores, though. The combined record of the nine opponents Baylor beat in non-conference play is an abysmal 55-97.

In conference play, Scott Drew’s club has struggled. Their one win came by three at home against a Texas Tech team that is making a lot of noise. Otherwise, the Bears have been absolutely pasted in the Big 12; in their last two losses to Kansas and Oklahoma, the Bears fell by an average of 33 points.

Baylor has not had any statistical standouts on their team this year, but that isn’t to say their team is untalented. Aussie standout Aaron Bruce returns, and is one of the few experienced leaders on the team. The hot-shooting Bruce is averaging just over eleven points in roughly 30 minutes a game. If he gets rolling, Baylor can make a quick run. Texas will need to fight through the screens and stick with Bruce — although he does possess the ability to beat us off the dribble as well.

Big man Kevin Rogers could pose a problem for Texas down low. A teammate of Darrell Arthur at South Oak Cliff, Rogers is a blocking machine for the Bears. He’s leading the team with 12.3 points per game and 7.3 rebounds. With the emergence of Dexter Pittman, it should be fun to watch that pair tangle in the paint.

Sophomore guard Curtis Jarrells makes his second Frank Erwin Center appearance in front of his friends and family. A left-handed guard from Del Valle HS, Jarrells is one of Scott Drew’s biggest recruiting scores since stepping foot on the Waco campus. He can find the passing lanes with ease, but knows how to score as well.

Seven-footer Mamadou Diene is playing hobbled as of late, as he has had to struggle through both ankle and knee injuries. Hopefully this will limit his output against Texas today, but don’t be surprised to still see him blocking shots in the middle. The sophomore giant is blocking two shots a game despite only logging 20 minutes in each contest.

In the “interesting subplot” category, junior transfer Mark Shepard played at St. Michael’s Academy in Austin, the same school that produced UT fan-favorite Ian Mooney. If the game gets as ugly as it has the potential to become, we could see this pair of bench players facing off in the waning minutes of a blowout.

For Texas, the biggest thing to watch today is the development of Dexter Pittman. He showed great things on Wednesday against Nebraska, and Coach Barnes seems committed to making him a bigger part of the gameplan, now.

The Horns have actually been doing quite well on the glass without a consistent post presence, but Baylor has a pair of seven-foot centers that could make the rebounding battle something of a challenge. It’s up to Damion James and Pittman to step up in that regard, because we all know that Kevin Durant is going to get his double-double somehow.

Over 2,000 tickets remained as of noon yesterday, so give TBO a call and bring the family down to the Drum. And if Texas fans surprise me and this thing sells out, you can catch it at 5 PM on the Duece. Do they still call it that? And remember the logo? “Yeah, we’re ESPN….but look at how extreme we can be! We’ll draw a 2 in a squiggly font!”

But getting away from memory lane and back to the task at hand. Buy tickets. Show up.

Chances are, you didn’t notice the new link stuck at the top of the page today. But it’s there, hidden in between the schedule and our contact information. I’ve got the first two photo galleries up online, with more coming throughout the weekend.

For now, I’ve only got them grouped by city. That means pictures from the game, the arenas, and the places around town are all stuck in the same place. Eventually, I’ll create albums for photos of each player, each game, and one combining all the arenas. Then you can skip the stuff you don’t want to see and get right to what you are looking for.

But in the meantime, click the link above and you can get started with the shots from New York and Phoenix. I’ll get around to the others sometime after I bring you the Baylor preview.

Dexter Pittman being interviewed by Mark Rosner

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Texas escaped with a Big 12 road win in Lincoln on Wednesday night, defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers by the narrowest of margins, 62-61.

Coming off back-to-back road losses, the Longhorns (14-5, 4-1 Big 12) desperately needed a victory to not only stop the bleeding, but also to stay in the thick of the developing conference race. Early on, it appeared that the Cornhuskers (12-6, 1-3) were under a trance from behind the arc, going 7-of-14 there in the first half. Fortunately, Texas was also shooting very well from three-point range and headed to the locker room with a 31-28 lead after Justin Mason hit a floater at the buzzer.

The second half saw Texas develop an eight-point lead about midway through, although the Horns threw away a ton of opportunities to expand their advantage. As was the case all night long, the Texas players tried to force passes when there were no openings, particularly into the post. On the positive side of things, at least many of the turnovers were a result of trying to establish an inside game. But that’s about the only silver lining in those 17 giveaways.

The breakout star of the game was Dexter Pittman, pictured above. He came off the bench and played significant minutes in both halves, a huge change from his usual mop-up duties in the waning minutes of cupcake games. (Major props to the all-stars at Burnt Orange Nation for predicting that development in their pregame.) For the first time this year, there was something of a presence in the low post for Texas. Pittman scored seven and pulled down four boards in twelve minutes of play, by far his best outing of the season.

Kevin Durant got back to his high scoring ways, although he became nearly invisible in the second half for a second consecutive game. K-Smoove was half of the two-man show that kept Texas in the game early when Nebraska was hitting every three they took — A.J. Abrams was the other — and finished with 26 points and 15 boards, yet another double-double for the freshman phenom. Abrams scored fourteen points and was 4-of-9 from behind the arc.

D.J. Augustin didn’t make a single shot, but he did dish the rock. Augustin was credited with ten assists on the night, while only turning over the ball twice. Unfortunately, a lot of the offense is still oftentimes an Augustin drive followed by a shot or dish. There were more back-door cuts tonight, but oftentimes it just led to a freed-up guard coming around the corner, receiving the ball, then dribbling to the top of the key as another guard made the same circuit. This is still something that needs to be addressed as the season winds down, but I have no doubt that it will be taken care of by March.

Craig Winder hustled all over the floor in his six minutes of action, corralling two rebounds and playing great perimeter defense. The great thing about Winder is that his length and speed allow him to sag off and help in the paint, yet still flash out quickly enough to get a hand in a shooter’s face behind the arc. I love his hard-nosed attitude and determination. Early in the year, he was a bit out of control — and, admittedly, he still sometimes is on the offense end — but he seems to have that under control and provides a handful of quality minutes each game now without making stupid fouls.

As ugly as it was, Coach Barnes put it best when he said, “I’ll take it.” Texas was staring a three-game losing streak in the face as Nebraska raced down the court with the ball and eight seconds left. Instead, the Horns now get the luxury of coming home against a scuttling Baylor Bear team with the hopes of starting a new winning streak…. before heading to Lubbock for what is certain to be a huge test. Such is life in all major conferences this time of year.

Thursday night I’ll roll out the first portion of the photo galleries. In the meantime, revel in the gut-check win and buy some tickets to the home game on Saturday.

Tip: 7 PM Central (Fox Sports Net)

I catch a flight for Nebraska in about three hours, so here is a quick pre-game look at the Cornhuskers.

Led by new coach Doc Sadler, Big Red looks to be an up-and-coming team in the Big 12. Fortunately for Texas, that process should take a few years. The team that takes the court tonight at the Devaney Sports Center is not exceptionally talented and will likely be a middle-of-the-pack conference team when all is said and done.

The biggest threat comes from center Aleks Maric, a beast of a man with a shaved dome and a propensity to dominate on the defensive glass. He is also the true focal point of the offense, taking shots in nearly one out of every three possessions he is on the floor. With the exception of the Iowa State game, all four teams that have defeated the Cornhuskers were able to hold Maric to six rebounds or less. I highly doubt that a Texas team lacking an inside presence will keep the 6’11” center from getting his boards, so it is important to try to at least keep those rebounds from becoming easy offensive putbacks.

The only player that gives more than 30 minutes a game for Coach Sadler is senior guard Charles Richardson, Jr. The seasoned floor general is a pass-first player, logging over five assists a game while only scoring about eight. He is also active on the defensive end, swiping more than two balls per game, good enough for a top 100 individual ranking when adjusted to reflect possessions played.

Although nearly half of the offense is from two-point field goals, Nebraska is still no slouch when it comes to three-point shooting. Senior Marcus Perry is only taking five a game, but is hitting them over 45% of the time. Ryan Anderson, Jay-R Strowbridge, and Paul Velander are also shooting above 40% from behind the arc, but only combine to take 2.5 trey attempts per game. While it’s going to be incredibly important to stop the inside game of Nebraska, the Horns can’t afford to forget about the outside threat too often.

While I don’t like how we match up with Nebraska on defense, they are going to have the exact same problem when we have the ball. Their matchup problem is obviously phenom Kevin Durant. While Maric is a great shot blocker down low, there isn’t a player on Big Red that should be able to shut down KD. Nebraska may learn from Villanova and work in some double teams to deny Durant the drive to the basket, but that will open up our other players around the court.

KD should easily get his points against this team, but the key for the Horns is to see a return of the offense. In Philadelphia, the team stood around, refused to get themselves open, and relied on D.J. Augustin to penetrate and go to the rack. That needs to change tonight if Texas wants a comfortable victory.

Without a doubt, Damion James will be important tonight for the Horns. Texas lacks anything resembling an inside presence, and a lot of the pressure will fall on Damion’s shoulders as they take on the giant Maric. Damion needs to keep himself out of foul trouble and stay competitive on the glass, while Connor Atchley will have to provide a few serviceable minutes in relief. If James does happen to get into foul trouble and Atchley is needed for more significant minutes, I fear a huge, huge game from Maric.

The subplot that everyone is probably tired of hearing about by this point is the homecoming of freshman Matt Hill. He was named Mr. Basketball in his final season at Southeast High School in Lincoln and will be playing in front of his hometown family and friends for the first time since last spring. I’m not sure that Matt is going to see much playing time after his rough outing on Saturday, and I’m not really sure that he’d want his family to see him match up with Nebraska’s inside play. Regardless, it’s a nice story and it’s going to be good for the kid to see his old stomping grounds in the middle of a tough road stretch.

Game is televised on FSN in Nebraska and Texas, although it is a market-by-market thing here in the Lone Star State. Check out TV clearance info from TexasSports.com to find out if it’s on in your area. For now, I’m off to ABIA and the land of the frozen corn.

Villanova held Kevin Durant to only a single second half point on Saturday. That’s right — one point in twenty minutes. For a guy who had been averaging nearly a point for each minute of conference play. Needless to say, the Longhorns struggled, falling 76-69 to the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.

The bright spots were few and far between in a game that was tough to watch. Although Texas led for much of the first half, it never really felt like they were in control. The offense came to a screeching halt against Villanova’s zone, where the length was waiting out top. The Horns simply stood around, lackadaisically tossing the ball around the perimeter before throwing up a three pointer. And when you go 3-for-13 from behind the arc in the first half, that’s not a great game plan.

It’s easy to attribute the senior-citizen rec-league offense to tired legs after the Horns played 55 minutes of basketball on Tuesday night in Stillwater. And it certainly did look like Texas was tired. Players stood with hands on their hips after the under-8 TV timeout in the first half. Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin missed free throws off the front of the iron in the second.

Defensively, things didn’t look much better. Texas was completely unable to deny entry passes into the lane and often had to give away fouls to avoid allowing easy buckets. Matt Hill had five of those fouls in only eight minutes of play, which was the only evidence on the stat sheet that he was even in the game. Zero points, rebounds, and assists filled out the rest of his line.

Freshman Scottie Reynolds played a great game for the Cats when they needed him the most. Curtis Sumpter missed the game due to a knee bruise, but thanks to Reynolds, Villanova’s offense was still able to get by. The freshman chipped in 26 points — including 12-of-13 from the line — and played all but two minutes.

Three-point threat Mike Nardi was mostly off, only going 3-for-11 from behind the arc. But it seemed that the ones he did make came at big moments in the second half, helping Villanova build a twelve-point lead and then helping to quiet Longhorn rallies down the stretch.

D.J. Augustin was the only UT player who seemed to want to give any effort against Nova’s zone. His dribble penetration made up most of the offense in the second half, as he provided 25 points in only 32 minutes of play. Augustin was awarded Big 12 Rookie of the Week yesterday for his efforts against Villanova and OSU.

Despite looking lethargic and indifferent for most of the game, Texas managed to put together a brief surge late in the game. With 2:23 left, A.J. Abrams hit a three and trimmed the Wildcat lead to only two. But Texas could not make another field goal, going 0-for-6 the rest of the way. Their only points in the final 153 seconds came from a trio of J.D. Lewis free throws. Meanwhile, Villanova knocked down 8-of-10 free throws over that same stretch to ice the game.

A two-game losing streak is never fun, but it’s definitely not the end of the world. A 20-win season is still within reach if Texas can go 7-5 to close out Big 12 play. And thanks to Texas Tech’s upset on Saturday, the 3-1 mark that the Horns are sporting has them still tied for second in league play.

So when Texas heads to Nebraska on Wednesday night, it’s not only a chance to end the brief skid and right the ship, but also to stay right in the thick of things in the top-heavy Big 12 conference. Game preview comes your way late tonight.