After losing their first two games in the EA Sports Maui Invitational, the Texas Longhorns look for a little redemption in this morning’s seventh-place game against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are down to only eight players, six of which are on scholarship, and have lost their first two games in Lahaina by a combined 73 points. If there’s any team in this field that the Longhorns can try to cure their ills against, this would be the one.

Keys to the game

1) Push the pace – The Bulldogs are coming off two up-tempo games against North Carolina and Marquette, in which they averaged 73 possessions per contest. Even with overtime needed for yesterday’s game against USC, the Longhorns played just 62 possessions. Add in the fact that the Bulldogs have used a core rotation of seven players for these two games, and there’s no question that fatigue could be a factor. If the Longhorns push the tempo and use the entire bench, they should be able to take advantage of that exhaustion as the game wears on.

2) Dominate the offensive glass – The Longhorns struggled to reclaim their missed shots in the last two games, and that resulted in tons of empty possessions. Texas managed to win just 28.2% of their offensive rebounding opportunities against an undersized Chaminade team, and only grabbed 20% of their chances against the formidable USC frontcourt. Mississippi State’s depleted roster has just three players at 6’7″ or taller — Roquez Johnson (No. 25), 6’7″; Wendell Lewis (No. 5), 6’9″; and Gavin Ware (No. 20), 6’9″. The Longhorns must take advantage of Mississippi State’s lack of frontcourt depth and reclaim missed shots to earn second-chance points.

3) Pester Thomas on the perimeter – Freshman guard Fred Thomas (No. 1) has not been shy about launching the long ball in Maui, taking 18 attempts in the team’s first two games. Although he struggled to a 1-for-10 mark against North Carolina on Monday, Thomas knocked down 50% of his looks yesterday against Marquette. The Longhorns need to stick with the freshman on the perimeter and make sure that his inevitable barrage of three-point attempts come with a hand in his face.

Still smarting from an embarrassing loss to Division II Chaminade, the Longhorns quickly return to action in this afternoon’s consolation bracket game against Southern Cal. Last night, the Trojans were obliterated by Illinois, 94-64. Brandon Paul put on a clinic from long range, dropping six three-pointers on USC en route to a 26-point performance. Although the Trojans looked overmatched and bewildered at times, they pose a very tough test for a Texas team that has yet to impress this season and is still reeling from an ugly loss.

This season, the Trojans are looking to rebound from an injury-plagued 6-26 mark in the 2011-12 campaign. Having lost only Maurice Jones to grade issues and a transfer, Coach Kevin O’Neill now has a full roster, loaded with talented transfers. Through their first three games, the Trojans have improved their adjusted offensive efficiency to .956 points per possession, up from an abysmal .876 PPP in 2011-12.

Keys to the game

1) Control the basketball – Coach O’Neill has long been known as a defensive guru, and even his worst teams have at least focused on that side of the ball. The Longhorns have struggled with ball control so far this season, posting a turnover percentage of 29.7% against their D-I opponents. In last night’s loss to Chaminade, Texas performed slightly better by only coughing it up on 23.4% of their possessions. Points will likely be hard to come by for both teams in this game, so the Longhorns cannot afford to waste their opportunities with careless turnovers.

2) Compete on the glass – Texas was dominated on the boards by a much smaller Chaminade team last night, and will be facing a very formidable USC frontcourt this afternoon. Junior Dewayne Dedmon is one of three seven-footers on the roster, as both Rice transfer Omar Oraby (7’2″) and former Texas A&M center James Blasczyk (7’1″) come in off the bench. Throw in athletic forwards like Eric Wise and Aaron Fuller, and the Longhorns will have their work cut out for them on the glass. Texas already struggles to score, so being shut out on the offensive boards would spell disaster.

3) Get bench production – Both of these teams played in the evening session yesterday, giving Texas about 17 hours of rest between games, while USC will only have about 14. Although Texas used every player in the core rotation and only Javan Felix played more than 32 minutes, both coaches will likely rely on a liberal substitution pattern. In a game that is probably going to be close and low scoring, it could be the contributions of an unheralded bench guy that earns the win for his team this afternoon.

There are so many things that can go wrong on a vacation: your flights can get delayed, luggage can be misplaced, local delicacies can disagree with your stomach, you can get the hotel room with the shower that won’t stop dripping. Or, you can lose to a Division II program on national television.

The Texas Longhorns did exactly that last night in Lahaina, falling to Chaminade, 86-73, and becoming just the seventh team to lose to the host school in 83 Maui Invitational games. For head coach Rick Barnes, it was his second loss to Chaminade, having dropped a game to the Silverswords when he was coaching Providence in 1991.

There is no sugar-coating this loss, no spin to put on the results. It was an ugly and uninspired game, plain and simple. You could call it the lowest point of the Barnes era, and there would be no argument from anywhere in the burnt orange fanbase. In fact, you could probably widen the scope just a bit when measuring the depths of this low point, as this was the first Texas defeat at the hands of a D-II opponent since the 1980’s.

Despite being much bigger than the Silverswords, the Longhorns were pushed around and out-muscled in this game. Chaminade has just two players listed at 6’7″ on their roster, and used only two others who are 6’6″. They challenged the Longhorns with physical play early, and the whistles were plentiful for both sides. But Texas backed down, failing to exploit their size advantage inside for easy points.

Chaminade took that aggressive, physical approach and used it to turn the tables on the glass, as well. The Silverswords grabbed 38.5% of their offensive rebounding opportunities and held the Longhorns to just 28.2% on their own offensive glass. Texas shot 46.4% from the field, much higher than the 36.8% that Chaminade could manage, but winning the rebounding battles kept the Silversword possessions alive and allowed them to overcome the shooting disparities.

The Silverswords also took advantage of their opportunities at the charity stripe, while the Longhorns continued to struggle. With Chaminade playing aggressively, they posted an impressive free-throw rate of 68.4%, which equates to roughly two free throws for every three field goal attempts. At the line, they logged a steady 34-of-39 performance, while the Longhorns struggled to make just 17 of 30. That number includes misses on the front ends of one-and-ones by both Cameron Ridley and Jonathan Holmes in the second half, costing the team not only two points, but two more free throw opportunities.

The Texas offense looked lost on most possessions until the final few minutes, as players stood anchored to the ground and hoped that others would make a play. There was no inside presence to speak of, as the Longhorns struggled against the physical nature of Chaminade’s undersized frontcourt. Guards waited around the perimeter for cuts and screens that never came, and simple passes were bobbled out of bounds.

On one second half possession, Coach Barnes called a timeout during an unproductive halfcourt set. The players came towards the huddle, arguing about who was supposed to go where. “It doesn’t matter!” Barnes screamed at the team. “It doesn’t matter! Don’t stand around!” After the vitriolic timeout, the Longhorns wasted the possession by turning it over on a shot clock violation.

If you must look for the silver linings in this disaster, there were a few slivers of hope for the future. Although Ridley continued to shoot like Shaq at the free throw line, picked up offensive fouls, and left a baseline drive completely undefended when he ran away from the ballhandler, he did show off some solid moves in the post. On two or three different occasions, he took the entry pass and made a quick, strong move for the bucket. He obviously has a long way to go, but the fundamentals and raw talent are clearly there.

The Longhorns also made a late charge as they tried to cobble together a futile and short-lived comeback bid. Texas turned up the backcourt pressure to force mistakes, and the Horns actually started knocking down long-range looks. Fans have to wonder why it took 30-plus minutes for Texas to put forth that effort and play with some intensity.

Coach Barnes didn’t feel encouraged by the late-game surge, telling reporters, “Sometimes there is such a thing as phony tough guys when you’re playing with house money now. You’re coming back saying ‘What the heck,’ and you play.”

The coach also shot down any excuses for his roster full of freshman and sophomores. “We’re not going to buy the youth thing. It chalks up to toughness. It chalks up to guys doing their job, chalks up to leadership or lack of.”

With Myck Kabongo still sidelined due to an NCAA investigation and Jaylen Bond limited due to injuries, Texas is still searching for that leader. Sheldon McClellan made some big plays late, but was held mostly in check by the Chaminade defense and had to grind out his points at the line. Freshman point guard Javan Felix led the team in scoring and logged five assists, but turned it over three times and couldn’t get the team running their halfcourt sets. With major-conference opponents looming in the next two days, the Longhorns will need to answer the leadership question immediately.

Up next: vs. USC; Tuesday, 4 P.M. CT

The Texas Longhorns are back in action after a long week off, opening play in the Maui Invitational against the host Chaminade Silverswords. Although Texas posted a decisive victory over Coppin State in its last game, the Longhorns were very sloppy and unfocused, giving Coach Rick Barnes and his young squad quite a bit to work on in the days leading up to this tournament.

Today’s game will be the first of three in the next three days for the Longhorns, who will quickly get a chance to measure themselves against tougher competition. Texas will face either USC or Illinois in tomorrow’s game, and will face North Carolina, Marquette, Butler, or Mississippi State on the final day of the tournament. With Jaylen Bond sidelined with an injury to his right foot and Myck Kabongo still awaiting an eligibility ruling from the NCAA as of this writing, the newest batch of freshmen will have ample playing time to accelerate their growth.

By the numbers

The Silverswords enter this game with a 2-1 mark, having won the season-opening GNAC/Pac West Challenge before losing to defending D-II champ Western Washington last week. Coach Eric Bovaird has his team pushing the tempo so far this season, with Chaminade clocking in at a brisk 79 possessions per game. Even though the Silverswords are playing up-tempo basketball, their offense isn’t built on turnovers, as opponents have only coughed it up on 17.7% of possessions so far.

Although Chaminade hasn’t done a great job shutting down opposing offenses, they at least haven’t been giving them free points at the line. The Silversword defense has allowed a free-throw rate of just 29.5% so far, with no players fouling out in any of their first three games. While the numbers might speak to matador-style defense by Chaminade, the pace of play certainly can’t help things. With the five starters accounting for 80% of the minutes and a core rotation of just eight guys, playing nearly 80 possessions a game has to add up to some tired legs.

Meet the Silverswords

Chaminade boasts a diverse roster, with players from Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Three seniors and a junior in the starting lineup give Coach Bovaird some experienced leadership, and also ensures that the team won’t be intimidated by big-name opponents. Although Chaminade was defeated by an average of 28.3 points in their three EA Sports Maui Invitational games last year, this group of upperclassmen did get a D-I win over Oklahoma in the 2010 tournament.

Guard De’Andre Haskins (No. 33) is the leading scorer on the team, averaging 18 points per game. He also rebounds well from the wings, ranking second on the team with his six boards per contest.

Haskins began his college career at Valparaiso before taking the junior college route and eventually landing at Chaminade. Having missed last year with a knee injury kept him out of action last year, the well-traveled fifth-year guard provides experience and leadership in this year’s backcourt. Haskins is the only current player to have started in that upset win over Oklahoma, scoring eight points in 25 minutes.

Australian guard Dominique Cooks (No. 3) also saw action in that 2010 win, scoring four points off the bench. This season, he’s averaging 9.7 points and 3.7 rebounds through three games.

Fellow Aussie Rhys Murphy (No. 25) is the team’s tallest player at just 6’7″, but his outside threat makes him more of a stretch four than a typical post player. He leads the team with a 50% success rate from behind the arc this year, knocking down 7 of his 14 attempts. As a member of Oregon State last season, Murphy saw action in only half of the team’s games and averaged just 5.1 minutes per appearance. He did not log any playing time when the Beavers knocked off Texas in the Legends Classic semifinals.

Senior Bennie Murray (No. 10) averaged nearly 14 points per game last season, and has upped that average to 15.3 through three games this year. He’s playing more than 33 minutes per game, despite posting an ugly 0.33 assist-to-TO ratio.

Sophomore Lee Bailey (No. 5) has struggled with ball control nearly as much as Murray, logging a 0.55 A/TO ratio. He’s second on the team in scoring, though, pouring in nearly 16 points a game. Bailey is clearly the cornerstone of this program moving forward, having started all 25 games a freshman while leading the team in minutes.

Forward Mike Green (No. 22) is first off the bench for the Silverswords, averaging nearly 15 minutes per game. At 6’6″, he’s one of the team’s tallest players, and could see a spike in playing time this week against bigger D-I opponents.

Like Green, 6’7″ junior forward Tyree Harrison (No. 11) could also see an increase in minutes during the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Although he’s playing only about 12 minutes per game, he’s made a mark on the glass, posting a defensive rebounding rate north of 24%. If the Silverswords want to keep Texas from getting easy second chance points, Harrison, Murphy, and Green will have to scrap on the boards.

Rounding out the rotation is freshman guard Kevin Hu (No. 23), who came to Chaminade by way of Taiwan, and was described as the team’s best dancer by Coach Bovaird at last night’s Tip-Off Banquet. Hu is coming off the best game of his young career, dropping in 16 points in only 15 minutes against Western Washington last Wednesday.

Keys to the game

1) Build an early lead – Neutral-site tournament crowds always favor the underdog, and that is never more true than at the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Chaminade is playing about 130 miles from their home court in Honolulu and will certainly have the local fans behind them. Add in the fans of every other school in the tournament pulling for another historic upset, and the crowd support should be at about 99.8% for the Silverswords this afternoon. Texas needs to race out to an early lead and take the crowd factor out of the equation immediately.

2) Control the basketball – Chaminade doesn’t thrive on turnovers to fuel their offense, but the Longhorns simply haven’t been able to hang on to the rock this season. Texas coughed it up 26 times against Coppin State last Monday, and matching Chaminade’s quick pace is bound to cause some more miscues for the young Horns today. The Longhorns need to control the ball, slow down if start making mistakes, and limit the number of free possessions they give to the Silverswords.

3) Take away dribble penetration – Based on the numbers, Chaminade appears to be a driving team. They have logged assists on only 30.5% of their baskets and have a free-throw rate of 51.4%. Texas needs to frustrate the opposing guards and make them move the basketball to earn their points. If the Horns can successfully cut off driving lanes, the Silverswords will be forced out of their comfort zone and will likely settle for long, contested jumpers.

Under head coach Rick Barnes, the Longhorns have always focused on the defensive side of the ball. In fact, only once in the last ten seasons did the Horns finish outside of the top fifty in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric. While Barnes has long used a stingy man-to-man defense to achieve those impressive numbers, depth concerns have forced him to flip the script in the first two games this season.

“Defensively, we’re playing zone because of Myck Kabongo’s situation,” he told reporters after the game. “If we’re going to take advantage of the length of these guys, we’ve got to play some zone.”

That zone defense stifled Coppin State in last night’s victory, limiting the Eagles to just 24.6% shooting on the night. In tempo-free numbers, Texas held Coppin State to just .631 points per possession, the best single-game performance by a Longhorn team since limiting UT-Pan American to .523 PPP on December 15th, 2009.

A big part of that defensive success was due to the improved play by freshman Prince Ibeh. With Jonathan Holmes saddled by foul trouble, Ibeh logged 20 minutes against the Eagles and swatted three shots. On one block, Ibeh seemed to jump so far off the floor that he looked suspended in mid-air. He also was tied for the team lead with nine rebounds, three of them coming on the offensive glass.

At 6’10” and blessed with great length, Ibeh has so far shown great lateral quickness and springy hops. If Texas is going to utilize the 2-3 zone more often this season, Ibeh’s defensive presence is going to alter game plans for opponents.

Freshman Ioannis Papapetrou was the other Longhorn who snagged nine rebounds, but his impact on the game was far from one-dimensional. After not making a big offensive impact against Fresno State, Papi showed off a variety of skills in a 10-point performance. The Greek product knocked down 2-of-4 from behind the arc and also displayed a nice driving ability when the defense pressured him on the perimeter. When Javan Felix was getting a breather on the bench, Papi even brought the ball up as a point forward. Defensively, he harassed Coppin State players who handled the ball in the corners, and he hustled all over the floor for those nine boards.

For fellow freshman Felix, the second game was rough. Javan failed to score a point in the game and was responsible for eight of the team’s 26 turnovers. The most frustrating aspect of the turnovers by Felix and the Longhorns was that 18 of them came on steals. Lazy passes on the perimeter were intercepted and turned into fast break buckets. The Longhorns also repeatedly just held the ball in front of the nose of defenders while standing outside the arc, resulting in easy steals. Felix had major issues against the tough defense of Troy Franklin, getting so thoroughly embarrassed by one mid-court pickpocketing that Coach Barnes immediately took a timeout to dress him down.

With Felix held scoreless, even more of the offensive punch had to come from sophomore star Sheldon McClellan, and he rose to the challenge. After scoring 14 of his 20 points in the season opener from the stripe, McClellan only tallied 8 of his career-high 25 from the line against Coppin State. He led the team with a trio of three-pointers, missing just one long range attempt. Another basket came from just inside the arc, while his most impressive shot was on a baseline drive where he stopped on a dime and knocked down a turnaround jumper.

Although McClellan and Papapetrou both found success from outside, the team still had its share of struggles beyond the arc. After knocking down just 1-of-13 in the season opener, the Horns made only two of their first 10 attempts against Coppin State. Texas ultimately booked a 35% mark on the night, connecting on seven of 20. Julien Lewis and Connor Lammert were responsible for most of the misses, combining to make just one of their nine attempts.

In our Fresno State game wrap, we quantified just how poorly last year’s team performed from behind the arc. This year, there is clearly the potential for greater success with McClellan playing more aggressively, Papapetrou showing off some long range, and even Demarcus Holland looking like a sharpshooter off the bench. However, Lewis’ 1-for-9 mark on the season is a concerning one, as it reminds us just how often he was an indiscriminate and inaccurate shooter last year. If the Longhorns can get some long-range punch from McClellan and Papapetrou, there is no reason for Lewis to be leading the team in three-point attempts.

While some improvement was seen on threes, the Longhorns looked downright awful at the stripe. McClellan was once again steady at the line, pushing his season mark to 91.6% (22-of-24) on free throws. But for the rest of the team, the charity stripe was far from friendly, as they combined to make just 8-of-19 (42.1%) of their attempts. Ibeh and Cameron Ridley were the worst offenders, going 2-of-9 at the stripe. Ridley had numerous shots clank off the back iron, while Ibeh airballed a free throw and chucked another off the backboard, completely missing the rim. If the Texas bigs are this bad at the line all year, opponents will certainly take a few fouls to make them earn their points.

In addition to struggling at the stripe, Ridley also once again looked awkward and uncomfortable on offense. All three of his fouls came on the offensive end, and he coughed it up on another three occasions. Although Cam has big hands just made for basketball, he’s had major issues handling passes in his first two games. Opponents can already sense that nervousness, as Fresno State and Coppin State both were able to fluster and frustrate the big man with quick, pesky double teams. Ridley obviously still needs to adjust to the competition level, but it’s a very young season and plenty of time to improve. The Longhorns have to hope he takes advantage of that opportunity.

Although there were a lot of areas for Coach Barnes to address in the long week off before the Maui Invitational, Texas did look great in transition. The Horns consistently got out and ran the floor, and Felix repeatedly looked up to find his teammates for easy buckets. Texas also took advantage of defensive lapses by Coppin State, connecting for a handful of rim-rattling alley-oops. All told, the Longhorns logged 14 assists in this game, a vast improvement on the three-assist performance against Fresno State. In tempo-free terms, Texas jumped from 16.7% to 60.9% in the assist rate category.

Up next: vs. Chaminade (Maui Invitational); Monday, 8:30 P.M. CT