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.

Well, that escalated quickly.

The Longhorns fell victim to a second-straight loss on Saturday afternoon, turning a ten-point lead in the opening minute of the second half into an epic meltdown that resulted in a fourteen-point road loss. Texas seemed completely lost and overwhelmed as the game careened out of control, the rowdy crowd of 10,000 fueling the Connecticut surge.

So what exactly happened? How did a team that was enjoying a double-digit lead suddenly look like a frightened high school JV team? Fortunately for both this author and my readers, the answers to that question will be short and sweet.

What looked good

There were very few things that looked good on this afternoon. So few things, in fact, that it’s incredibly easy to chalk up this loss and the final nineteen minutes of it to aberrational play that will hopefully never be seen again from a Longhorn team.

Early on, Texas seemed to grasp the simple idea of drive-and-dish that we touched on in the game preview. The Longhorn guards were aware of the defensive presence the Huskies boast inside, and were perfectly content with drawing attention off the dribble and dishing for easy layups or open jumpers. Eight out of the 16 first-half buckets for Texas came off of an assist, with two of the unassisted scores coming on fast breaks.

In addition to occasional uses of dribble penetration, there were a handful of times where the Texas ball movement didn’t seem reminiscent of a high-speed Pong battle around the perimeter. On one particular possession in the second half, Jai Lucas lobbed in an entry pass to Dexter Pittman, who was immediately double-teamed by Lucas’ defender and Pittman’s man. Almost immediately, Big Dex rifled the ball back to a wide-open Lucas. The tiny guard missed his three-pointer, so this won’t go down as even a moral victory in the eyes of the biggest Texas homer. But for one brief moment, Pittman did exactly what he was supposed to with the basketball, and the Longhorns were actually set up to capitalize, although they failed to do so.

Far too often, Dexter brings the ball down low, typically leading to a turnover against the double- or triple-teams. In addition, Texas normally has only the offensively-challenged Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay waiting on Dexter’s side of the court as a kick-out option, which means there is absolutely no three-point threat for the defense to worry about. In this instance, Pittman kept the ball high and recognized the presence of a three-point threat waiting. If Texas could actually have multiple possessions like this in one game, that outside threat might actually open things up inside for the much-maligned big man.

The Longhorn defense looked good in brief stretches, although there was a horrible trend of playing solid defense for 30 seconds before letting a big man make a clean cut for a wide-open backdoor layup. Time and again, Texas would shut down Connecticut with great denial on the perimeter, only to give up the easy, demoralizing bucket. There were far more awful things about the defense on Saturday afternoon, but we’ll get to that in the following segment…

What needed work

Unfortunately for the Longhorns, this game wasn’t in the 8-and-under Little Dribblers league, so things weren’t finished after just 24 minutes. Texas absolutely collapsed in the second half, and that means there will be a lot for Coach Barnes to work on before Wednesday night’s game with Texas Tech.

The most glaring problem for the Longhorns was a complete lack of transition defense. This was one of our keys to the game in yesterday’s preview, and it is the one thing that the UConn offense does exceptionally well. But even with that information being very public knowledge, Texas seemed to have no interest in getting back on defense to turn the game into a half-court battle. The Huskies scored 20 points on fast breaks, including twelve in a 7:30 stretch of the second half where they turned an eight-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

As briefly mentioned earlier, the other big problem for the Texas defense was breakdowns late in the shot clock. Great defensive stands don’t mean a damned thing when you only hold a team for 30 of 35 seconds, and that sort of glaring defensive miscommunication is even worse when it results in the wide-open, point-blank looks that UConn was getting.

In one of our tweets from the game, it was mentioned that you won’t beat many teams who are shooting 55% from the field. While that’s certainly true, the defensive issues mentioned above certainly didn’t help matters. It would take quite an awful team to have a bad shooting night when they are racing down the court for uncontested fast break points and cutting back-door for open layups that Jim Abbott could sink.

The final problem contributing to the Connecticut surge was the Longhorns’ lackadaisical ball control in the second half. Thanks to three Balbay fouls in just fifty seconds, the point guard role was filled down the stretch mostly by Mason and Jai Lucas. While both are serviceable points, they aren’t exactly staunch lockboxes with the basketball, and neither is the man you’d want to lead your team out of a double-digit hole in a hostile road environment. They combined for three turnovers down the stretch, with Jordan Hamilton and Damion James adding four more. Without Balbay on the floor to slow things down, the Longhorns looked absolutely clueless with the basketball.

While Texas was busy coughing it up and helping Connecticut to stretch their lead out to thirteen points, the perpetual free-throw nightmare resurfaced to exacerbate the problem. The Horns missed five consecutive free throws as the Huskies were pulling away, and made just 4-of-10 in the second half. While this Texas team is never going to be a good free throw shooting squad, going 1-of-6 in the most critical stretch of the game is just as bad as three dumb turnovers.

The road ahead

Texas has the good fortune of following up this brutal road trip with a home game against Texas Tech. And while the Red Raiders are vastly improved this season, they are still a much different team away from the confines of United Spirit Arena. A solid, convincing win should help the Longhorns get back on track before a tough home game with the Baylor Bears on Saturday, a squad that has finally added quality defense to its usual array of offensive talents.

Tickets still remain for both games, and judging from the typically flaky nature of Texas fans, neither will likely be a sellout thanks to the current losing streak. But this team deserves fan support, regardless of the results of these two tough road games.

If you want to save a few bucks on tickets and support your hometown team, check out Bevo’s Bargains through the Texas Box Office. Fans can save $2 per ticket for the Tech game by donating three books to the less fortunate, while military, fire, EMS, and police can enjoy the same discount if they order their tickets in advance. Girl Scouts are eligible for the $2 for the Baylor game, and must also order tickets in advance.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more content, as we have more photos to share from this year’s trips and perhaps some notes from the road. On Tuesday, we’ll take a statistical look at the struggles Texas has encountered in its last three games, and discuss how those flaws could be addressed down the stretch.

Not a lot of time for a proper game preview this afternoon, as we have to race around the central Connecticut area to pick up fellow travelers, grab some pre-game grub, and head to Storrs early enough to check out the campus. As such, we’ll jump right to our keys for today’s game…

Solid transition defense – UConn doesn’t force very many turnovers, but when they do, you can bet the ball will quickly be pushed up the floor. The Huskies also earn a bunch of points by beating their opponents down the court after misses. UConn’s offense has been fairly stagnant lately, but they are able to make up for that recent scoring anemia with these easy transition points. Texas shouldn’t be so concerned with transition buckets that they give up on offensive rebounding chances, but the Horns certainly need to be ready to backpedal down the floor.

Drive and dish – The Huskies are the best team in the nation when it comes to blocking shots, swatting more than one in every five opportunities. Against Kansas State, another great shot-blocking team, the Horns had their greatest success when the guards penetrated, drew defensive help, and then dished to a big man on the blocks. When Texas simply tried to force things inside, they were typically bogged down by double- and triple-teams, and the offensive either stalled or turned it over. If the Longhorn guards can penetrate this tough defense, it should open things up against the formidable UConn frontcourt.

Weather the crowd – We mentioned via Twitter that Monday night’s crowd was the loudest we had heard in four-plus years of traveling. Texas managed to fight through the crowd and the momentum that comes with it, fighting back from an eleven-point deficit to even take the lead. Today’s crowd could be just as electric as Texas plays its last game with the No. 1 crown.

The Huskies have been in a recent backslide, losing four out of seven, and will be playing without the leadership of legendary coach Jim Calhoun. Connecticut also doesn’t have a true “great win” on its résumé yet, and this afternoon’s contest definitely provides that opportunity. If that’s not enough to get a storied Big East crowd fired up, I don’t think there’s much that will.

This shouldn’t be a high-scoring, up-and-down game, so any scoring runs that either team can manage will be even more important than usual. If the Longhorns find themselves falling behind as the frenzied crowd starts to froth at its collective mouth, they will simply have to play smart basketball or risk digging a hole they can’t climb out of.

One final note… – Connecticut is the fourth-best team in the country when it comes to keeping opponents off the foul line. For Texas, that is outstanding news, especially coming off of a 9-for-22 free-throw performance against Kansas State. But it also means that the Longhorns must be able to knock down their shots against a very well-coached defense. Connecticut will keep the Texas players in front of them, while a steady frontcourt holds things down inside if the Longhorns happen to make it to that second wave of defenders. If Texas has a bad shooting day against this team, it could be a long, ugly afternoon.